(1:28:40 PM) ***Reise can only sit still and twiddle her thumbs for so long, especially when surrounded by so much stuff that feels just...hollowly familiar. Echoes, remnants, of memories of the Syrne soul attached to, or maybe part of, her own--who knows how these metaphysics work? So she gets up off her rear and leaves the room, curious, and mildly irritated that it seems as they'd been forgotten about.
(1:29:09 PM) Ikiryo: ...a moment later, she hears footsteps coming from behind her.
(1:29:48 PM) Reise: She turns around to check who's following.
(1:30:29 PM) Ikiryo: Spotting a familiar blonde sidereal somehow not managing to spill out of her kimono as she jogs to catch up with Reise.
(1:37:39 PM) ***Reise nods a little. "Hey, Britney. You got tired of being forced to just sit around, too?"
(1:38:30 PM) Ikiryo: "That and...well..." She trails off a bit, looking embarassed.
(2:08:05 PM) ***Reise pauses, and then drops her head into her hands. "I'm just going to take a look around the place, so if you need to get away for a while, let's get moving, kay?"
(2:12:10 PM) Ikiryo: "Please. I hate the guy in charge of fashion here enough that I might do something drastic if left alone with Eir too long. He is just...the worst."
(2:12:49 PM) Reise: "Mm. He doesn't really seem like he understands what he's doing, does he?" She heads on down the hall outside the room."
(2:17:32 PM) Ikiryo: "Oh no...he knows what he's doing. He's just doing stupid things because he thinks 'pretensious' means art. Art isn't supposed to be comfortable, so clearly the less usable the outfits and furniture is, the more art it is." She spits the words, looking a lot like Linny does before she bites out someone's throat.
(2:17:44 PM) Ikiryo: The two mostly get ignores by the stupidly dressed Syrne as they head through the building.
(2:18:37 PM) Reise: "Oh, that's even worse. There's ignorance and then there's perpetually wrong and doing it anyway." Shaking her head, she inspects various doors, looking for something interesting.
(2:19:31 PM) Ikiryo: ...warstrider design, temporal weapons, steller manipulator access...
(2:20:23 PM) Reise: "Hel-lo, what have we here..." Making a note of where the last door is, she turns for the temporal weapons entrance.
(2:22:34 PM) Ikiryo: And is stopped by a security door. Solar Access Only. There is a scanner next to it.
(2:23:52 PM) ***Reise rolls her eyes. "Nerds," she mumbles under her breath, without a trace of self-awareness. After determining what type of scanner it is she applies the correct method of entry.
(2:26:27 PM) Ikiryo: Huh, spirit scanning. That's a rarely used sort...but if it's judging exaltations...
(2:26:55 PM) Reise: It makes some kind of sense, anyway. She turns it on.
(2:26:57 PM) Ikiryo: It runs over her, the door sliding open quickly...though an AR display asks if she is bringing in this Celestial-Tier guest with her.
(2:27:38 PM) Ikiryo left the room.
(2:28:00 PM) Ikiryo [[email protected]] entered the room.
(2:28:56 PM) Ikiryo: It runs over her, the door sliding open quickly...though an AR display asks if she is bringing in this Celestial-Tier guest with her.
(2:32:03 PM) Reise: She taps whatever confirms her assent and strolls on through. "C'mon, this place is awful and I don't want to stick around any longer than we have to."
(2:34:26 PM) Ikiryo: Britney nods. "Yeah...Adelinda looked pretty depressed earlier. It's worse for her than the rest of us." The pair soon find themselves in a huge lab, going up a dozen floors or more around a large central open area. There is a sign saying 'timeline analysis: 11th floor, discard timelines 12th floor'. Around them are many AR displays, showing experimetns in action.
(2:40:51 PM) Reise: "...Reminds me of your old shop," she comments idly, looking around, curious to see if any of the experiments catch her eye.
(2:41:06 PM) Reise: "Let's go check out the analysis junk."
(2:42:48 PM) Ikiryo: ...one of the nearby ones is interesting and not a superweapon. Paradox Stabilizers...they allow for beings to continue existing, even if wiped from a timeline if they are using it at the time.
(2:43:17 PM) Ikiryo: They also prevent any ongoing effects of thier paradoxical existance from fraying the timeline.
(2:43:49 PM) Reise: "What do you make of these?" she asks Britney, showing her the readouts.
(2:46:15 PM) Ikiryo: She blinks a few times. "They are giving me a headache...but I sorta recognise some of the theories. We use similar things when we...well, if you do a big enough change to fate it can make some things snap a bit. We use them to make sure that someone doesn't get Final Destination'd while we get the loom set up right."
(2:56:28 PM) Reise: "What do you think about reverse-engineering the concept and turning it backwards? Paradox induction, in other words. Point it at a quori and bam, instant temporal fuckery."
(2:58:40 PM) Ikiryo: "It could work...though I think you'd need to stick it to them. I remember reading that the Quori deal really badly with anything time travel related." She nods.
(2:59:01 PM) Ikiryo: "It's why they had to make the Modrons, to fight the war...that we've got ourselves into."
(3:22:00 PM) Reise: "That's the idea, yep. Drives them insane at the very least. Not that they're not already, but you know what I mean."
(3:23:22 PM) Ikiryo: "Uselessly insane, rather than dangerously." She nods. "When we get back...if we get back...do you want to give that a shot? Building it?"
(3:23:48 PM) Reise: "That's partly why I wanted to come in here," she nods. "Get some ideas for when we get home. No 'if' involved."
(3:26:07 PM) Ikiryo: "I think Venus is trying to get rid of me. I mean, I've almost never left Yu Shan since I became a Sidereal...and all of a sudden they need me on Blue's ship? This is all because I didn't return her lipstick, I'm sure of it..." She frowns.
(3:38:09 PM) Reise: "You sure about that?" She throws an arm over Britney's shoulders. "Maybe, just maybe, it's because now there's not Kajak behind the scenes, so your goddesses are free to do what they want with people, instead of being stuck knowing and unable to act."
(3:38:21 PM) Reise: "Maybe Venus always wanted you to go out and do stuff."
(3:39:47 PM) Ikiryo: "I mean, it WAS her favorite lipstick." She pulls a tube of it out of her pocket. "Depending on how you apply it, it can leave death, charm or sleep with a kiss."
(4:28:48 PM) Reise: "Mm. Maybe you could give it back? After making a different kind, of course."
(4:30:19 PM) Ikiryo: "I kept meaning to...but it was too interesting to study...and then she sent me to a ship that was going to get sent back to the time war." She sighs.
(4:38:16 PM) Reise: "I bet you could give it to her now and she'd understand. Aren't your boss ladies supposed to be kind of outside time?"
(4:41:15 PM) Ikiryo: "A bit, yeah." She nods. "Anyway, do you want to check out the analysis floor?"
(4:48:44 PM) Reise: "Yep, gonna need at least some of their results so we can save some time." She leads Britney through the maze of rooms and labs to find an elevator to go up.
(4:50:56 PM) Ikiryo: It's not hard to find one and, before long, they spot a figure looking through AR displays and swiping screen after screen into two collections...
(9/15/2018 7:49:08 AM) Reise: Coming up behind the random stranger, Reise watches quietly over their shoulder as they work on organizing their displays.
(7:50:25 AM) Ikiryo: The figure is quickly looking over massive torrents of data in files and rapidly sorting them...though Reise isn't exactly sure about criterea.
(7:51:57 AM) ***Reise decides to ask. "What's the filter you're sorting by?"
(7:52:44 AM) Ikiryo: The figure jumps, turning thier head to look at Reise...and failing because of the huge collar utterly ruining thier ability to turn thier head properly. "What?"
(7:59:12 AM) Reise: She grabs the collar and forcibly turns them by the shoulders. "Gods these things are dumb. I said, what's the filter your sorting these by?"
(8:00:54 AM) Ikiryo: The figure, once she can get a good look at it is a young man, seemingly barely in his 20s with short brown hair and a nervous expression. "Oh, we're...um....we're trying to find a optimal timeline." He looks over Reise and Britney...and quickly starts staring at the roof. "E-Existance of Syrne Spirits, No C'Tan...Rassilon being detected..."
(8:02:44 AM) Reise: "The Lord President guy? Why's he gotta be detected?"
(8:04:20 AM) Ikiryo: "T-To make sure he exists in that timeline...it was one of the requirements the council put in." He bites his lip, avoiding looking at the pair.
(8:06:23 AM) Reise: "Ah, I see. Finding any of those?"
(8:06:55 AM) Ikiryo: "A few...not many...and a lot of them are being ruled out for other, lesser reasons."
(8:12:32 AM) Reise: "Like 'All societies are reverted to the Stone Age' lesser reasons?"
(8:14:16 AM) Ikiryo: "...that's generous in a lot of cases." He nods.
(8:17:08 AM) Reise: "So what happens if you bring it down to just getting rid of the C'Tan?"
(8:18:35 AM) Ikiryo: "Oh, options vastly expand from that...but those are not the search parameters the council gave me, so they wouldn't accept it."
(8:20:28 AM) Reise: "Well no. They want to save their asses." She shrugs. "Your name, by the way?"
(8:23:57 AM) Ikiryo: "Kallix. I'm with the Celestial Intervention Agency."
(8:25:24 AM) ***Reise glances at Britney. "That so. And what happens when you find timelines this council likes?"
(8:25:43 AM) Ikiryo: Britney shrugs [Never heard of it]
(8:26:24 AM) Ikiryo: "We test them...and then start analysising new options, based on the new timeline. Each one is the result of a single change and each change we make results in a new start point."
(8:32:52 AM) Reise: "Sounds like a full time job."
(8:34:12 AM) Ikiryo: He nods. "I've been doing it for...three thousand years, subjective time?"
(8:39:00 AM) Reise: She stares for a couple seconds, then rubs an eyebrow. "How incredibly boring."
(8:41:20 AM) Ikiryo: "It gets better after the first thousand years...and it needs to be done. Situations where all the variables align are rare and we are attempting to find the perfect situation...with the enemy also modifying the timeline to counter us."
(8:43:29 AM) Ikiryo: Britney pulls a face [And I thought being a Sidereal was boring...]
(8:46:15 AM) Reise: "Well...good luck, I suppose. And...keep an open mind with those futures."
(8:47:07 AM) Ikiryo: He nods. "Secondary objectives are easier...thank you."
(8:48:28 AM) Reise: She nods and steps back, letting the poorly-dressed man get back to work. As she and Britney give him room Reise makes a gagging motion. [That's why they couldn't win this thing.]
(8:49:18 AM) Ikiryo: Britney nods, talking once they are out of earshot. "They're trying to make sure they have everything...I mean, we're anal but as bad as we are, we at least understand 'best of bad options'."
(8:51:35 AM) Reise: "I understand not wanting to die, but sometimes you have to just accept that can happen." She shrugs easily. "I've been lucky so far, but I know that it can happen to me."
(8:52:10 AM) Ikiryo: "...what's with 'the lord-president is around' being equal to the other two?"
(8:54:01 AM) Reise: "He's probably on that whatever council that Kallix guy reports to." She taps the side of her head. "It's pretty obvious that the Syrne are just like everybody else in the multiverse, in that they're made up of all kinds, from heroes to cowards."
(8:56:25 AM) Ikiryo: "...that's kinda disapointing, after hearing about how Solars were the best and the worst. That there is...well...bleh ones."
(9:00:00 AM) Reise: "Yeah. Cowards, toadies, yes-men...whoever penned the stories conveniently left all those out."
(9:00:56 AM) Ikiryo: She smiles. "Maybe we'll find your prior incarnation and they'll be nice."
(9:05:30 AM) Reise: "I can hope so, though given how things have gone upstairs since it came to me...or came out...or whatever...that might be a stretch. Assuming they are in life how it feels right now, anyway."
(9:06:03 AM) Ikiryo: "...yeah?"
(9:07:40 AM) Reise: "I'll put it this way: I haven't *always* had this unfounded sense of self-superiority."
(9:10:02 AM) Ikiryo: "Oh, sorry." She goes to give Reise a hug.
(9:12:25 AM) ***Reise returns the hug. "It's alright. I've mostly got it under control, but I'm sure you've seen me go into turbobitch mode."
(9:13:03 AM) Ikiryo: "Yeah, I just thought that was...well, you. Sorry."
(9:14:01 AM) ***Reise snickers. "I didn't used to be *that* bad. But that's fair."
(9:17:12 AM) Ikiryo: "I'm glad that Sidereal exaltations are not...sticky like that."
(9:24:00 AM) Reise: "Heh, yeah. They all seem like they have their ups and downs, don't they?"
(9:24:23 AM) Reise: "Anyway, c'mon. Let's go check out that stellar manipulator, shall we?"
(9:24:50 AM) Ikiryo: She nods. It's not hard to get there. another exaltation scanner waiting for them.
(9:26:09 AM) Reise: Reise steps up to it again, allowing it to scan her and pulling Britney through after her.
(9:26:51 AM) Ikiryo: ...and finding a long passageway in front of them, clear sections revealing this is connecting the dyson sphere to the space station...
(9:30:04 AM) Reise: "This is a hell of a trek," she mumbles, but there's little to do but keep walking.
(9:31:11 AM) Ikiryo: Before long, they encounter another heavy set of doors...and then another, going through four more before they have access to the inside and a viewing platform overlooking the inside of the Dyson Sphere...where there is a bright ball of light, nearly filling it...but something looks wrong with this sun...
(9:32:27 AM) ***Reise looks for a console or readout or some other station to ascertain what's going on there.
(9:45:35 AM) Ikiryo: ...these readings are wrong. These are not the readings for a star...these are the readings of a spirit or magically active person...though it's outputting a staggering amount of solar energy that the facility is gathering.
(9:48:34 AM) Ikiryo: Britney looks over them, frowning. "These don't look right..."
(9:48:51 AM) Reise: She narrows her eyes at the contradictory readings. "What in the Nine Hells is going on in here...? Brit, have you ever seen anything like this?"
(9:49:52 AM) Ikiryo: Britney shakes her head. "No, everything in our records said that Stellar Manipulators gathered energy from...well, suns. We never heard about anything like this..."
(9:51:51 AM) Ikiryo: Britney's face goes very pale as Reise explains some of the Syrne system's readings...
(9:54:14 AM) Reise: "...Well?" she asks, after finishing. "You can't keep me in suspense *that* long."
(9:55:30 AM) Ikiryo: "I recognise some of these readings...they're similar to what my sensors have shown off with the Maidens of Fate...but a lot, lot stronger." She bites her lip. "...and Time and Suns are controlled by the same Deity."
(9:56:39 AM) Reise: "...That's *Pelor*?!"
(9:58:22 AM) Ikiryo: "Unless they replaced another god between the timewar and now..." She nods.
(10:00:01 AM) ***Reise staggers until she finds a wall to lean against.
(10:00:29 AM) Ikiryo: She shivers, wrapping her arms around herself. "I think I know why Stellar Manipulators allow time travel. Pelor maintains the barriers in the timeline that prevent it normally..."
(10:02:55 AM) Reise: She nods. "So either he's allowing it, or he can't do anything about it right now, one or the other." It's her turn to shiver. "...I'm not sure which is worse."
(10:03:22 AM) Ikiryo: "Reise?"
(10:04:54 AM) Reise: "Yeah, what is it?"
(10:05:27 AM) Ikiryo: "I think I need a hug. This is way, way outside my skills...I invent things...pretty pink things...I didn't even pass Sidereal Martial Arts classes..." She shivers again.
(10:06:40 AM) Reise: "Yeah...let's get back to the room." She pushes off the wall and puts an arm around Britney's shoulders, drawing the sidereal against herself in a protective hug.
(10:07:03 AM) Ikiryo: She hugs back. "What do we do?"
(10:10:23 AM) Reise: "...I don't know yet. I have no idea why we even got pulled back here. But...maybe, once everyone gets back, we go have a chat with this Rassilon jerk. If it comes down to things, I think I can sabotage this junk here enough to let Pelor go, but...I don't even know if we can contact him, find out if he's there willingly or not."
(10:11:21 AM) Ikiryo: "He's powering everything here, keeping them outside time while they manipulate it. Stuff is going to get causal and very fast, when stuff is turned off." She nods.
(10:12:52 AM) Reise: "Yeah. I don't really want to if we can help it, but a lot of that depends on the next few hours."
(10:13:54 AM) Ikiryo: She nods. "Right, back to the room. We can...umm...do something there. Something non-Syrn-y."
(10:16:45 AM) Reise: "I'm sure we can think of something to pass the time."