[IC]TotMG:LF The Lost City of Pandtlantis

[Powder Miner]

"Huh, no, I don't have anything making me unable to kick it, I usually die pretty normally when I get shot enough, it's not like that's a big deal or anything. But, man, if you capture someone, they're fucked for maybe forever unless they can kill themselves fast enough. God, you know, I haven't seen it happen to anyone because very few people are fucked up enough to try it, and we can usually redeploy or pop ourselves if people try, but you still hear rumors about horrible prisons deep underground or whatever." Jack paused and looked Zoe's way. "Naw, I'm not cursed. Would be kind of funny to see what happens if you tried to fix a curse, though."

[kj1225]

Jack shakes his head at the explanation. "Now now, that don't discount voodoo. Just because you die doesn't mean you die. Otherwise we wouldn't be having this conversation right now, yeah? Sometimes you die and then you come back. And obviously that can't count as dying since you ain't dead. Now I obviously don't know all the details, but it sounds to me like you just know a lot of voodoo cursed guys like you. And that's fine and all but what happens when the voodoo man don't see no more use to yous? Nothing good! .... What was I talking about again?" Jack looks confused at the shift in topic he brought about at the end there.

[Chevaleresse]

Fortunately or unfortunately, Scarlet understood Jack's ramblings, possibly better than he did. She'd spent her share of time around sloshed pirates; he didn't look overtly drunk now, but she knew the type. "Yeah, uh, not sure if you're aware, but most people where I'm from tend to stay dead if you put enough bullets in them." She was suddenly very glad she was having this talk now, and not explaining why she was upset as she bled on the floor from a shot in the back. 

[Powder Miner]

Jack turned his gaze towards the other Jack. "Nah, man, it's not voodoo. I know exactly what it is. It's Auraxis -- the planet I'm from. Whole thing's set up by these dead-ass alien-ass motherfuckers called the Vanu, man. Fuck if I know why, or I guess how, but, you know, that's just how it is. The aliens did what they did, so everyone who goes down to Auraxis doesn't stay dead. Nothing about voodoo curses and whatever, just respawning in at a New Conglomerate-controlled area whenever I get shot up or blown up or whatever. Maybe people do voodoo for their resurrection where you come from, though, I guess."

 

Then he turned to Scarlet as she spoke, and after staring at her for a few moments he removed his sunglasses, revealing a pair of blue eyes that squinted at her. "So you're telling me you don't have anything like rebirthing." He squinted more at her, clearly deep in thought. "Damn, that would explain why she," he jerked a thumb at Zoe, "said she hadn't been killed but had been around for a long time. Fuck, I just thought he was lying." The blue-armored man let his sunglasses lay in his lap while he looked around at everybody in the shuttle, before his eyes (now darting with confusion) settled back onto Scarlet. "Look, I w... I don't... really understand. But... you've got to cherish it."

[Endlessblaze]

Stella briefly looks on Hirata's work. At first with a mild confusion, followed by a bemused expression as though looking at the antics and crafts of a child. Though she IS somewhat impressed that that seems to have actualy worked. She doubted it would last long but it spoke to the girl's problem solving skills. always something good to have around.

For the time being though she turned her attention to the far more intresting topic of resurection.

 "Im pretty sure she does cherish it, and thats why she would be concerned. I must say though its quite impressive that these aliens managed such a thing. Bringing the dead back to life is not the easiest of feats. Though the system likely grabs your soul before the reapers get it and take it to the underworld, which would make it far easier. Still impressive though. We gods sometimes use such systems for our troops" 

[Chevaleresse]

"I'm not sure that I cherish the idea of dying." She could do a lot more good if she didn't have to worry about keeping her hide in a quantity of pieces small enough that she could put them back together. "Not that it's something I have to worry about much, long as I keep my head." So this Jack - the one she liked more, so far, especially now that it seemed like he wasn't actually going to cap her for shits and giggles - was from a world where everyone came back? That sounded like either heaven, or hell. . . and judging by his response, Scarlet would bet on the latter being closer to the truth. "Walker here isn't the only one that's been around for a long, long time."

[kj1225]

Jack shrugged at the other's response. He pauses to take a drink of his grog, before wiping his mouth on his sleeve and letting out a contented sigh. "Sounds like voodoo to me, but you're the expert I suppose... So what about the rest of yous? What're your homes like? Personally, I was a pirate, sailing the open seas, searching for treasure and booze, pillaging and stealing. You know, the usual kind of thing."

[DragonRage]

"Well, that doesn't make any sense at all," Zoe protests, "You say you're a god, Stella.  But you're not me, and I'm not a god, and that just doesn't jive with the ~Pecking Order~.  See, the ~Pecking Order~ defines the importance of all things that exist, and most things that do not.  You, for believing yourself a god when I am not a god, are at the bottom.  Needless to say.  Then comes people who talk in the theater, snow, peons, the organisms and plants that provide vital ecosystem services, then my possessions, my allies, me, and finally the people I actually care about.  In that order.  Therefore you cannot be a god, because you are at the bottom of the ~Pecking Order~, and any deity would by definition be above the peons at least."

[Powder Miner]

”I’ve been around a while myself, but nothing close to thousands or whatever she said. I’m fifty-one, at this point.” He looked like he was significantly younger than that, in his mid-twenties, maybe around twenty-five or so. ”But basically, nah, it’s not like souls and the underworld or whatever, basically these weird alien databanks have our, like, brains and bodies saved, and then when we die, our nanites are hooked up to these alien databanks and they just build bodies back for us right on the spot.” 

 

Jack put his sunglasses back on, leaned back in his seat, and looked at the other Jack. ”Well, I fight. Big ol’ war between my faction of freedom fighters and suits and people who just like blowing shit up, the New Conglomerate, a bunch of actual jackboots for a dictatorship that can’t believe it isn’t in power, the Terran Republic, and a bunch of weird spandex-wearing alien-worshipping sex cultists. At least, I’m pretty sure they’re sex cultists. They’re the Vanu Sovereignty.

 

We kinda just fight over the planet Auraxis twenty four seven, over a few continents. Indar is my favorite, I like these gigantic columns of tanks colliding with each other that I can lob rockets at.”

[Chevaleresse]

"I can't say I've hit thousands either. At this point, I'd be. . ." Scarlet leaned back for a moment, fingers moving as if she were counting on them. "A hundred and fifty four? Something like that. Wasn't trapped on some eternal war hellhole, though, just found some apex tech pretty early on." And boy was that a mistake. "I've left my pillaging and stealing days a long ways behind me, though. Or I'm trying to." Things like that had an awful habit of catching up to you. Of course, that was why she was a merc at all. That, and she didn't have a lot of marketable skills that were applicable to something other than mercenary work. "I'd advise you to do the same." She gestured at the pirate with her (by now) mostly-complete weapon. Scarlet definitely wasn't going to be facilitating anything like that, not if she could help it. 

[Hal Henderics]

Akihiro finds himself confused and conflicted at Mercenary God-Queen's words.

 

"I-"

 

"Is it not possible for a deity to also be of lower standing than a peon?  I would assume even a celestial pantheon of beings has useless members, like smokers and those who do not return books to the library."

 

Akihiro interjects.  He's PRETTY sure gods aren't all that, at least according to the books he's read.

[kj1225]

Jack raises an eyebrow at the soldier's summary. "Wait, you're telling me you could be part of a sex cult and you haven't joined up yet? Gods, I can't imagine how well payed ye must be..." At Scarlet's suggestion Jack snorts. "Yeah, I'm sure I'll be leaving those days behind me... When I've retired, filthy rich with my own mansion in the Caribbean with all the whores and booze a man could ever want!" Jack laughs out loud to himself as he downs some more grog.

[Chevaleresse]

"Yeah, and when's the last time you met a retired pirate?" Dumb bastard. Emphasis on bastard. Maybe he'd learn, maybe he'd end up floating through the void of space with a couple extra holes in him. She didn't particularly care which, or who was responsible in the latter case. "That game only lasts for so long." Sure, she'd made it quite a while. She could also regrow entire limbs given enough time, and was pretty good at playing dead to fool bounty hunters; it helped when you could take what would be a killing shot on anyone else and live.

[Endlessblaze]

At the mention of that one shirtless jack being a pirate Stella's fingers twitched as she restrained her age old reflex to smite pirates.
A restraint that grew ever harder to maintain as the delusional space wizard and child proceeded to insult and mock her. While the pirate arrogantly laughed about his plans for the future.

She floats and glows both hands balled tightly into trembling fist
"Why I oughta....."

If the ship had windows the party would have seen a pillar of light rush just past the ship, and careen off into space.
Had the ship been sailing on the galactic sea rather than an empty void the impact of the beam into said sea would have violently rocked the small ship, and sent a wave over it.

As it stood, the beam rushing past was an audible event, heard as a high pitched whine, with a deep movie SFX laser esque echo, which was saying something considering there should have been nothing there to even transmit the sound.

[GodofGamingRWBY]

T1-N

 

For the most part, T1 has been taking in the conversations behind him without much thought, still busying himself with investigating the terminal. However, his work was halted when one of the passengers, a self proclaimed 'goddess', was audibly getting more agitated. Then, there was a loud boom of a laser shot, different from what he had heard before, but recognizable nonetheless. Instantly, the sound caused T1-N to take his hand off of the terminal, facing the rest of the group with impassive eyes,

 

"If you wish to attempt to kill each other, try to do it on your own time. This is hardly a place for a brawl" T1 stated, going back to the terminal to see if there was a way he could find out where that shot had come from.

[DragonRage]

“Psssh. I could do that. If I wasn’t, ya know, saving my spells for when we might actually need them,” Zoe reluctantly backs down to the reminder that we’re about to walk into a combat zone, “Just you wait until I’ve got a day where your lives don’t depend on me having a full scroll. I’ll show you some real fireworks, Useless Goddess.”

[Powder Miner]

”Ahahahaha, hahaha, oh MAN, Jack, you have no idea how fucking nutty those Vanu Sovereignty people are, even if the spandex is... kinda attractive. They think the dead aliens are, like, their crystal meth Jesus or something, and worship them with lasers and shit, and I’m preeeetty sure that they want to brainwash people. It’s some serious shit, I want no piece of that.”

 

He jumped a little when the laser beam whooshed by and made a surprisingly high pitched sound for something in space, and instantly his pistol (something resembling a blue metal brick with a handle and trigger) was in his hand, leveled at Stella’s thigh, a grin on his face — but then he paused, and lowered it. ”Oh wait waaait wait wait that’s not something I should do without knowing: You’re a god, you said, right? Does that mean you’re immortal?”

[Yours Truly]

Hirata sidled up to Akihiro immediately after the laser beam woke her up again, reaching out to poke the small ninja a couple of times before she asked, "Aaa, are you a reaaal ninja~?," with a starry eyed look in her eyes that might disturb him some.

[Hal Henderics]

"N-no."

 

New person in his personal space, that sleeping woman from before. 

 

"I was in training to become one."

 

He pauses, thinking carefully about whether to reveal his weakness to this woman.  Well, in for a penny.

 

"But I have not graduated."

 

She likely would have figured this out sooner or later, regardless of his confession.

 

Quickly, Akihiro considers what the best thing to say in this situation would be.  Information gathering is his specialty, he supposes, even though most of his interogee's are usually less animate and more scroll-shaped.

 

"And you are?"

 

[Yours Truly]

Hirata seemed to not mind Akihiro's potential discomfort much as she circled the young trainee ninja, letting out a slight squee as she heard him admit to having trained to become one, "Awww, why did you stop? Ninja training is so cool though, jumping around the place, making signs at things until they explode or you summon spirits and things, I don't get to do exciting things like that....." Her words trailed off for a moment as she stared at a nearby wall and mumbled something indistinctly, before she snapped back into attention and said, "And oh! My name is Doctor Hirata, I make robots and stuff to do everyday chores so that people won't have to.._{mostly because I don't want to do them myself}, eheheh."

[Hal Henderics]

Is she serious?

 

Akihiro can't help but think she's not being serious.

 

"I believed it would be deleterious to my health."

 

"Robots?"  Akihiro decides to wait for yet further clarification and information to absorb.

[Endlessblaze]

"Useless goddess? USELESS GODDESS!? A MERE HUMAN DARES ADRESS ME AS SUCH?! I HAVE LIVED LONGER AND DONE MORE THEN ALL OF YOU COMBINED COULD EVER HOPE TO ACHIVE! I have tamed great beast and sunken greater ships, I have protected the night sky for EONS! Guided lost travelers home and struck down ancient pirates! Even the Arurm, devourers of whole planets, could not keep me out of their massive fortresses!"  

As the Immortal Jack raised his gun, Stella quickly threw out her arm, barely looking in his direction, and a bolt of black and sparkles leapt down from her arm and blasted the gun right out of his hand. 

"And YOU" She turns to the other jack, the pirate jack, and speaks in a tone of hate and disgust. "If YOU so much as LOOK at a star the wrong way I will feed you and whatever junk heap you are on to Cuddles and then personally deliver your soul to the front gates of the underworld!"

[Powder Miner]

The bolt traveled to Jack’s hand, tossing his gun away and mangling a few fingers as his arm was thumped back into the seat and the gun torn violently out of his grip. Jack didn’t seem too bothered though, as after a ”Hooh man,” he just bent down to pick his pistol up with his good hand and put it back into his holster. Then, once again upright, he turned his sunglasses-covered gaze back towards Stella and gestures at her casually with his wounded hand, tossing a few droplets of blood onto the ground with that gesture. “Y’know, if you’re trying to get respect or whatever, a gigantic hissy bitchfit isn’t really gonna do it. You should just chill out and get over yourself, honestly, this is just embarrassing even to me.”

[Hal Henderics]

Oh dear, things seem to be heating up, Akihiro quickly thinks back to the books he's read, which tell him to firmly interject with something helpful and constructive.

 

He's got this.

 

"I am not certain this discussion is fostering a sense of camaraderie."

 

"We should avoid threatening one another.  It will not only make the mission more difficult, but will also make it more difficult to betray the group, if that is your intent."

 

Perfect.  It's logical, rational, and above all else, friendly and helpful.

[kj1225]

Jack raises an eyebrow at the outburst. He looks thoughtful for a moment, seems to come to a realization, and then appears to trash that realization as his expression turns to one of confusion. "The thought of stealing a start hadn't even crossed my mind until you brought it up. And I'm going to be honest, I have no clue what I'd need one for. They seem a bit big, kind of hard to hide, and uh... or right, they aren't made out of gold. Far as I'm concerned there's no worthwhile reason to steal a star. Least none that'd make that idea outweigh just robbing another treasure ship."