Powder Miner

Perlita began answering his original questions during the gap between his asking them and his commenting on her appearance. "Oh, well. I have to start from the beginning, don't I? Well... uh, gosh, there's really no way to put this but bluntly, I'm sorry, but you're not in your own world anymore. Um... you might not believe me on this, but if you come outside then you'll see that--" And that's when the man suddenly said his little comment about her clothing. Perlita, frankly, looked rather like she'd been slapped -- she hadn't been expecting that kind of reaction at all. Accordingly, her face changed shades a couple of times -- red as she was embarrassed by the sudden insult, then back to her normal shade, and then red again as she actually began to get rather angry, though she had the approximate grace and composure in her conveyance of this as did a group of teenagers fighting a Mara. "Wh-- why would you-- come on... why does everyone make fun of my clothing?!" (Perlita knew exactly why everyone made fun of her clothing, and she was none too happy about it herself, but she hadn't really had a choice the morning before she was suddenly transported...) She clenched her fists to her sides, her face staying red in her bout of choked-up, embarrassed outrage, and she took a few moments to glare at the man before putting her hands to her face and taking in a deep breath. She exhaled it and started to speak again, though her annoyance was rather clear in her voice. "As I was saying, you aren't in your world anymore, if you come outside you'll see we're in a castle, and you'll see some of the people around here, who are magic." Perlita paused, with a little huff because she was still mad, and then continued. "You're here because a bunch of people from, uh, a bunch of different worlds have been brought here to fight things that want to kill everything. I guess that includes you. Come on." Perlita gestured the man towards the Courtyard, not actually looking back to see if he was following.

Satomi couldn't help but feel a little smug as she watched the bundle of logs that made up the "wall" at the northern end of the village come down bundle by bundle. She didn't let this smugness show (she wasn't very good at hiding her emotions behind a face of impassivity and politeness like samurai were supposed to be, yet she could do it sometimes), but she had been disgusted by the shoddy excuse for fortification that that wall represented, along with its southern counterpart that she'd start work on later that day. Honestly... they hadn't even built a wooden wall -- and they hadn't even built Dragon's Teeth with those logs. It was just... a bunch of logs. Bundled together. The removal of the northern wall was, however, obviously only part of the equation, and once that was complete, Satomi also had to-- her train of thought was interrupted by the Mason coming up to her and discussing their stone supplies. Apparently, unfortunately, they didn't quite have enough, but the Mason did tell her of another kind of material, called "concrete". As the Mason spoke, it became clear that this substance was what the buildings on Earth Bet were often made of... so, paired with the advice of the Mason, Satomi now had a fair understanding of the capabilities and characteristics of concrete. Thanks to the Mason, she knew that it was fairly easy to make and very versatile to shape, but she knew from Earth Bet that it wasn't as strong as stone and seemed to need significantly more maintenance, if she were to judge by the state of the buildings there, as wondrous and incredible as those buildings were. Still, she did have to use concrete, so she made a couple of adjustments to her plan. First of all, she'd have the concrete made into bricks very similar to the stone ones -- her structuring was precisely planned out, and anything less regular would create worrying asymmetries in the structure of her wall -- so, at strategic points where she didn't think the greater need for maintenance and lower durability would really hinder the rest of the wall, Satomi marked out locations for concrete bricks to be used instead of stone. And then she began to, along with the Mason (a very useful man, she would have to take the time to pay respect to him once the wallwork was done), get to work. Thankfully, the work went rather well indeed. The ground here was solid and rocky, and with just a little bit of evening out of the ground, the wall's foundation was placed down fairly easily and definitely stably. Then she spent hours helping out with the actual laying and alignment of the stone, carefully carving and aligning some of the more irregular pieces of the wall herself with the fervor of someone with both determination and experience, she dashed between workers and the golems, making sure things were getting done correctly, and she even laid some of the bricks herself! By the time the Mason offered to switch out management with her for a couple of hours so that she could get some rest and work on other things, Satomi was a bit sweaty and a bit dusty. But she didn't go to the baths yet, since there was still so much work to be done, she just headed down to find somewhere to sit in the middle of the village, managed to acquire a towel from somewhere in the village, and she wiped some of it off (without removing her clothing, though). Oh, and she muttered to herself as she did, jotting down a little checklist in her notebook as she did. "Okay, let's see, first I need to get some mining done, perhaps I can hunt down Kusuke-san and get him to help be acquire stone for the second wall... maybe get a third person involved if someone seems available, hmmhmmhmm... then I begin the stonework on the second wall, then I do the woodwork on the first one... other way around if circumstances demand it... yes, yes, I think I know what I'm doing today."

Isobel Low ...and Isobel reached the part of the building that houses the War Room, dimension-traveling beauty in tow. Bypassing the War Room itself, however, Isobel headed into the library nearby within the castle. It wasn't a very big library (though this did draw a quiet remark of "Cozy," from Isobel), and when Isobel glanced across the shelves she noted that the place wasn't exactly using the Sol Standard Organization System for its books, that was for sure. ...of course, though, Isobel wasn't really here for the books, and she soon turned back towards her current companion. "Well, Marisa, here we are!" Isobel stretched as she turned around, obviously to emphasize a feature or two, and then she moved towards a small table near the corner of the library. "Want to take a seat?" If Marisa did, Isobel did too, but either way that didn't change Isobel's next lines, which were spoken with a sense of sweet relief. "Eheh, I hope you don't mind my bluntness but it does feel very liberating to be in relative privacy. I don't always feel comfortable being too gay in a crowd, you know~?" Isobel was really putting her cards on the table here, but after her reaction to the bindings remark there was no point in hiding it. Perlita Diaz Perlita had found herself pacing the grounds of the Asterlux fort, ostensibly in order so that she could get a better understanding of the place that she was in between the fights... but in the end, she really didn't get much in the way of familiarization done at all. She was just too lost in thought. This wasn't the first world that she'd been fighting on -- she, Gabriel, those cops, and the others had been to a couple other ones before, after all. But this one was far and away the most horrible that she'd been to. All the people being pointlessly killed, and all of the destruction... it made her sick. She knew she couldn't stop, because what she was doing was undoubtedly the right thing to do, but it made her sick. Lost in thought or no, though, when she aimlessly wandered on into the War Room, she did notice the presence of someone even newer than she was, a man with a fedora, pinstripe suit, and apparently a chaotic motley of cards, chips, and shot-up card table surrounding him. This was enough to give her pause for a while, but she did end up finding her voice: "...um... I assume that you just arrived here? If I'm right about that, uhhhh, I bet that you're pretty confused." Nice one, Perlita. Making the real deep conclusions here.

Isobel let out a little chuckle at Marisa's first sentence. "Right then, getting out of here it is!" The fact that Marisa wanted to actually go somewhere instead of some corner of the Courtyard was a good thing -- better privacy, for one, so Isobel could feel more comfortable actually figuring out what she wanted to do with this woman (really just not the sort of planning to be done in a public place, Isobel thought, too embarrassing) and Isobel felt like it might give her a bit of direction to actually be somewhere with an activity in it. It was honestly embarrassing for Isobel to be so unsure about this sort of thing -- normally she'd be way better centered than this. But as for the place that Marisa actually wanted to go, that would require a little bit of thinking. So the botanist pulled at the fingers of one of her leather gloves, looking upwards as she tried to remember, then she looked back down as the memory sprung to her head, smiling at Marisa. "I think I do remember a library, actually! It's near the area where we do our war planning, or at least where we did initially... we just ended up doing it in the courtyard thereafter, heh heh." Gesturing for Marisa to follow her with an intentionally over-artsy gesture, Isobel started to make her way over to the War Room...

Isobel let that blush redden again for a moment (oh God, Marisa was both really hot and a really effective flirt, and she was getting some entirely pleasant mental images), and she actually giggled a little girlishly in embarrassed delight at what Marisa was saying, but she recovered much faster this time. As pointed — and no longer remotely subtle — as Marisa's implications were, the shock from the direct hit to her preferences was only going to happen once. Even if it had been a pleasant surprise, nnf. What it did do for Isobel, though, was confirm effectively beyond a shadow of the doubt that Isobel was in fact incredibly lucky and Marisa did in fact swing the way she'd hoped she would, and that meant that the first phase of Isobel's flirting was over and that the botanist could get down to business. ...not that "business" actually meant propositioning Marisa. As incredible as Isobel actually did find the idea, she didn't know that she was actually ready to go quite as far as that anyway. ... ...uh, unless Marisa asked her convincingly enough, anyway. In fact, Isobel wasn't quite sure what she wanted from this as a whole, but, hell, she was going to figure it out. It'd be a huge waste if she didn't! So, the freckled woman's expression turned from briefly and suddenly pensive to a grin spreading across her face as well, as Isobel managed to get her smoothness all the way back. "So, Marisa, I was thinking... you and I might want to head to a quieter corner of the courtyard, or maybe inside somewhere. Doesn't have to be in a closed room or anything," because Isobel didn't want to come off as actually trying to do something with Marisa that she wasn't currently actually trying to do, "but maybe we can both get more out of this conversation if we are a little bit more out of the public eye, yeah?"

As Nader watched, the Sectopod ground to a halt, and as he listened, the group was told to retreat immediately. With these events considered, it had not been difficult for Nader to make a decision, and he had without hesitation turned on his foot and booked it back in the direction of the shop. Nader certainly didn’t want to get bombed to smithereens by aircraft, and he equally certainly didn’t want to see what would happen if Alan’s control suddenly turned out to be temporary. ”Damn...!” Rachel’s anesthetic was beginning to war off. Nader was, of course, still bleeding heavily, but he really still couldn’t afford to let that stop him — it was just something he would have to have looked at in the Firebrand... so he just kept running towards it.

LOTUS "I..." LOTUS was brought to wordlessness for a long moment by the combination of Magnum's way of speaking and what exactly it was that he was proposing... something of an achievement considering both how much LOTUS liked to hear himself talk and how seasoned LOTUS was in snarkily commenting on things. LOTUS did manage to put away his disbelief in order to formulate a response, though. "...uh... yes, I am not really in a position to be refusing, I suppose, so I'll participate in your... football simulation. I may not know much about the sport itself, but I do know it is highly strategic, and I am built to be able to learn in strategic scenarios on the fly... so, yes, I imagine I can do this. Erm... go ahead and plug me in, then." The talking tablet extruded a length of orange cable. Isobel Low Lucky's responses got, in order: an incredulous and none too pleased headshake for his implications about her, now, a growing nervous rictus as his reaction started to go sourer and sourer, and then an abrupt jaw drop paired with raised eyebrows as the other police officer suddenly knocked him right out. "Uh... wow." Isobel couldnt help but utter those two syllables of surprise, but as the situation seemed to be under control, she drew back. It even ended with a bit of levity -- at Press' mention of "the gays", Isobel let a knowing smirk cross her face. So Isobel let her attention turn back to Marisa... only to be once again a little gobsmacked at Marisa's word... specifically the last bit. A blush spread across Isobel's face as Marisa's flirt hit more dead on than even Marisa herself had probably anticipated, and Isobel shuffled her legs a bit as she fought to get the blush off of her face. She then tried to play it off and act cool, with a "E-eheh, well, um, it's certainly nice to know that I'm working with people who can do all sorts of things," but there was a litany of things that made it pretty clear Isobel had been thrown off of her game as far as being extra smooth went: first of all, the initial reaction had been impossible to miss, especially for someone as perceptive as Marisa, secondly she hadn't managed to clear the blush all of the way off, and third of all, there was the brief loss for words until she actually got her counter-flirt into gear.

Navin didn't seem to be able to find much of a response to Mitsurugi's apology, either physically or verbally, though it was also quite apparent that he was trying. He nodded once, first, eyes still closed, and then after a couple of seconds he weakly nodded again. But that didn't really mean anything, did it? Even Navin knew that. So he opened his mouth to say something, but then he found that the words didn't come to him. This shouldn't have come as a surprise to him, considering that he knew he was in a bad state, and that he knew he wasn't good at this sort of thing... but it did anyway. Perhaps he was worse off than he'd thought. So he gave up talking for a while, leaning back against the wall and remaining silent for a long time. After a wordless, and rather painful amount of time, something did click for Navin. He opened his eyes, looked into Mitsurugi's eyes, began with "Miss Mitsurugi..." and finished with one short phrase: "...thank you for trying."

The sudden wave of annoyance with Lucky was a brief one, at least in the level with which Isobel had held it. He had been crude and vile, of course, and she still wasn’t happy with the way he was acting, but, well... Isobel wasn’t usually a particularly aggressive or even outspoken woman, and a lot of what had caused her to speak up so quickly had admittedly been the guy dashing the mood of the conversation she’d struck up. With that initial surge of frustration gone, and with someone else stepping up way more angrily than she had, Isobel’s usual timidity raised its head and she suddenly blushed with some embarrassment at how she’d spoken up like that. Then Marisa elbowed her and spoke to her, and Isobel’s eyebrows raised a little bit — the blue-haired beauty’s plan was devious, but also harmless, which Isobel felt she could appreciate. ”Eheheh...” she began a little sheepishly, ”I’d have the instinct to warn you to be careful about it, but with her menacing him like that,” (Oh, and a super tall angel lady with muscles glowering angrily down at someone? Kind of super hot, but out of respect for the woman she was literally just flirting with, Isobel didn’t let her eyes linger,) ”I don’t think we need to worry about him trying anything. So, yeah, I think you could totally get away with it.”

Satomi walked out to an area roughly halfway between the village and the northern wall (where Satomi intended to start her work on the village's defenses), made the golems march out with her, leaving them on that spot. Satomi intended to go recruit additional workers from the village, see, but she didn't think it would help her case much if she had a bunch of these golems standing behind her to creep out the villagers. Instead, she would inform the villagers of their existence during recruitment (if she found any success, anyway -- some of these villagers seemed awfully apathetic to their own defense), and combine the group with the golems on the way to the northern wall. So, putting this hopeful course of events into action, Satomi made her way down to the village center, gathering any of the villagers currently in nearby areas of the village to it if she could, walking into a position where she could see all of them, and then the samurai began to speak. "This is the situation: I am going to begin the biggest project of the defense works. As far as the actual village defenses go it is also going to be the most critical project, because it should be the main line of defense and will be what multiple of our defenses are rooted on strategically and placed around. Leo has created a golem workforce for me, but I am planning to make both of these walls and the defenses atop them before the siege comes, and that is not a terribly long time. So I need all of the help putting these walls together that I can get -- just the golems probably will not be enough, especially seeing as they are very basic. What I need volunteers to do, and this will be directly working to keep you safe not only from the imminent siege but in the foreseeable future, is to perhaps do some of the manual labor, especially on some of the more complex work, but for the most part just oversee the golems and make sure they are doing their tasks properly -- I will be doing so to some extent myself, but I will also be overseeing the construction on the largest level, as well as doing some of the most precise work myself, so I cannot do all of this oversight myself."

Navin looked at Mitsurugi for a while as she spoke, choosing not to say anything until she questioned the meaning of ahimsa -- it wasn't very difficult for him to provide an answer to that, at least. "Yes. Ahimsa is the concept in Hinduism and in two of the other Dharmic religions that nonviolence must be practiced with all living things when it is possible. All living beings are part of the same cycle of dharma and the soul, are connected. It is why I am lactovegetarian so long as it is possible: less living beings must be harmed to eat to raise a crop than to raise a herd." He nodded when Mitsurugi continued to speak and spoke of results and overall harm, but it was a nod with an undeniably sad smile. "Yes... the concept of just war ties into that very concept, and it is one I lean very heavily on to be able to do my duty." By her own admission, she couldn't do much more to help him on this issue, could she? "It is alright, miss Saigai. There are pieces of our natures we cannot really escape. Even more so, perhaps, because of what we are." It was, perhaps, a reminder that as beautiful and troubled as Mitsurugi clearly was, as close to human as she was, she was in her own ways fundamentally different from Navin. This was not a slight upon her -- he was by this point a little bit fond of miss Saigai, but her dharma (perhaps his usual rough translation of Duty was more accurate), was different to his. Her very nature, as a god from a different religion and his, as a mortal, were different, and this could not be changed. Some things could not be, in general. "...perhaps it is simply a part of me as my destiny, my dharma, that this struggle within me happen, and perhaps I simply cannot change it. I will simply have to... bear with it, and then continue on with my Duty anyway, yes? Perhaps I just needed confirmation of this, again." He closed his eyes and leaned back against the wall, exhaling. Honestly, he did not feel any better, despite the feeling of grim certainty sinking to his gut. It was still painful, no matter if it was his dharma or not.

LOTUS "I'll be the first to admit I don't have the slightest idea what Candy Crush." LOTUS let an eyebrow quirk on his little face display, but then got rid of that as he continued speaking. "I don't want a two way connection or for you to run a proxy for me or anything like that. I considered that, but not only does it not solve my problem if we in this scenario head for different worlds at some point, I think I have the capability to tinker with my quantum communicator to make the communication work... I just don't know how to do it. Essentially, all I want is to be able to read what your bus is doing when you are transmitting, so I can have a go at approximating it with my own internal systems." "As for what I have to offer... well, I admit that not having any limbs makes this one a little bit tricky." LOTUS flashed his screen to an ellipsis being made and unmade a dot at a time to indicate thinking, and then put his neutral face back. "Well, my primary purpose is to provide aid in tactics, logistical support, and in strategic capacities, even for non-combat roles. If you have any use for tactics or logistics or operational advice for... whatever reason, I can provide it. I also have a medical and security scanner if you have need of either of these, and if you... have any files or something you don't have access to I can probably get you in." Isobel Low Excellent! If Isobel was not mistaken that was Marisa (cute name) looking her up and down. If she wasn't just imagining things out of hope, Isobel had just received a massive good sign. Isobel made to confirm this, then, by flicking her eyes up and down Marisa's form just slow enough to be definitely noticed hopefully without being slow enough to creep her out. Then she made to answer Marisa's question: whether or not it was genuine concern, polite questioning, or somewhere between, it deserved an answer, and Isobel certainly wasn't going to get anywhere (wherever she was trying to get) by not talking to the woman! "Ah, while they certainly did their best to slow me down, I'm honestly just so darn used to things flying around back where I come from that I made it out pretty much okay. Nothing one of my own poppies couldn't fix, you know?" Then she heard Lucky commenting lewdly about Marisa and pointing his cigarette at you, and she completely failed to hide her irritation with it, sighing and rolling her eyes. This annoyed her greatly, and it did so on two levels: Fiirst of all, it was getting in the way of her flirting when she was being all subtle about it because this guy had to loudly talk with the restraint and moderateness of a brick through a window. Secondly, she really didn't appreciate it when men (or women, but that was a different subject) acted like this, crude and blunt like the woman in question was going to be swooning over them being a sexist asshole. "You know, talking like that isn't going to win you women falling over themselves for you, right?" she called out to Lucky, irate. "At least some women won't be interested in you at all, and even if they would be they won't if you're gesturing at them with your cig and commenting about them like they aren't even there."

Satomi inspected each of the animate statues, lightly sweeping her fingers across some of them, and once she had looked over each of them like this, she nodded at Leo. ”As far as I can tell, these are sound. I will come and tell you how effectively they fared after I begin construction on the first wall.”

”Given the size of the walls I need to build and the potential labor force I already have on hand in the form of the villagers... I am going to say that a number between ten and twenty will probably be sufficient.”

Satomi puts her hands together on the table, interlacing her fingers. ”The only requirement I have for the golems is that they be capable of following my orders exactly, and be capable of doing so in a pattern. The wall’s construction will be precise, and once I begin to work on the mountings, battlements, wood, and scaffolding, it may become fairly complex. I won’t be needing the golems able to make decisions, but I do need them to be able to construct as I tell them to construct.”

Satomi approached the boy and his artificially intelligent weapon. She had already finished her meal by this point, but she did have business with Leo she intended to complete, so she sat down across from him. ”Hello, Leo. I wanted to talk to you about your role in the defense construction. You mentioned during the meeting with the dryad that you were capable of making golems to help the construction process, and since I am going to be working on the walls today, I want you to make some laborer golems for me so that I can have some reasonable manpower to actually physically get them built.”

Last Night Satomi shot a glare at Jun that was, frankly, furious, the humiliated blush still firmly rooted on her face, but she then sighed and shifted the small load of laundry in her arms so that it was over her chest, blocking the... phenomenon that Jun had pointed out from view. Then she began stomping off towards the village. Though this naturally kept her with the other two, she didn't seem to want to say anything, instead staring at the ground as she walked towards the village, scowling the whole way. Rivers was fine, but that damn Jun had gone out of her way to make what should have been supremely comfortable not so. She'd known she'd been right not to trust the Scorpion-like woman, but she hadn't guessed that Jun would do all of that. Back in the village, Satomi had managed to make it up to her room in the inn without being harassed by anyone else, and then had hung her inner robe and koshimaki to dry out the window. This led to her sitting in her room for a while, her daisho laid gently and carefully in the corner as she now just sat on top of the inn room's bed (strange compared to the futons she was used to). Despite the embarrassment of her time bathing, Satomi did have to admit that she was much more comfortable now, sitting here. It wasn't just that she was more comfortable, either: she also realized that she had something she had been sorely missing lately: an opportunity for a night of sleep where she wasn't bone-exhausted, and an actual order of events in the future. That was... very nice, actually. It also meant that she had the energy and time to center herself, to consider her situation, and to reflect upon her Duty. Satomi didn't know how to meditate, but this... would probably be good enough. Satomi Kaiu was a samurai of the Crab Clan, and of the Kaiu family. Her job in Rokugan was to build up the defenses of the southern border, so that the looming threat of the Shadowlands did not consume Rokugan. The Kaiu Wall, the siege weapons, the mechanical devices, the purpose of all of it was to protect the very existence of Rokugan and its inhabitants from annihilation and corruption. The strength of the mountain lies at its base was the motto of the Kaiu family, and while it was rather grand, that grandeur was well-justified by the fact that it was true. The situation Satomi was in now was, of course, very similar, and she'd known that from the start, but she hadn't had the time before to put it into words and think about it. So Satomi started to mutter to herself, comparing, with the goal of putting her new Duty in the very center of her being. "Rokugan is under siege by the Shadowlands. The many realms are under siege by the Trespassers. The Crab Clan tirelessly defends Rokugan from its enemies. The teams of heroes from the realms tirelessly defend the multiverse from its enemies. The realms and Rokugan are the same, like this. These teams and the Crab Clan are the same, like this. The strength of the mountain lies at its base. I am still in a mountain, just a mountain of infinite scale. But no matter how large the mountain, the strength of the mountain lies at its base. I am a piece of the base of the mountain. I am a piece of the base of the mountain, and as I strengthen myself, and as I strengthen the worlds around me, as I aid those around me, I strengthen the base. If I strengthen the base, I strengthen the mountain. And the mountain must be strengthened against its besiegers. I must put my heart, mind, body and soul into strengthening the base of the mountain. It is my Duty. It is my Duty!" Satomi slammed her fist into her open palm, to punctuate the fire she'd worked up into herself. To protect the worlds, to protect Rokugan, it was all the same, the same kind of mountain and the same kind of base. ...of course, Satomi actually a little bit of time before she was likely to have to go to sleep, so even though she’d just kind of capped her day off by dramatically centering herself on her duty, she’d find herself something else to do until the time genuinely came for her to sleep. Satomi hated wasting time, usually, because wasted time was time she could have spent learning something or doing something to further her Duty. Satomi hummed out a long, quiet ”Hmmmm...” to herself as she tried to figure out what exactly to do, though. She had that shield, though, didn’t she? The one she had taken from the body of one of the humanoid oni back in that one realm they had briefly visited by portal. The shield was a piece of gaijin equipment, Satomi knew that much even though she hadn’t had any contact with gaijin before this whole incident. But she wasn’t actually sure how to use it, besides try to get it in front of weapons (and that was about as simplistic and useless as “hit the enemy with your katana” as a description of kenjutsu, she suspected). Satomi also suspected that there was something more to this shield than what met the eye, but she also suspected she’d had to learn how to use it to discover it - the nature of many a weapon in Rokugan was lost on those who had never used it, after all. So Satomi thought up a way to train herself in its use. She managed to prop her Perfection Crossbow up and tie a string to its trigger so that she could shoot at herself with it, and then she took the wakizashi and carefully hacked the heads off of a box’s worth of bolts (she wasn’t looking to shoot herself to death) before loading it in. She grabbed the shield off of the ground, prepared to block a bolt, tugged at the string, and promptly completely failed to prevent a headless rear half of a bolt from thumping into her gut. ”Ow!” Okay, that wasn’t going to wound her, but it did hurt. But that was just incentive, right...? With a pensive expression, Satomi tied the string to her shoulder so too strong a twitch or jerk back upon being hit would launch another bolt half at her, and got to work. Several minutes (and multiple little forming bruises) later, Satomi hadn’t actually managed to adopt any deep secret within the shield. But what she HAD done was manage to teach herself to reflexively use the shield to block things, and that was actually pretty exciting on its own — few samurai in Rokugan (excepting the Mantis and Unicorn Clans) had likely spent as much time with gaijin equipment as she now had, and that knowledge and skill was fascinating even though she was still just a novice with them. Satomi could now go to sleep satisfied (for now)... but also still furious with Jun, that wasn’t going to end any time soon. The Morning Satomi rolled out of the inn’s bed blearily, let her feet touch the floor, and then she got up and started to put herself together largely automatically (most any Crab Clan samurai was capable of this, as stationing along the wall doesn’t allow cozy hours). Satomi grabbed her nagajuban robe and koshimaki skirt from where she’d hung them to dry last night, wrapped them around her body, and then her kimono around them. She tied her obi sash around the kimono, took a few minutes to get her daisho and armor on and get her miscellaneous pieces of gear hanging properly off of her armor, a couple of straps, and her obi, and then thusly finally situated she headed downstairs for a quick breakfast, concluded with a curt payment to the tavernkeeper. She was going to get down to business today, and that meant she needed to get the preliminary pieces of it done immediately. Specifically, this meant that she was going to find the “golem” maker (Leo, she remembered his name, one of now two other extradimensional travelers she’d met here), and she was going to try to get him to make laborer golems for her as he had touted his ability to do: for the walls, she would need labor.

LOTUS Someone walks by Magnum's bus at a brisk pace, and there's a light clacking noise as something is deposited directly on his bus's doorstep. What exactly that object is is made clear when a voice emanates from it: "Hey. Bus man. Look down here." Yep, it's the tablet that has been bossing people around as of late, albeit without his usual carrier. "I had Isobel drop me off over here, so it would be appreciated if you would pick me up so that no one steps on me." The tablet's face display, a simply smiley face in a neutral position, twists into an ":/" expression. "I've had... an increasingly distressing problem as of late. I was not built to be isolated, I am part of a network, but current circumstances have cut me off. Hence the lack of warning -- I don't have an intense battle to distract me right now, and the lack of input I was built to have is very, very, VERY much wearing on me. I think you have the solution to this problem, and, frankly, if you do, I need you to help me. I thought I detected a transmission in this area before the previous battles, but I'd dismissed it as a figment of my own desperation because it didn't make sense that any of us would transmit in a medieval place. But I detected the source again, and I've realized that it's your bus, and I've come to the conclusion that you are probably broadcasting to a different dimension, as that's a likely target where no others present themselves. I couldn't get enough information earlier, though, to figure out how you're doing it, so I need you to run a transmission so I can see it at the source. PLEASE help me." LOTUS didn't like begging. He was used to being in the position of advising and sometimes in the position of effective command, he was used to having the answers, he was used to being collected and in control. But this silence, this awful unique silence, this void of input that no organic he knew of besides the thoroughly hostile xenomorphs could ever possibly understand... he couldn't take it anymore, he really couldn't, and having a respite from furiously planning and advising to keep everyone alive was actually something very unwelcome to him. He had to fix this. He had to. Isobel Low LOTUS had requested another separation in his ongoing mission to figure out the solution to his network problem. Isobel had nodded simply to this request: sometimes these days, it felt like the only things she was good for were carrying that damn tablet around and throwing flowers to people. ...well, okay, maybe that wasn't quite fair to LOTUS, but it was frustrating nonetheless. In any event, though, if what she was good for was carrying LOTUS where he wanted to go, she would at least do that, and so she did. She would probably have been stuck aimlessly wandering to find something to do, but this time around there was something else on her mind too: during that last battle, Isobel had seen what was without question the most beautiful woman she had ever seen in her entire life. Her fiery eyes, the smooth cascade of the ringlets of her blue hair (a color not so exotic to Isobel as it might be to some, but still exotic enough to be intriguing), and of course, her figure, not only the obvious places, but how she was put together... oh, God. Isobel had been distracted enough by Marisa's looks during a literal battle, so she had made up her mind the moment she got back to track her down and have a conversation with her. If she was lucky enough, and Isobel certainly prayed that she was, maybe this lady would be compatible. Isobel was distinctly aware that her thought processes were kind of desperate, but Isobel really couldn't help herself right now. She was under a lot of stress and doubt, she needed some way to vent and... ah, God help her, Isobel knew it was for the largest part because this woman was really really hot. Plus, Isobel doubted she had much to lose. She'd learned long ago that if she never made any moves she'd never have any success, and that rejection wasn't a big deal. Isobel had caught a glance of the beautiful witch-hatted woman here in the courtyard, so once she dropped LOTUS off on the bus, she beelined immediately for her, slowing down once she got close enough to be seen so she didn't seem too desperate if the woman caught on to what she was going for. Isobel put a finger through her own curly hair (falling past the length of her bandanna), and stood with a slightly poor posture that very subtly (best not to come on too strong) emphasized her own far-from-insignificant curves once she made it over to her. "Hey. I saw you in the battle with Lancer, but I don't remember seeing you beforehand," and boy would she remember, "so I hope you don't mind if I introduce myself. My name's Isobel Low. What's yours?"

Satomi gave Jun a glance that was still none-too-pleased -- it seems that Jun's earlier teasing (or, depending upon your point of view, harassment) had genuinely not been appreciated by the samurai girl. Then she spoke, rather reproachfully: "Still doesn't mean it's your place to bring attention to it, especially after that earlier move of yours. I have to make do with what I have, and in this case this is all I have got, but it is both less pleasant and less clean to go solely in my kimono for just a brief while until I can reach my room than it is to not clean these at all. It doesn't need your comment. Hfff." This said, with that little infuriated huff at the end, Satomi climbed out of the water, and went immediately for her kimono, minimizing the time she spent nude outside of the stream. Satomi did wince a little at the fact that she was putting her kimono immediately over her wet body with nothing underneath, but she had in fact meant what she said, so without hesitating much she grabbed her daisho, secured it around her waist, and grabbed the pieces of clothing at the center of her little rant -- they were hardly cleaned back to white, cold water wasn't going to achieve that, but they had gone from colored various shades of brown, from rust brown to dirt brown to being mostly off-white, and that was a significant achievement. Then she stepped into her sandals and addressed Onyx Rivers of Mourning. "Well, I am ready to go back when you are, then."

”I think you know exactly what I meant...” As Rivers washed her back, though, Satomi allowed herself to relax once again, sinking slightly more into the water. ”If we have to do without soap, we will have to do without it, but I think that there’s probably some in the general store that was mentioned... aah, this is nice, even if it’s no hot spring...” Jun’s speaking again caught Satomi’s attention, and after Satomi flicked her gaze towards the inner robe and koshimaki being washed as best they could by the river to make sure that they were still properly situated (they were), she looked back to Jun and muttered a ”I don’t think my undergarments are any of your business.”

Judging simply by the step Satomi took backwards away from Jun, arms still crossed to cover her bosom and pressed against it, Satomi did not in fact need Jun to get significantly closer. If Jun was just trying to embarrass Satomi, however, THAT was most certainly working, her face still almost incandescent. ”U-um, no, no it’s... I am... I am not that way?” Satomi finally managed to voice her stuttering objection. Then she turned her head to River, and nodded to her shakily. Satomi was still mortified, and probably wouldn’t stop blushing soon, but Satomi did figure that since Rivers had said she didn’t share a certain trait of Jun’s (and, in any event, certainly was not behaving as Jun was), she was probably going to be safe letting the other woman wash her back. ”U-um... yes, Rivers, that should be fine.”

Satomi blushed again as Jun brought her stupid little bit of awkwardness back up after her stumbling attempt at redirection, but that was nothing compared to the reaction that Jun scored with her last line and the lean forward that came with it. Rather stunned at the other woman’s apparent boldness, Satomi’s face turned a rather interesting shade of red immediately, and her arms zoomed to cover her chest from Jun’s gaze. ”I— you— w-whhhat?” Satomi squawked, completely scandalized. The samurai girl, in fact, was undisguisedly boggling at Jun, staring at her with that crimson blush still present and shock in her eyes.

”Oh, no, I wasn’t referring to that. I am Crab, and we are just about as paranoid as samurai get, I don’t fault you for actually checking for zombies or something — my daisho is within easy reach, even. I was instead commenting on, you know, you avoiding looking at...” Satomi gestured at her own bare chest, below the waterline. She trailed off into nothing, her cheeks a little red, having managed to fluster herself. Then she cleared her throat to get herself back on track. ”Anywaaay...” she ventured forth, but took a moment to figure out a subject change. ”Bathing is actually a large part of the culture of Rokugan, and even us Crab like to partake in it when we’re not busy on the Wall or Shadowlands. This isn’t exactly an onsen, but I’m glad just to get to clean myself. It’s been... yeah. A while.”

Satomi looked at Jun a little funnily, but funnily in the manner that one looks at someone who is being awkward over nothing at all. ”We are just bathing, it is not like there is anything that requires worrying about about that. Plus, we are all women here, so it is not as if there is much to have to chaperone against.” And Satomi reached over to take off her under-robe and her koshimaki skirt, the unclad samurai slipping herself into the edge of the water immediately after doing so. ”Let’s see, I want to at least try to get this cleaner, so...” Satomi found some rocks and pinned each garment (by the spot furthest from the bloodstains) under one right by the water, letting the rest of the garments fall into the water to be soaked by the river, banking on the motion of the water cleaning her clothes.

”I come from the Emerald Empire of Rokugan, which has stood for eleven hundred years after its creation by the Kami and the creation of the samurai Clans. It is a land beset by many enemies, but by fulfillment of duty of all of the clans of samurai, in particular my clan, it has stayed intact. My Clan is the Crab Clan, which battles day and night against the monsters of the Shadowlands, a force very similar to the Corruption mentioned today at that meeting except backed directly by the evil realm of Jigoku. They seek to destroy Rokugan, and we hold the Kaiu Wall to drive them off. I am part of the Kaiu family that does the construction and siege engineering for the Clan, and I hail from a province named Hokufuu Province.” Satomi then watched with some confusion as Rivers had great issues with removing her clothing. ”How strange. Is this Equipment System a catch-all device that is used in your home realm?” Satomi herself got to removing her kimono, a blue silken piece crisscrossed with grey bars and with a symbol of a Crab within a circle in gold on the back between the shoulderblades. She frowned rather mournfully when she got it off, though: her undergarments (a thinner white robe underneath her kimono and a skirt) were heavily stained brown with a combination of dirt and, of course, blood. ”The journey has not been kind on these...”