Skyside Prime

[Morty]

[Incognito Golem]

"I can't make clones of myself, no. I wish I could, though. It'd be useful and entertaining." Hiep stretches. "And yeah. Beating you up would be counterproductive. But if you're here the next time I show up, we can work something out. See you both later," she says, before she turns to walk away. She steps between some people hurrying this way and that... and is gone.

[TeChameleon]

[Incognito Golem]

After Hiep vanished, Eddie commented "You know, I tried that 'gone when the crowd parts' bit once. That was around the time I learned that I cause severe shockwaves when I move that fast, and also that it's a good idea to make sure there are plenty of people with healing magic around before you accidentally blow a large crowd all over the street."

He shuddered slightly. That hadn't been a fun day.

"If you're interested in any advice from me, I might be able to offer some pointers on fighting as well, although I will say that if I say anything that sounds even vaguely like defensive fighting advice, ignore me. My defense is 'I'm a rock' and organics would probably get themselves killed if they tried to copy it."

A slight chuckle. "Even people that know me well seem to forget that I've spent the better part of fifty years around some of the most rough-and-tumble crowds on the planet, people that fought for a living, to stay alive, and a lot of the time for fun too. I'd have to be pretty unobservant to not learn anything from all that."

[Keeper]

Incognito Golem

Mina glances around to check that no one's around and waves a hand in front of her face, dismissing her costume.
"I've stopped trying to do anything sneaky years ago. Comes with being eight feet tall with bricks for feet. I won't mind advice. Though you'll have to compete with a few other mentors it seems."
Mina doesn't consider an abundance of teachers to be a problem.
"Guess we should get back on the road, huh? Still a few blocks to my place."

[TeChameleon]

[Incognito Golem]

"Sounds good to me." Eddie said, and resumed walking alongside Mina... assuming nobody else materialized out of the aether to test one or the other of them, or similar ridiculousness, anyways.

"Oh- one other thing about my fighting style- just because of the way I work... if I was organic, I guess you'd call it my biology... my preferred way of fighting keeps me firmly rooted on the ground. No jumping kicks or anything of that nature, nothing much in the way of acrobatics, aside from certain specific circumstances, so I guess keep that in mind. Also not much of a grappler, so I can't help you much there. Not that you need much help on that front, by the look of it." Eddie added.

The little golem actually looked a bit nervous, even with the hood in the way. Mina might be able to guess that he really wasn't used to having people listen to him. And especially not used to having people listen to him as a teacher.

"And I wouldn't really call it 'competing' with other mentors, at least unless we start giving conflicting advice. If that happens, then I would rely on you to know your own body and capabilities best, and to figure out which advice works for you."

[Gullara]

[Triumphant Return]

"Mere scratches." The dragon replies dismissively as she ducks under the door frame, first with her head, then with her wings and finally her tail which she's still holding high as it sways behind her.

"While your concern is appreciated that thing didn't manage to as much as lay a hand on me, it just fired at me from afar which wasn't nearly enough to break through my scales. Not that things went according to plan. I was drawn out into combat completely unprepared yet I still managed to melt down most of its body."

As her tail nearly bumps into Utayo's furniture as she talks she starts to coil it around her body like a giant serpent, its sheer length being somewhat incontinent indoors even at this size.
"My only regret is that I didn't kill it."

A beat.

Then the orb is nearly shoved into Utayo's face while the dragon grins enthusiastically. "But I got what he had stolen from me! It's such a thrill. It's the first time I met anything... well, let me ask you this, do you want anything, Mrs Iwatsuki? Anything at all? Since I feel like celebrating and you have helped me out so much and it doesn't feel like I've really returned the favor yet. While I choose to travel around as a human scholar I am a dragon of no small means. Besides the countless* of books in my possession I'm capable of giving you research materials, access to any person you might want to talk to..."

She pauses, perhaps realizing she was being a bit too intense.
"...just give it some thought. Consider it an open offer for helping me out with all this.

*There was exactly ten million, sixhundredthousand fourhundred and nintyfive books, paintings and scrolls in her library. Or at least there was since the last daily update she had from her spiritual custodians. She would have to wait for her monthly count to be sure. But the point was that they were hardly countless, it was just that saying the exact number was a bit of a mouthful.

[Triumphant Return]

Ambrosia's rather intense enthusiasm gives Utayo some pause. Not that she's entirely justified in her surprise, but she's gaining more insight all the time about when Ambrosia's composure breaks.

"You give me too much credit. I just made some simple observations." She replies modestly. She hadn't even been able to conduct a proper analysis with her limited tools. It's made her start to consider if she needs to expand her resources on this plane, though assessing such allocations is always uncertain, especially given the not so distant preoccupation of motherhood.

"But were you able to gain any more insights in your encounter? Especially if the one orchestrating these machines is still at large, you might expect more trouble."

[Shadowcaller]

[Triumphant Return]

"Modesty doesn't suit a scientist as brilliant as you." The dragon declares with a grin which probably would come off as a lot less terrifying as a human. "But as you wish, next time you help me out I might have to insist on it however."

By now she's looking for somewhere she she can sit down. Which isn't an easy ask when you have her body shape. Everything in here was made for humanoids, how typical!
"Well, a lot of thing happened during our brief struggle. More than I probably can recall right now." She remarks while looking around for a couch she could slither up into.
"But the orb proved to have another ability I hadn't known about before. He- it spoke to me through it, that was something I was already aware of. But as he started to threaten to hurt me by damaging the orb I suddenly..."

The dragon pauses for a moment.

"I recall getting upset." She didn't anted to get into just how upset she was. Again, anything that would make her sound like some kind of beast.
"And then I was suddenly there. Right where the orb was. Right where it was." The dragon shakes her head.
"But I'm digressing. What I recall was that it was somehow split into multiple people which both were arguing with me and among themselves. Like it was suffering some identity crisis of sort. Never seen anything quite like it." It did remind her of a trick her father had pulled but it wasn't quite the same. He didn't waste time arguing with himself.

"That argument ceased once I arrived though and they suddenly started to act like one single entity but in multiple bodies. All attacking me in unison." Pausing a moment she tried to recall other things that stood out before getting into the whole 'lifted an island out of the sea' deal. "There was also this black substance it was using. I never got too close a look at it but it looked like tar and my guess was that its venom of some sort. Yet at the same time it seemed like a part of him. Like the blood which ran through all these little mechanical bodies."

[Gullara]

[Triumphant Return]

"My assumption is that the machines are a network controlled remotely, though that behavior is certainly unexpected." Utayo muses. Ambrosia will be able to settle on the rather short, and small couch she's placed in the room. The space is still quite spartan; not fully settled.

"I'd observed the black substance as well; it appears to be a part of the machines in some way. It's not something I can explain yet. Access to a quality microscope would help, though there's no guarantee I'd understand what I see."

[Shadowcaller]

[Triumphant Return]

The dragon lays down in the couch but her head is still raised and leaning over in Utayo's direction.
"I could get you that, a microscope that is." She did know what those were even if they weren't used on her plane. "But until then, while the rest of the body seems as dead as a cut-off arm, the substance still seems active somehow. Makes me think that perhaps perhaps that's what used to control it perhaps? Really need more information before I can start speculating."

And this couch, as simple as it were, was suddenly feeling very comfy...

[Gullara]

[Triumphant Return]

"Oh, you know a supplier? I've considered a few options, but I'm selective when it comes to lab equipment." Utayo explains. It just wasn't worth risking a poor source when it comes to precision instruments.

"I don't imagine whatever the substance is is related to control, given separated segments still contain it while being largely inert. I already have reason to believe that their function depends on quantity; perhaps their individual processing power is too weak and their can share it via proximity. That doesn't answer the question of remote control, however, or what capability it has without that control. I'd suspect both your run ins involved remote control." There's a risk Utayo could go on speculating if she's not interrupted in any way.

[Shadowcaller]

[Triumphant Return]

"Of course I know a supplier." Ambrosia claims.

All she needed to do was to find one.
Though right now she wanted to listen to Utayo's speculations since she certainly didn't have any intention to interrupt them. She could listen to this sort of thing for ages.
But then something jogs her memory as the planeswalker mentions control.

"But... I just recalled, the thieves personas were talking about serving a her. A person they seemed to have an almost slavish devotion to judging the way they were discussing her. It sounded like the only reason they had even stolen the orb in the first place was to impress this mysterious woman. Yet they weren't directly controlled by her either even if they made her sound almost like a deity in their eyes." She couldn't fathom who could possibly love such a wretched creature however.

"It sounded like... a new flame however. Someone they had recently fallen for. Hence their passionate need to impress her with gifts." Why did that sound familiar? She couldn't think of a single reason why it would.
Besides, she needed to focus her mental energies on where she could find Utayo a good supplier for scientific tools once they were done here.

[Keeper]

[Incognito Golem]

"Sounds good to me." Eddie said, and resumed walking alongside Mina... assuming nobody else materialized out of the aether to test one or the other of them, or similar ridiculousness, anyways.

"Oh- one other thing about my fighting style- just because of the way I work... if I was organic, I guess you'd call it my biology... my preferred way of fighting keeps me firmly rooted on the ground. No jumping kicks or anything of that nature, nothing much in the way of acrobatics, aside from certain specific circumstances, so I guess keep that in mind. Also not much of a grappler, so I can't help you much there. Not that you need much help on that front, by the look of it." Eddie added.

The little golem actually looked a bit nervous, even with the hood in the way. Mina might be able to guess that he really wasn't used to having people listen to him. And especially not used to having people listen to him as a teacher.

"And I wouldn't really call it 'competing' with other mentors, at least unless we start giving conflicting advice. If that happens, then I would rely on you to know your own body and capabilities best, and to figure out which advice works for you."

Incognito Golem

"I mean, that's fine. You should never put all your eggs in one basket by only letting yourself know one style. Being able to plant yourself in one place and punch a hole in something is still very valuable. Especially for someone my size."
Mina is in fact shockingly mobile. But she's still large enough that she's not going to be winning awards in it.

[TeChameleon]

[Incognito Golem]

Eddie actually wagged a playful finger at Mina.

"Ah-ah... I never said anything about planting myself in one place." he said, sounding amused.

Speeding up slightly to get ahead of his companion, he shifted his stance as he walked, suddenly throwing out blurred punches, shoes scraping on the ground as he flowed surprisingly smoothly through a rapid series of forward-moving strikes, occasionally even spinning through a low sweep. He tried to keep it slow enough so that Mina could follow things, but even if he failed, the general gist of 'knock an enemy upwards slightly, punch them away, then chase after while pummelling them to air juggle them' should be reasonably clear.

And through it all, he always had at least one foot firmly on the ground.

He finished off with a spinning backhand that would have left his hypothetical opponent embedded in a nearby wall, and stopped facing Mina with a bow. Then he rubbed the back of his neck with a rueful chuckle.

"One of my early teachers was an arena fighter, and the whole showmanship thing kind of stuck, I guess."

[Keeper]

Incognito Golem

Mina smiles a little.
"I would say that I don't defy physics enough to make that exact maneuver work, but frankly I probably do." She grimaces though as she thinks about the implications.
"Don't think I could manage gladiator life. Hope he was doin' it for his own sake."

[TeChameleon]

[Incognito Golem]

Eddie snorted. "You mean the Suggestions of Physics give you trouble sometimes?", then he outright laughed.

"For himself? Ooooooh yeah. 'Valiant Val' they called him. Absolutely impossible levels of skill, and he would smash everything they sent at him and look good doing it. Probably could have knocked down the whole coliseum with one swat and walked out if he'd wanted to leave. If I ever manage to be a fraction as good as he was, I'll be doing well for myself."

[Gullara]

[Triumphant Return]

"Of course I know a supplier." Ambrosia claims.

All she needed to do was to find one.
Though right now she wanted to listen to Utayo's speculations since she certainly didn't have any intention to interrupt them. She could listen to this sort of thing for ages.
But then something jogs her memory as the planeswalker mentions control.

"But... I just recalled, the thieves personas were talking about serving a her. A person they seemed to have an almost slavish devotion to judging the way they were discussing her. It sounded like the only reason they had even stolen the orb in the first place was to impress this mysterious woman. Yet they weren't directly controlled by her either even if they made her sound almost like a deity in their eyes." She couldn't fathom who could possibly love such a wretched creature however.

"It sounded like... a new flame however. Someone they had recently fallen for. Hence their passionate need to impress her with gifts." Why did that sound familiar? She couldn't think of a single reason why it would.
Besides, she needed to focus her mental energies on where she could find Utayo a good supplier for scientific tools once they were done here.

[Triumphant Return]

Utayo raises a brow as she takes that in. "A strange motive, but then again, people can be strange. I'm uncertain whether that suggests you should be concerned with repeat attempts, or if your objection should be enough to make other targets more lucrative. Perhaps the latter if it's truly so nonspecific." She muses. Unlike Ambrosia, Utayo has remained standing, She doesn't let herself relax easily, at least as far as Ambrosia has seen.

[Keeper]

[Incognito Golem]

Eddie snorted. "You mean the Suggestions of Physics give you trouble sometimes?", then he outright laughed.

"For himself? Ooooooh yeah. 'Valiant Val' they called him. Absolutely impossible levels of skill, and he would smash everything they sent at him and look good doing it. Probably could have knocked down the whole coliseum with one swat and walked out if he'd wanted to leave. If I ever manage to be a fraction as good as he was, I'll be doing well for myself."

Incognito Golem

Ah. There's the implication she was concerned about.
"Got it. So you're saying he was only ostensibly kept there. But he wouldn't have tried to leave."
After all, a lot of arena fighters and gladiators are essentially or literally slaves.

[TeChameleon]

[Incognito Golem]

"Huh?" Eddie paused, tilting his head at Mina. "Ostensi... oh, no, no. I was more trying to say that they couldn't have kept him there if they'd wanted to; it was dangerous, yeh, but it was voluntary. Well-paid, too. Maybe calling it 'arena fighting' was a misnomer? I don't know, really... It was a weird little city-state in the wilds, honestly not sure how Val ended up there. He always said he was from some island way out East."

The little golem's hood moved in a way that suggested, in some indefinable fashion, that he was pulling a face. "Pretty sure the ruling faction in that place was pulling the old 'bread and circuses' bit, but it was a decent pit-stop in the Scandinavia Wilds, and it didn't seem any more horribly oppressive than most spots. And I don't think they were dumb enough to try and keep any of the fighters there by force; they got caught in a cycle of trying to one-up themselves, and by the time I wandered through, anyone that could fight the stuff they were bringing in could probably have wiped out their entire military and police force combined without breaking a sweat. Was a fun few months, though- nice to be able to show my face and be celebrated instead of someone inevitably yelling about 'changeling' or 'soulless' or whatever."

Eddie shrugged a little. "Even now, after something like thirty years more experience and him probably nearly fifty by now, I doubt that I could take Val."

[Keeper]

Incognito Golem

"Sounds like a fun guy. And I get it. I got to be on TV once you know. It was fun, having a little fifteen minutes of fame."
She walks past Eddie, turning to look.
"Well, there it is. It's that one."
Sure enough at the end of the block is a single little bridge leading to a little floating island upon which a reasonably new but old-fashioned mansion. A few vaguely minotauresque statues sit in the courtyard, making the place seem decorated but not ostentatious.

[TeChameleon]

[Incognito Golem]

"Fun? Eh, maybe. He was pretty intense. But it was never boring around him, I'll give him that." Eddie said. "And it was less about the fame and more about the lack of lynching."

He gave the mansion a once-over. The little golem would be the first to admit that his sense of aesthetics wasn't especially sophisticated, but it looked like a nice enough place.

"Thank you again for your invitation. Are those the statues that Sai can animate?" he asked.

[Shadowcaller]

[Triumphant Return]

Utayo raises a brow as she takes that in. "A strange motive, but then again, people can be strange. I'm uncertain whether that suggests you should be concerned with repeat attempts, or if your objection should be enough to make other targets more lucrative. Perhaps the latter if it's truly so nonspecific." She muses. Unlike Ambrosia, Utayo has remained standing, She doesn't let herself relax easily, at least as far as Ambrosia has seen.

[Triumphant Return]

The dragon would usually agree that one shouldn't relax but she had just won an epic fight so she felt that she deserved some rest. She didn't want to admit it even to herself but she had fought for her life not too long ago so a couch, no matter how simple, was a nice reprieve.

"The possibility hasn't escaped me. Since there was something I hadn't mentioned yet. It had a gold-colored glove made of metal. Some sort of powerful artifact. It used it to lift an entire island with and nearly dropped it on me."

She shakes her head.

"Now I wish I had taken it since who knows what else it can do with a thing like that? Yet, even with so much power I doubt he could face me inside my own lair- library. It just barely escaped last time and I've taken precautions since then." She couldn't say too much about it, not even to Utayo.
Mainly since her neighbors would take offense to anything that could compromise their secrecy.

[Keeper]

Incognito Golem

Mina actually stops to ponder the question.
"You know...maybe? I've never seen him move anything not actually inside the house. But it's on the property so it probably still counts."
Mina steps forward and simply slides the front door open. It seems like she did have to use a key, but it wasn't a simple metal one, but something small she simply waved in front of a little crystal.
Inside is a similarly decorated foyer: fancy without being ostentatious. Mina looks down to check if Eddie is wearing shoes.
"I'd say people usually take their shoes off...but not a lot of people around here even wear them."