(3:41:30 AM) ***Blueshift_North has since gone back to driving the ship.  En route she goes through messages she's missed, specifically looking for anything from the medical station about Sunstar.
(3:43:29 AM) Ikiryo: According to the medical station, she's finally conscious.
(3:44:19 AM) Blueshift_North: [Hana we're making a slight detour on our way back to Sigil, the doctor's awake.]  She relays the course in.
(3:45:43 AM) Ikiryo: [From: Hana - She is?]
(3:46:24 AM) Blueshift_North: [Got a message before we left.  I've kind of been busy calling my other two sisters to check my email, sorry, it'll take about 20 extra minutes to get to the station.]
(3:47:09 AM) Ikiryo: [That's fine, that's fine...that will give me time to find something that doesn't make me look like something you rub out of a lamp."
(3:47:13 AM) Ikiryo: *]
(3:48:25 AM) Blueshift_North: [I mean look, at least nothing mental happened to you.]
(3:49:50 AM) Ikiryo: [Thank all that's holy for small mercies...still, are there any shirts on this ship I can borrow that a hard breath won't destroy?]
(3:50:53 AM) Blueshift_North: [. . . Try to borrow one from Reise or Uytana now?]
(3:51:50 AM) Ikiryo: [I don't think Uytana owns any new clothing beyond what the Lilies gave her. Reise or Khaira might work though]
(3:52:43 AM) Blueshift_North: [Right, her having new clothes would mean she'd need to have gone shopping at some point.]
(3:54:06 AM) Ikiryo: [Yeah...that and I don't think she'd willingly buy clothes that creak alarmingly. Bingo, got one from Khaira.]
(3:58:35 AM) Blueshift_North: [Nice work!]
(4:03:27 AM) Ikiryo: The station soon comes within sight...it's more heavily guarded than it looked last time. A trio of massive turrets float in defensive positions about it and a large cruiser emblazoned in the colours of Clan Stone Lion.
(4:04:14 AM) ***Blueshift_North waits to be acknowledged before getting too much closer.
(4:05:03 AM) Ikiryo: She 'feels' sensors run the length of her metal body and her data being carefully checked...before she is eventually let through.
(4:05:52 AM) ***Blueshift_North shudders oddly, when they do.  "I hate that." She mutters before looking for someone offical.
(4:07:13 AM) Ikiryo: The message says for her to dock at the station and head onboard, she'll be met there.
(4:08:46 AM) ***Blueshift_North complies, waiting in the interstitial space between the airlock and the ship.
(4:11:42 AM) Ikiryo1: Eventually it's done and she's met at the gates by a tall, athletic battle sister. She could be Eloise's biological sister save for the red hair.
(4:12:12 AM) Blueshift_North: "Hey."
(4:14:56 AM) Ikiryo: "Hello." Her reply is dry and clipped.
(4:15:38 AM) Blueshift_North: "This place has gotten more fortified since the last time I was here.  Something happen? Other than the mess on Tranquility, I mean."
(4:16:29 AM) Ikiryo: "Two seperate attacks." She turns and starts to lead inside.
(4:17:18 AM) Blueshift_North: "I knew about the first, when they nabbed Tathir, what about the second?" She follows.
(4:18:01 AM) Ikiryo: "An attempted assassination."
(4:18:46 AM) Blueshift_North: ". . . on who?" she says, almost feeling like she knows the answer.
(4:20:24 AM) Ikiryo: "Dr Eirin Sunstar."
(4:21:27 AM) Blueshift_North: "Do you know who did it?" she says, resigned.
(4:23:09 AM) Ikiryo: "Officially? No one. Unofficially, they were all wearing the symbols of a cult. The Circle Ouroboros."
(4:23:51 AM) ***Blueshift_North stops.  "Well.  That's not an answer I saw coming."
(4:24:18 AM) Ikiryo: "They are not well known but they are very fanatical...and a rampaging werewolf is hard to miss indoors."
(4:24:38 AM) Blueshift_North: "It kind of would be, yeah."
(4:25:05 AM) Ikiryo: "Would you like to see her?"
(4:27:49 AM) Blueshift_North: "Yeah, actually.  I have a friend who'll be looking to meet her later too.  Though.  Maybe don't tell her about The Circle."
(4:28:19 AM) Ikiryo: She raises an eyebrow.
(4:29:55 AM) Blueshift_North: "She has a history, and I'd prefer to talk to her about it in confidence."
(4:31:26 AM) Ikiryo: "...very well." She sighs. "Now, want to see her?" She seems to be in a very bad mood
(4:31:44 AM) Blueshift_North: "Yes." She frowns.  "What's wrong?"
(4:33:45 AM) Ikiryo: "Nothing." She leads on.
(4:35:11 AM) ***Blueshift_North follows, still frowning.
(4:35:45 AM) Ikiryo: Eventually they arrive outside a room. "She is here. Call if there is trouble."
(4:36:24 AM) Blueshift_North: "I. . . will?" she knocks gently on the door.
(4:36:43 AM) Ikiryo: "Come in." She hears a familiar, kind voice.
(4:38:13 AM) ***Blueshift_North gently opens the door, and steps inside , her hands in the pockets of her new coat.  "Hey."
(4:39:29 AM) Ikiryo: Dr Sunstar is sitting on a chair in the rather severe room, working on a bonsai plant. The dryad doctor looks a lot better than she did before, if not completely back to full health. She gives North a smile. "It's good to see you again."
(4:39:55 AM) Blueshift_North: "I'm glad to see you're up and about.  How are you feeling?"
(4:42:55 AM) Ikiryo: "Less hollow than I did before...but that's less important right now. How are you feeling?" She offers North a seat next to her.
(4:43:21 AM) ***Blueshift_North sits down, and runs a hand through her hair.  "Overwhelmed?"
(4:43:40 AM) Ikiryo: "Where would you like to start?"
(4:45:58 AM) Blueshift_North: "I.  God so much has happened."  She blinks.
(4:46:12 AM) Blueshift_North: "I have a kitten now, that's nice."
(4:47:14 AM) Ikiryo: "That's lovely to hear. Said kitten pops it's head out of the pocket of North's coat.
(4:49:23 AM) ***Blueshift_North absently scratches behind it's ears.  "I mean it's probably the best thing that happened to me on that planet.  Starting from the time I nearly got brainwashed like two hours after I arrived, and then as soon as I got over that, I thought Hana was dead, which I uh.  Didn't.  React well to.'
(4:51:50 AM) Ikiryo: She reaches forward and pulls North into a hug. The kitten jumps up onto her shoulder to lick her forehead.
(4:52:12 AM) ***Blueshift_North lets herself get pulled.
(4:54:36 AM) Ikiryo: The woman holds her in a gentle, warm hug. North feels like she could leave it at any point if she wanted. "I'm sorry I wasn't there to help you."
(4:55:33 AM) Blueshift_North: "I mean you hurt yourself protecting us the first time around.  And. . . I mean that's not where the problems stopped."
(4:56:48 AM) Ikiryo: "I overtaxed myself, yes...but that does not make me not wish I could have been there to help you."
(5:00:02 AM) Blueshift_North: "I know, but I'm saying that it's okay that you weren't.  Uh, let's see, after that Tathir got kidnapped by an abyssal surgery artist who did some preliminary work on her, before trying to trade me for her on the surface."
(5:00:15 AM) Blueshift_North: "Which, all things being fair, would have worked if I didn't have backup."
(5:00:57 AM) Ikiryo: "I'm so sorry." She puts her forehead to north's, causing the mark there to flare.
(5:02:20 AM) Blueshift_North: "Oh, uh sorry, my new friend, gave me one of those forehead rune things that flare up sometimes?"
(5:03:47 AM) Ikiryo: "A Charter Baptism Mark."
(5:04:00 AM) Blueshift_North: "Yeah."
(5:06:02 AM) Ikiryo: "That's lovely." She nods.
(5:06:30 AM) Blueshift_North: "The other thing is that I apparently have some kind of intimate tie to that whole system, because apparently part of my organic base is from a group of people who can see the future in ice?"
(5:08:42 AM) Ikiryo: "The Claylr? I had suspected so but was not sure." She smiles.
(5:09:43 AM) Blueshift_North: "Yeah well, apparently me and my three sisters are the last of them, which I have no idea what to do with, because that's A Lot."
(5:12:38 AM) Ikiryo: "The last?" She winces. "That is unfortunate to hear. I called members of them friends."
(5:13:33 AM) Blueshift_North: "Well I mean I don't know.  I know that South gave me a crown with a mark on it and Kharia said that was Capital S Significant."