(2:03:06 PM) Reise: Meanwhile, back in the present and on Xanadu IV...
(2:03:07 PM) Reise: Reise exits the cozy little village that the group is using to stay in, taking a look around the area dominated by the enormous dryad-tree. A thought and a touch to the quick-change ring has her armor suit appearing in place, and she waits for the suit computer to boot before engaging the automapper function and heading downward.
(2:07:45 PM) Ikiryo: No one spots as she slips through shadows and over rooftops...
(2:09:18 PM) Reise: The first thing on her agenda is heading to the location Blue had transmitted, the site of the bizarre attack by the vine-animated wolf corpse.
(2:11:30 PM) FeldPhone left the room (quit: Ping timeout).
(2:14:20 PM) Ikiryo: It's easy for her to slip down...though she's not alone there as she finds the location. Rimema is also there...though her white robes now have a breastplate seemingly made of leaves over it as well as gauntlets and heavy boots visible under the shorter cut of it. She is tracing a hand along the ground.
(2:17:17 PM) Reise: "That's an impressive getup," she comments, standing seven or eight paces away with her arms folded over her own armor's breastplate. She flips her visor to scan mode in the meanwhile, checking out the scene.
(2:19:29 PM) Ikiryo: She turns...and jumps at the sight of Reise. As she does, the ground around her rumbles and a massive chunk of stone rises from the earth behind her before she recognises the voice and returns it to the ground.
(2:24:28 PM) Reise: "Yo." She waves one hand. "I'm going to guess that little 'Summon Plinth' thing wasn't a trick you picked up before coming here."
(2:27:02 PM) Ikiryo: She shakes her head. "No, I used to be a Geomancer in the Dryad Navy."
(2:27:06 PM) Ikiryo: *Terraformer
(2:28:03 PM) Reise: "Oh yeah? What's a Navy girl like you doing on a dirtball like this?" She steps closer, letting her visor get a better-resolution scan of the area.
(2:30:56 PM) Ikiryo: "I was discharged. Psychological reasons." She shakes her head.
(2:35:17 PM) Reise: "...Ah. Sorry to hear that."
(2:36:05 PM) Ikiryo: "...but I'm the closest we have to a cop here." She shakes her head. "Most people here have no military experiance or ever been part of an investigation."
(2:37:20 PM) Ikiryo: The ground her looks mostly normal...but the frozen fragments of the wolf. They utterly stink. This isn't the smell of an animal dead for a few hours, it's the smell of an animal dead for the best part of a week.
(2:37:20 PM) Ikiryo: Her sensors also show serious decomposition of the meat and the bones are heavily warped, grooves ground into them by the vines wrapping around them.
(2:40:57 PM) Reise: "Lucky for you, I'm here to fix that problem." She takes a few steps around the area, focusing on the long-dead wolf. "Want to compare notes?"
(2:42:23 PM) Ikiryo: "I suppose so." She's very clearly uncomfortable around the armour. "This wolf...I've never seen it's like. It's like it was a puppet..."
(2:48:38 PM) Reise: "Almost worse than that," she comments. "Check out the skeleton. The bones are bent; it's less like a puppet and more like...some weird vessel-thing."
(2:49:27 PM) Ikiryo: "I've never known a plant to do this before." She shakes her head. "Even assassin vines...they are ambush predators. This was hunting, outside the forest."
(2:53:26 PM) Reise: "It's not something that the Mother in Charge here would do, or know how to do?"
(2:54:33 PM) Ikiryo: She goes pale. "What are you suggesting?"
(2:55:10 PM) ***Reise shakes her head. "I'm not suggesting anything, I'm narrowing down possibilities. I *am* a cop; it's what I do."
(2:56:42 PM) Ikiryo: "Right...I suppose so." She shakes her head."She wouldn't...I mean, there is no motive and this sort of parasitic plant is not any sort of dryad weapon I saw in the navy." Reise gets the feeling that while she's doing her best and has good instincts, she's horribly inexperienced at running an investigation.
(2:59:40 PM) ***Reise nods slowly. "Alright. Are you aware of any other groups of visitors or colonists who've set up outside the local area here? People who're hiding out in the depths of the forest, maybe?"
(3:02:21 PM) Ikiryo: "We've yet to fully explore the forests...but I have not heard of any." She shakes her head. "Unless it was dropped off by the attackers...it is a dead creature...but the vines show no signs of decomposition."
(3:03:18 PM) Reise: "And yet we're standing here, easy targets, and the vines haven't reanimated. That suggests magic control to me. What do you think?"
(3:05:15 PM) Ikiryo: She nods. "Most likely, yes." She traces her hand along a bone. "The grooves...they would take a long time for a plant to carve itself. Perhaps why the wolf has decomposed so much?" For someone who is visibly uncomfortable around Reise's suit, she seems fine poking about a dead, evicerated and frozen wolf.
(3:08:30 PM) Reise: "My suit's telling me the wolf's about a full week dead," she agrees. "Though I have to wonder what the purpose of riding the wolf's body was, when the vid shows the vines just, y'know. Popping through its belly to try and spear Blue."
(3:10:30 PM) Ikiryo: She nods. "It's not good for long-term survival. It's got  more in common with some things I've seen the Consorts create than a creature that could reproduce long term."
(3:19:15 PM) Reise: "Consorts?" she echoes. "That's a new one to me."
(3:21:21 PM) Ikiryo: "Dryad Navy specialization. Terraformers work with the enviroment, Consorts are Biological Experts. Normally used as non-lethal troops, since they can induce sleep." She puts a bit of stress on 'Normally'