Ironsmith wrote: ↑Aug 15, 2023 1:46 pm
[Airbase]
Vlad isn't an especially hard man to find. All Seraphina and Maria really need to do is look for a plane that might potentially be in service, then check underneath it for any comically large mechanical legs.
Like that one, there.
"Lucky I'm sane after all I've been through~" Vlad's voice hums through the metal grill around his face.
"I can't complain, but sometimes I still do~ Life's been good to me so far~"
With old rock blasting in his ears (older still by his standards) and preoccupied with fixing up the plane, it could be a task getting Vlad's attention. Fortunately, Maria and Seraphina managed to time their entry just as he's pulling out from under the plane, rolling his shoulders as he sits up and finds himself rather abruptly confronted with their predicament.
"...I want to ask what happened, but something tells me you don't want to talk about it." Vlad rumbles, clicking off the music.
"What are we looking at here? Steel? Silver? Mithril?"
Reinholdt wrote: ↑Aug 16, 2023 7:26 am
[Airbase]
"I believe it's actually Ancient Tech. Like, have you heard of Out-Of-Place Artifacts? It's a lot like that. Technology from the old days that is way more advanced than what we have now. I believe our Simulation Room also runs on the same principles. I'm afraid it's outside of my fields of study though." Maria has many fields of study too so you know it must be esoteric.
The librarian who first met and directed Vlad upon his arrival glances hotly at the ground with a deep blush, as if trying to burn a hole in the airbase and send everything tumbling down in it.
"I-iron, actually." As Vlad looks at the chain connecting Maria and Seraphina's wrists between manacles, the most interesting thing he'll note is that there's no apparent mechanism for even attaching them to begin with. There's nothing to close, nothing to open, it's just a smooth cylinder the whole way around. This was clearly magicked on or something. Fortunately, the manacles and chain are all mundane in nature, without any elven runes or visible indications of blood magic.
[
Airbase]
"Huh. No, I've never heard of Out-Of-Place Artifacts, but it sounds pretty interesting." Though, Seraphina wonders what they'll do if it breaks down. If it's way-advanced ancient tech, they'd have to hire some kind of archeologist-mechanic to fix it.
"The people who fix it probably charge a lot."
The singing definitely helps them find him. Very helpful.
Seraphina actually hadn't noticed herself that there's no open or closing mechanism. If she had, she wouldn't have spent so long wondering if, while delirious, she had asked Rein to grab it for them.
She gives some unhelpful context to Vlad:
"My memory's been messed with, so I can't remember how we got them," she explains. But she suddenly pieces together a clue, that she can't remember how they got the manacles, and she can't remember what her diplomatic mission is. Which implies the two events were correlated.
"It seems like they're important for some reason, but it'd be nice to have them off enough that I can finally put my sleeve back on."
Reinholdt wrote: ↑Aug 16, 2023 7:26 am
[Maid Café and Book Signing - Sirena Serenade]
Reinholdt nods back.
"Good. I'm Reinholdt, Treasure Hunter Extraordinaire!" Rein gives his flourish, which draws too much attention to some of the parts of the maid outfit.
"And you are? You seem a little familiar... it's probably just the sunglasses." All the pink does remind Rein of a few people.
"Oh, yeah. Without hesitation or remorse. Time Travel for sure." Rein pauses for a second.
"Oh sorry, was I supposed to say something wise and insightful like 'all my failures made me who I am today'... that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard honestly. Might be right for like... two percent of people, but for the rest of us screw-ups, we could use a do-over. And I would know. I'm the king of screw-ups. Heck, I even programmed the Simulation Room specifically to rerun memories and give you a chance to play what if you didn't screw up." Rein shrugs a little with a sad smile.
"Probably for the best I've been too busy to use it."
[Maid Café and Book Signing - Sirena Serenade]
Sirena laughs.
"Yeah, you're pretty famous, I've heard of you before," she says. She mimics his flourish, and says,
"I'm Sirena," she says,
"The Navigator." With a capital N, actually.
She doesn't take off the sunglasses.
"Yes, it might just be the sunglasses. They're very pink, so they stand out a lot." If he's met someone wearing pink sunglasses, then that might give a sense of familiarity to them.
She leans back in her chair.
"No, I agree. Or rather, the correct answer is probably to just live with it, but that's not really who I am."
Sirena eats a strawberry.
"Thing is..."
She sighs.
"Oh well. Nevermind, it's not that important."
Zefir wrote: ↑Aug 16, 2023 7:34 am
[Maid Café and Book Signing]
The half dragon looks confused.
"You should know that those snacks are not the important thing today. The book is." he claims. He does know that you need to eat but setting eating over books while not starving is unaccaptable. at last she should get the book and THEN eat, but he also feels that people don't like to hear that.
"No need to thank me. This is my job. Not sure where to draw the line in this service, but we do what is needed to help where it is needed."
[Maid Café and Book Signing]
That catgirl disagrees. The snacks are so much more important because they taste too good. Besides, if she got absorbed into reading the book, then she wouldn't be able to admire the HALO workers' outfits. Like the butler pants but no shirt. Or the maid outfit on that guy. Or the fact that there's literally a really large maid outfit just lying on the floor, which just hints at a much larger story that's going on.
Speaking of much larger stories going on, this catgirl looks over and spots another catgirl, Rachel, in a maid outfit. She ends up staring a bit too long, as she wonders why Rachel appears to be acting like a customer instead of like all the other maids, and she starts wondering the story behind
that too.