[IC]TotMG:DC Trouble in Traverse Town

[StormLord]

"Kupo." (Dream Eaters are magical creatures that eat Nightmares, they're quite adorable.)
As soon as Francis mentioned the antenna the creature draws in, pulling the ball on the in down in a protective posture.
"Kupo..." (I'll have to ask you not to sir.  It's very sensitive, like whiskers or an eye.)

 

The other creature give Francis a wave when he walks up.

"Kuppooo." (I'm giving out tickets for playing and watching Flickrush matches.  Would you like to play, watch, or know more sir?)

This one seems entirely too enthusiastic about their job.

[DragonRage]

"I- what?  Teleporting individual molecules?  How can you target that-  I-" She takes a deep breath and looks down at Law with something approaching genuine respect, "I'm an aerospace engineer, not a theoretical physicist, but I didn't think it was possible to have sensors that precise."

[kj1225]

Thankfully, Francis appreciates someone that's enthusiastic about their job. He quickly nods at the last option. "Yes, I would in fact like to know more! Is Flickrush the sport that uses Dream Eaters?"

[Hal Henderics]

Law frowns, he wants to preen at the praise, but what he has done doesn't seem properly praiseworthy to him.

 

"Yes, well, by using Eco, many things become possible.  It is the lifeblood of the Precursors, a substance which operates on a scale many times more minute than molecules."

 

"To a device built with Eco at its core, the movement of atoms is akin to the movement of boulders, with termites scurrying around beneath."

 

He pulls out an orange metal canister filled with swirling blue liquid.

 

"Of course, this is all I have left that isn't bound up in the machinery I've been constructing or my own bodily functions.  With so little of it to put to use, I've had to devise other ways of construction.  What good is the ultimate technology if I've got none of it left?"

 

"Do tell me if you find a Quantum Foam Manipulator laying around.  Perhaps with one of those I could cobble together some proper precursor technology, without having to wait for more of it to be delivered into my lap every month."

 

He seems frustrated.

 

"Enough about that though.  I'm interested in this Bes'Kar Material.  It's certainly more durable than Precursor Metal at first glance."

[DragonRage]

"Bes'kar, more commonly known as Mandalorian Iron, is a material only found in my home universe on the planet Mandalore and its moons.  I've seen it synthesized in another universe, but only in very small quantities.  With the correct forging procedure, which until now I didn't think was possible by machine, it can be shaped into extremely dense, heavy, and durable weapons and armor.  It's one of only two known materials that can resist a lightsaber cut," Mirri gestures at her own weapon to indicate what she means, "Without help from Sith alchemy or interfering with the mechanism like cortosis can.  Phrik, the other metal able to resist lightsabers, is lighter and even tougher, but much harder to work with.  It's found on multiple worlds, unlike Mandalorian Iron, and you can work it industrially, but it's rarely found in useful quantities, and you have to alloy it with Tydirium just to do anything with it.  And Phrik is a ridiculously strong insulator, which doesn't help since you need to somehow put holes in it if you want to integrate electronics into it.  Bes'kar is just easier to work with, and until the Empire strip-mined Mandalore to keep us from getting any more of it much less expensive.  It gets its resilience from its extreme density, strong atomic bonds, and the unique crystalline structures the metal demonstrates when properly forged."

[Hal Henderics]

"I see.   Admittedly, Precursor Metal isn't manufactured for durability, in the same way other metals are.  We produce it for two purposes.  It is a mechanical metal, able to be programmed and constructed..."

 

Law pulls out his Precursor Multitool, demonstrating the large orange egg's ability to shapeshift into things like a screwdriver, a hacksaw, and a cheesecutter.

 

"It's other purpose is in containing hazardous substances, such as Dark Eco.  Because it is made in the same way Eco is, it is comprised of metals bound in a web of nanites, for lack of a better word."

 

"Being smaller than chemicals themselves, and comprised of intelligent adaptive machinery, it is resistant to nearly any form of corrosion and corruption."

 

"This canister here is made of it, for instance, to keep the Blue Eco inside from reacting with anything."

 

As if remembering his company, he shrugs.

 

"They aren't intelligent though.  Artificial Intelligences are a waste of time, or so I've been taught."

[DragonRage]

"Bwoooa Blyat," R2-P14 chirps at Law from where he's fussing around in an open maintenance panel on one of the X-Wing's engines.

 

"Hey, don't use language like that on allies, you little gremlin," Mirri chides the droid idly, to which her responds with some rude gestures with a manipulator arm in her general direction, "And droids are plenty useful.  They can crunch numbers and recall data far better than any organic I've ever heard of.  I'm a trained hypernavigator.  I can calculate a jump to about half a dozen planets in my home universe in about two or three hours by hand if I need to, and I could do it to other planets if I've got the coordinates and more time to work with.  R2 over there can run the calculations in thirty seconds flat, and remember every inhabited planet in the known universe with yottabytes of memory to spare for his personality matrix, engineering and repair functions, and personal purposes."

[Hal Henderics]

"As a species, the mind of a Precursor is built from the ground up to multitask, in spite of our only slightly-above-average intelligence.  Assuming I had the proper training, which I admittedly do not, I could simply do the calculations, not one after another, but all at the same time."

 

"It would take me 25 minutes to plot a course from one planet to another, if it were as difficult as you claim.  It would also take me 25 minutes to plot a hundred courses between a hundred planets while watching television and eating my lunch."

 

Law thinks for a moment.

 

"I think my people did make Artificial Intelligence at one point or another, but we quckly figured out that it made more sense to simply have a Precursor or two do all of it while they worked on something else.  Our technology is designed to help us perform that input more quickly.  I mean, even if we could solve all those problems at once, it would take hours to simply type it or speak it..."

 

Considering the best way to prove his point, Law waves his scanstave, and summons up a tablet made of thin metal using the Ender Forge.

 

"My multiplication tables, to a hundred-thousand.  They weren't in the printer's list of prefabs."

 

[DragonRage]

"I- that-  Give me that!"  Mirri grabs the tablet and starts looking over it.  Then she calls over R2-P14, and they both start looking over it, beeping and muttering with increasing frustration as Mirri's knuckles pale over the tablet clenched in increasingly tight fists.  "Breathe in to concentrate the anger, breathe out and release it into the Force," Mirri mutters to herself through clenched teeth, "Concentrate it and release it.  It's not his fault, you're not mad at him, don't screw this up."  She breathes out heavily and slumps over, tapping her face against the tablet.  "Well, that's at least two years of higher education wasted.  Let me rephrase.  Droids are absolutely necessary for the rest of us because we can't do math like that in our heads in seconds flat, or input it into a computer just as fast."

[Hal Henderics]

"In all fairness, when your technology goes wrong, you may choose to blow it to pieces with a gun.  When our technology goes wrong, it is much more difficult to eradicate it with a blaster."

 

Law taps the side of his head uncomfortably.

 

"There is a very good reason that all Eco in existence requires a copy of our genetic code to both create and control it, and that reason is that some Precursors believe that we shouldn't limit our entire race to the shape, behavior, and singular intelligence of a small fuzzy ancestral prey-species mammal that achieved spaceflight as it was several billion years ago."

 

"Some of them would prefer to be freakish biomechanical sociopathic mutants hellbent on destroying planets instead."

 

Law lets out a puff of air.

 

"There are some advantages to having something other than you undergo the heavy thinking, modification and upgrading, I will admit."

[DragonRage]

"We've had those a few times," Mirri sets the tablet aside with a still somewhat sour expression, "Sometimes I wonder what could have been if the reaction hadn't been to ban or harshly legislate the avenues of research that led to them.  Obviously, the Sith Empire went too far, as they always did, but a more moderate approach could have done a lot of good.  That said, there's something to be said for technology that doesn't grow out of hand on its own.  It's been thousands of years and we're still not sure we got all the Rakghouls.  Nasty things.

 

"Anyways, if we want to get anywhere today, we should probably get back to the task at hand.  I'm not going to be getting much of anything done until my armor is back in good working order."

[Chevaleresse]

Kusuke goes looking for Satomi.

[Endlessblaze]

-----------------

Leo

----------------

Leo after his comical stumbling footwork tried to crush his casual confidence and failed, took a look around the area he now stood.
The platforms didn't look that bad and there was ample space to not get killed by machinery if they missed a jump. He would have to mess up pretty badly to get caught, and at worst could likely redirect himself away from the gears...Or have Stoneheart slow his fall...

He briefly considered trying to have Stoneheart carry him up, but if this was a dungeon it would be a shame to skip loot. No, this would be good exercise.

Nothing to do but go for it. He took a moment to observe the gears, and then jumped for the next platform.
Leo moves across the platforms, stopping at each one to observe the turning and listen to the clock, getting a rhythm for his movements, a rhythm for time.
Tick Tick Tick

Of course, he stays ready to use emit force, or force mana, or really any other tool he has to avert a splat or painful crushing if need be.

But this didn't seem that bad. It really was much the same as being in a dungeon. possibly dangerous, but almost relaxing in its familiarity.

 -----------------

Takumi
-----------------

Takumi looked at the box for a few moments before pulling it out. Was this some way of paying for repair work on the fountain that only worked when someone fixed it and flipped the switch? No, that was stupid. How would you get it in there if things were broken? And its not like it was hard to find, so you couldn't put it in there when it was working without someone taking it.

For that matter, its not a very good secret compartment if the switch is just visible in the public fountain, so it cant just be a hiding place.

 

Takumi proceeds to open the box, and finding the bauble inside, holds it up above him for a better look

[StormLord]

[25, 13 vs 12]

It takes effort, and some careful timing, and Ena nearly getting crushed inbetween two gears only to be pulled out of the line of fine by Leo.  But both of you make it in one piece.

Ena can feel herself better acquainted with her hardware in moving and jumping and gains +1 Dex.

Leo finishes the ordeal with a better understanding of the relationship between machines and time, how time and timing affects machines, and how machine might effect the other.

Spoiler

Unification Hypothesis - Mechanics of Time: Upon the creation of three mechanical devices which interact with time in some way(that does not mean manipulate time).  This action will transform into a Unification Theory.

There is a small chest sitting at the balcony with the doorway leading outside the building to the service walkway.  Should either Ena or Leo open it they would find a small bottle containing some kind of jelly and floating stars.

Spoiler

Hi-Potion: A glittering pot of stars and jelly, it is packed with potent healing magic.
Level 1: Restore 50 HP when used.

Stepping out of the building to the service area Leo and Ena find themselves on the flat stone rooftop of the building next door with two ladders in sight.  One that leads up to the top of the clocktower, and another that leads down to ground level.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Takumi opens to box revealing a small pair of silver and blue cufflinks that depict little teardrops.  Holding them Takumi can feel the water flowing around him, through the pipes, up into the fountain, and down the drain and away.

Spoiler

Water Cufflinks: a pair of sleeve cufflinks in blue and silver depicting teardrops.
When worn allows the user to train basic water magics with greater ease.
When worn during combat each time the user uses water magic the cifflinks gain one charge, upon reaching six charge the user can unleash Waterga a terrificly powerful water spell.

 

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

 

"Kupo!"

(Ofcourse!)

The creature shifts a little as it floats there in the air, and Francis can see it glancing down at the desk every now and then.

"Kupo kupo.  Kupo, kupokupo.  Kupo kupo. Kupo kupo kupo.  Kupo."
(Flickrush is a battle game where two owners pit their favorite Dream Eaters against eachother.  The owners are each dealt a hand of command cards based on the Dream Eater's special abilities, cards can be spent to use these abilities or to block an incoming attack.  Each card has a random value determining which card beats out another in a contest.  Successfully blocking an enemies attack will allow you to power up one of the cards in your hand.  Sounds like fun doesn't it?)

[kj1225]

Francis folds his arms as he thinks. So it's like Panhandler! Interesting, he'd have to ask about the game later. For now though, he has to ask about a different game. "This does sound fun, but unfortunately I am not the owner of a dream eater or the cards required for this game! Will that be an obstacle?"

[StormLord]

"Kupo!"
(If you're just here for fun you're welcome to use one of the Dream Eaters we have here at the coliseum.)

The creature drifts down and pulls up a small booklet listing a number of odd and brightly colored creatures that all resemble animals.

[kj1225]

Francis nods and begins to look through the books, searching for a suitable dream eater. While doing so, he makes small talk. "So, if one wanted a dream eater of their own, what would they need to do? Are there licenses or anything of that nature to acquire?"

[Strider]

"Thank you Leo. Though I worry more that I may have broken the clock than myself if I got into the gears. What do you expect that ladder down goes to?" Had they perhaps gone through the gears to no purpose? Well, that would be a nuisance indeed.

 

"Shall we check the lower level first? Or would you rather go directly for the goal?"

[StormLord]

As Francis flips through the booklet he reads over titles and descriptions of a few Dreameaters they've got in the coliseum at the moment.

Meow Wow: A bright blue creature that is a cross between a cat, hamster, and unicorn.

Hebby Repp: A yellow and blue serpant creature that has a pair of feet about midway down its body.  Attacks by spitting fire or by curling into a ball and hurling itself at enemies.

Toximander: A large purple, green, and pink salamander-like creature that spews poisonous puddles and clouds of poisonous gas.

Necho Cat: A six legged cat covered in bells and music notes.  It can walk on air and uses this ability to avoid enemies and bombard them with spells.

Escarglow: A snail-like creature with a spiked shell.  Cast a wide variety of defensive and gravity spells.

Wheeflower: A small pink and green flower with a heart shaped pot over its roots.  It floats around slinging water and ice spells.

 

"Kupo kupo, kupo kupo kupo."
(If they like you well enough, or they think you need help, they start following you around!  We feed and take care of the ones here, and don't force them to fight if they don't feel like it, so they don't have much incentive to leave.  Occasionally one just gets up and wanders off though.)

 

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

 

Ena can see from where she is the ladder likely leads down and around the backside of one of the buildings beside the clocktower.  Heading down would just take them back to the courtyard.

 

[kj1225]

Francis looks over the Dreameaters, ooing and ahing occasionally, likely adding the ideas to his own stable before speaking to the attendant. "Right, and I suppose modifications are not allowed? That said, I would like to join up with Meow Wow. I mean, how could I not, it combines cats and unicorns! I should have thought of that long ago!" Francis looks as if the very idea has excited him greatly, like he's going to test it the next chance he gets... but he wouldn't do that, right?

[StormLord]

The creature shakes its head.
"Kupo.  Kupo."(Afraid not.  You'll get your cards once you've met the Dreameater though.)
With that it floats over to the oversized doors and tugs on one handle, pulling it open just enough for Francis to walk through.  Walking down a short corridor he passes a small door and window that looks into a room full of playpins for various kinds of Dreameaters.  As he watches a single Meow Wow bounces out of its pin, down the walkway, and out a small doggy-door in the door.  It stands there next to Francis bouncing up and down excitedly.
Further down the corridor there are archways to stairs on the left and right and an open portcullis leading to a small sandy pit.

[kj1225]

Francis squeals in a rather unmanly way for a moment before leaning down and almost starting to pet it, but remembering the last time he tried that with an unfamiliar animal, instead lets the Meow Wow sniff him. If allowed to continue, he pets the pudgy creature, the glee in his eyes almost matching the amount he gets when talking about medical procedures. After a while though he continues down the corridor, stopping at the end to look for any identifying markers on the stairs, and if none are found, he just goes up each set to see what's there.

[StormLord]

The creature tolerates Francis' petting of it for a few seconds before bouncing aggressively forward to tackle him and lick his face.  Once he pries the surprisingly light puffy creature off of him he finds the stairs unmarked, but a quick glance reveals them to lead to viewing seats a few feet above the ring.  There are a few people sitting around, and he notices another of the small flying creatures hovering on the other side of the battlefield with a Hebby Repp tooling around beneath it.

[Hal Henderics]

Law wipes the sweat from his face.  "Now that was some hard work."

 

"So, what's this about a lightsaber?  Some kind of laser weapon?"

[kj1225]

Francis nods to himself before heading for the portcullis, it seemed rather obvious to him that if he'd be participating he shouldn't be in the stands.... Unless this was like wrasslin' back home. Then it'd be perfectly acceptable to start a match in the stands, and then when your rival got to close you take them by surprise. But only if they really deserved it or you were a bad guy since it was a pretty mean move. Nothing on par of running in during their intro and just going to town with a Nuetrinochair, but still.... Finally recalling what he was doing, Francis enters the arena.