Scene #6376: Punchcard Alchemy at Kokkara

Owner	Pose
Note	The Yahoi Region exists in the very northwesternmost part of the main continent of this Earth - an Earth with geography that has absolutely NOTHING in common with the 'real' one. It's dense with forests but interspersed with a variety of farms who've found clearings or created some themselves. This region is far, far from the nearest city - West City - and easily a day's travel by hover bus or similar. There's little in the way of roads - most are dirt paths, though that's all a hover bus really needs anyways. The region is also split down the middle by a series of tall mountains, themselves covered in wild growth with few passages between. A few tunnels, perhaps? Not much in the way of roads. The Eastern region of Yahoi is currently covered in snow and experiencing a dread chill that doesn't seem to affect Western at all - doubtless, some phenomena related to how the mountains affect the flow of air, maybe...? Not that it matters. Kokkara belongs to Western Yahoi, although just barely. It's nestled in the northernmost part of the barrier mountains separating Western Yahoi from Eastern Yahoi, seated atop a large plateau. Getting up there's a bit of a trek through lots of steps. The bus stop ENDS at the bottom of said steps, after passing by a number of farms surrounded by thick forest. For those who arrived by AIR, or those who manage to make it all the way up to the village though, they'll catch sight of something strange and curious indeed. A white tower covered in ornate carvings, thick as a redwood tree, is situated to the south. You can't MISS the thing, because IT DOES NOT SEEM TO HAVE A TOP. It goes up, up, up and up... miles, probably. Way past the clouds. Kokkara village is a strange combination of yellow domed buildings (Capsule Houses), log cabins, and plain ol' ordinary wood-and-brick housing. Most of the houses are arranged around a center plaza that features a large and fancy multi-decked water fountain. There's nothing in the way of shops though - no commercial district, just houses. Further up on the plateao, slightly north, there is what's clearly a martial arts arena similar to that where the World Martial Arts tournament is hosted, but there are multiple fighting stages and little in the way of seating for observers. It's a training grounds, no mistake. But Note isn't there at said grounds. She's at one of the larger buildings, dressed in her typical outfit (not the dress!), standing 'tall' (for a shortie) with her tail swishing about agitatedly, arms folded and an eager-and-antsy look on her face. The building she's in front of has enough windows to tell from a glance that it's a gym full of weights and other workout gear... She's not the ONLY one in the village though, far from it. A number of people - some human, some ANIMAL people (not just ears - one guy looks to be a bipedal tiger, and another is a hippo), and even a few oddities like some green-skinned humanoids with funny antennae protrusions and colorful ribbed patterns on their bodies wander about on various business. There's also some odd, rotund-looking people whose bodies might be made of goo from the way they move... The people here are friendly. Almost unreasonably so. And they don't seem to care how anyone looks. Or dresses. Given the wide range of wackos wandering around, that's completely understandable.
Arthur Lowell	Arthur Lowell's arrival is something he modulates to context. And while normally he might burst into a situation on a rocket-broom with high-volume shouting, this time he sticks mostly to gregarious behavior and focused strides. WHen he enters the gym, it's with power and confidence. "WHAT'S THOSE HAPS, HOMIE?" He declares with high-intensity positivity. "Heard you wanted to get some GAINS! Are you ready to get RIIIIIIIIIPPED?" He snaps his fingers and a demonstrative flash of sudden doubled gravity comes along with a burst of tiny overdramatic fireworks. He immediately assails Note's hand with a convoluted handshake of several pounds, daps, bumps, slides, finger-wiggles, gestures, and even a few faux-karate moves. "Yeah girl yeah, gimmie that skin." He declares, before snapping right at the end of it. "Point me at the best place to set up some PUNCHCARD ALCHEMY EQUIPMENT and I'mma get this show straight STARTED yo." When thusly directed, he'll get to work. The first thing he's going to summon is a big metal platform with a long, thin robotic arm. A glowing green spirograph traced along the ground is the only warning before it suddenly emerges! The 70s-era punchcard machine and the hefty block of punchcard readers attached, plus some kind of elaborate holoprojection system, make it a strange and anachronistic mess. This, apparently, is what he intends to use to craft the GRAVITY GENERATOR, but there's also other matters to address.
Sarracenia	The little saiyan might recognize the airship that soon appears on the horizon and quickly closes in on the village. It's the same ornate wooden airship with the gold trimming and a figure of Sarracenia in gold on the front that she rode to the meeting with Lilian. Sarracenia is on the bow of the ship, watching that tower with curiousity as they pass it in the distance. "...that might be worth a look." she says, then looks over the railing as her airship comes to a stop right above the building that Note is standing in front of. Rather than waiting for a ramp or a rope ladder, Sarracenia leaps off the ship and plummets down, riding the head of her enormous hammer down. The friendly people might be a bit spooked by the sudden very minor earthquake when Sarracenia and her hammer hit the ground, creating a small crater. She steps off her hammer gracefully, then yanks it free of the ground and rests it over her shoulder. "Hello again, Note!" she says with a bit of a haughty smile. "I thought I heard something about a new training facility being built in your town, so I thought I would come by and show you my battle dress." How will that help with building a facility? Who knows. But, it seems as though the princess did bring building materials as well, judging by the platforms hanging below her galleon-sized airship which contain things like logs, steel girders, and stone blocks. Her approach stops when she witnesses the convoluted handshake, and she ends up staring a bit with an eyebrow raised. "...uh-...huh..." she says quietly. "So! What do you think Note? Would you care for one?" she says after Arthur is done, then twirls in place gracefully which causes the dress to billow outward. It is a smooth black leather dress, quite form-fitting, but with red armor plates over her chest and in a skirt formation around her waist, with long broad strips forming the actual skirt. Despite wearing her 'battle dress' she still has on her red high-heels.
Yang Xiao Long	Yang appears from the nearby warpgate astride her bike. The deep growl of the engine echos across the mountains. She pulls up at the base of the stairs, dismounts and puts her helmet in the seat compartment before starting to ascend. After a few steps, she seems to get bored, deploys her gauntlets and starts to leap up the steps, using outcrops to rebound from and recoiling from firing her gauntlets to bypass the steps. She lands atop the plateau, compacts her gauntlets and looks around before approaching Note, giving her a wave and grinning. "Hey shortstack, what's hanging?" she calls, giving the saiyan a dig in the shoulder, then giving a grin to Arthur and Sarra as they show up.
Staren	Staren beams down at the training grounds, and finds his way to where Note is, flitting from place to place on energy wings like a giant insect before finally landing. He smiles as Arthur speaks up, but grunts at the surprising burst of gravity. "Somewhere with lots of room." he clarifies, when Note inevitably asks how to tell where a good place for an 'alchemiter' is. Once it's deployed, Staren looks over the apparatus nostalgically. "Man, it has been awhile." He turns to Note. "Here, I have something for you." From his bag he retrieves a folded-up copy of her outfit, made of materials comfortable and yet tougher than kevlar and treated to resist stains, liquids and microbes. "I suggest you combine it with the elixer of life to make it self-repairing." After handing that off he pulls a large book out of his bag and looks to Arthur as he flips the pages. "Although... come to think of it, she doesn't have any grist. Should we modify the alchemiter to accept martial arts fights instead?" Oh hey, Sarracenia's here too! Staren is shaken offputtingly by the minor earthquake, then glances at her showing off her 'battle dress', then back to Arthur. "Do you think if we or'd the two together she'd get a transforming outfit for any occasion? Nah, that's probably too convenient..."
Touta Konoe	Touta received word from a certain immortal that he was planning to set something up in this side of the Multiverse. Hearing it had to do something with gravity training, and some alchemy stuff Touta was pretty keen on checking it out. After all, while he can't use gravity magic himself, his sword seemed to use it and learning to work with Kurobo had been a great work when he was starting off. So he could only imagine what full on gravity magic could do. But before reaching the meeting point, the spikey black-haired young man gets to find out that even after arriving at the bus stop he'll still need to schlep himself up a plateau. Looking at the rural area this place must have been in the boonies or something. Not that he minded it. If anything it reminded him of the village he grew up in a bit. Though upon reaching the top of the plateau the one thing that really surprises him definitely had to be, "Hey, check it out! They got a tower going into the sky here too!" "Indeed, it does look a bit smaller than the one back home though." The one he speaks to is none other than his trusty Sable Sidestick. A black katana that continually bothers Touta to call him by his proper name, Kurobo (he still doesn't though). Regarding the tower though, that was something he'll definitely be asking about later. How were people even suppose to get up there if they couldn't go inside? After asking the locals for a for more directions he'll finally arrive at the entrance of the gym a bit later than the others. It's a good thing the locals are so friendly! "Heh, looks like this is the place." He says giving a smirk as he recognizes a few familiar faces that apparently had a better sense of direction than he did.
Orchid	Among the aforsaid wackos is one Orchid, a robot who arrives on a rocket surfboard. (Because of course rocket surfboard) She heard about the crafting method, and has a few kinds of materials and tools she'd like to experiment with. There's already a group of people she knows forming. She swoops down, putting the surfboard onto her back as she hops off. Sure, she'll need to get weapon energy somewhere, but it's good for an entrance. "Battle dress?" she asks, catching the end of Sarracenia's words. "Armor plate? Or flexible kicking?" Now curious, she'd like to know more.
Lilian Rook	Arriving by flight it is. One glance at the state of these public transit buses and dingy country dirt roads turns Lilian off in a heartbeat. It's beyond pedestrian fare. It's outright sticks, and not the rustic, charming kind of sticks. Ironically, that might result in slightly more normalcy for the region, given that she arrives via unassisted personal flight. It isn't tremendously flashy, or at least not given the pace she's taking, gliding casually through the air like a ghost rather than streaking across the sky in a superman pose, skipping the stairs because it looks like a lot of legwork so screw that. Considering the chilly high mountain air, she'd shown up with a tight black turtleneck, earmuffs, warmer dark grey leggings, a thick pleated skirt, and black leather gloves and boots, the latter more the buckled type than the heeled type. It's pretty down to earth for her, albeit all the pieces probably still cost triple digits each. The sword is obviously still with her, over her back, alongside a messenger bag at her hip. She's even left her hair down and dispensed with the jewelry, save a silver celtic cross on a black choker. Considering the incredibly rural look of the place, with no particular sense of culture or etiquette about it, and the fact it's ostensibly some kind of martial arts community too, she doesn't really do anything to 'suppress her power level' or however it goes, and doesn't greet anyone on the way in, doing her best simply to not stare too long at the green aliens and talking hippos. She has something to say about them when she gets there though, namely "I'm surprised anyone even notices that you have a tail in a place like . . . this. I think I begin to understand now." says Lilian, quickly opening and shutting a pocket mirror with a hand through her hair. "It would definitely be very easy to miss without directions."
Note	As it turns out, people arriving from the sky and landing with a boom does NOT raise much alarm. Those nearest Sarracenia turn to look and whisper curiously to companions, but nobody seems too alarmed. "Arthur?" She guesses, feeling the somewhat familiar energy approaching... and looking his way. Grinning more and more the closer he gets! "Heyyyyyy--" And then-- WHAM. Note's taken by surprise by the unfamiliar greeting of Arthur's though! She fumbles through it after a moment and somehow ends up bowled over, and landing on her front at the end, but she bounces up quick as light instantly afterwards, BOUNCING IN PLACE excitedly. "Alright, ALRIGHT! You really came!" The little Saiyan-blooded girl turns this way and that to see who came... "Yang... Staren... Sarracenia... Orchid..." Of course Touta she ends up scratching the back of her head at, but still offers a friendly wave. He seems familiar... "Huh? Elixir of life clothes what?" She clearly doesn't get whatever Staren's talking about, but she looks between his offering and Sarra spinning around... "Hey... that DOES look a bit more practical! I dunno though... is it really my style?" And with Yang coming up and digging into her shoulder, Note bounces up and PIGGYBACKS onto her a moment later, still gleefully focused on Arthur!
Yang Xiao Long	Yang chuckles as she's suddenly koala'd on by Note. She hooks arms around legs and just kinda carries her around. She nods to the others arriving, giving a very big grin at Sarracenia. "Hey Princess. Still sore or would ya be up for another round sometime?" she asks.
Sarracenia	Sarracenia is somewhat surprised that her landing doesn't draw much attention. And when Note questions whether it is her style. "What do you mean? Red and black are definitely your colors, and it allows plenty of freedom of motion without sacrificing modesty or protection." she says, crossing her arms over her chest with a bit of a pout. She smirks to Yang at the question. "I would definitely be happy to challenge you again, Yang. And I will beat you one of these days." She giggles a bit as Note hops up onto Yang's shoulders, then slips her hammer into her satchel somehow. Staren is here! He receives a small wave from Sarracenia. "Hello Staren. It has been quite a while. I forget...are we on good terms or bad? I seem to recall my saving you and you being a bit sore about it." she says, smirking a bit smugly.
Arthur Lowell	Arthur flicks one hand, and suddenly the things Staren offers to Arthur are gone, CAPTCHALOGUED into Arthur's SYLLADEX! Whatever the hell that means. On the UI, it inches down an elaborate tree of inventory items. "YOU KNOW IT, HOMIE." Arthur says, fingergunning in his direction before he digs into the matter. "Let's get on INSIDE, gotta get that GEAR." Touta's commentary prompts Arthur to look hiiiigh up. "Got that NOSTALGIA for the old BULLSHIT TOWER here, for real." He says, with a firm sort of tone. Lilian's commentary gets a brief "HAH" from Arthur. "Good thing you got nothin' but DIRECTION coming out of MY BIZ." He says. "Know THAT VOICE, you're the lady with the CRAZY SWORD, yeah?" He's very suddenly behind her somehow without moving, or perhaps only moving off-camera, peering at it. "Yeah homie, let's get this shit APPRAISED." Onward and inward. "Yo, PUNCHES, get me some good SPACE!" Whether Arthur's given clearance to do his odd summoning outside or at some space inside, he'll dig right into getting that aforementioned gear up. And of course, the first thing he does is Staren's requested craft-up. He gets out one of a stack of punched cards with an Elixer-looking vial printed on it, then punches the CAPTCHALOGUE CARD of the replica gi right from his inventory! It is still not clear what "captchalogue" means. He shoves the cards into some slots, which seems to set some carving tools that he uses to automatically carve a holographic crystal until the robot arm on the platform can read it. What??? STAREN combined the ELIXER OF LIFE \|\| SMART-CLOTH GI to make ELIXER OF FASHION ITEM COST: 20 BUILD GRIST, 5 INK, 1 ROCK ITEM: A large glass container of fluid wrapped in tailor's measuring tape. When consumed, the ELIXER OF FASHION causes one to become more clothed, relative to their current level of being clothed. "Wait, no, FUCK." Arthur declares awkwardly as he examines the holographic description and depiction. "We need the OTHER WAY." He starts moving cards around again, reconfiguring the last effort. STAREN combined the ELIXER OF LIFE && SMART-CLOTH GI to make ETERNAL CLOTH GI ITEM COST: 40 BUILD GRIST, 10 BONE ITEM: The ETERNAL CLOTH GI isn't especially more durable in its own right than the original SMART-CLOTH GI, but as the hologram demonstrates, when damaged, it seems to recover and re-grow over the next few minutes, or hours, until restoring back to proper integrity. Now /that's/ a proper demonstration, at least. Arthur hands that off!
Touta Konoe	Touta's pretty sure he's familiar with most of the people here, at least in some way or another. He's seen Staren plenty of times by now to know who he is. Sarracenia he remembers from that one time at the mall he's pretty sure. Yang's definitely left an impression as a hell of a fighter, and it goes without saying he knew Arthur otherwise he'd have no idea what was going on here. For those who don't know him though...He looks at the tailed girl first who leaped onto Yang's back which gets a smile out of him. Clearly if she was buddy-buddy with Yang she had to be fine with him. He walks over giving a pretty friendly wave himself as his outgoing personality comes to light. "Hey, not sure if we've met in person or not before but I think I've heard ya on the radio plenty of times before. Name's Touta Konoe. Nice meetin' ya." The greeting extends to Lilian as well as he waves over to her way as well. He probably should have done this when he arrived but he's doing it now at least. Anyway...Let's look at all the cool clothing stuff that Arthur and Staren are making, and possibly get some for those awkward moments!
Note	"H-hey--" Note's all but bewildered into submission by Arthur's strange display of crafting. As expected of a kid, she vacates Yang's back quickly and FLOATS all around the Alchemiter, examining it from different angles as it does its thing... And eventually she spots-and-senses Lilian. Still floating, Note turns her way and waves energetically - ALMOST TOO ENERGETICALLY, it whips up a wind until she suddenly realizes and stops. Then sees what Arthur's made. A self-repairing outfit. "WOW... is that possible?!" Of course it is, but Note's all excited over it! For some reason, she turns about in the air until she's now flying upside-down and again folds her arms. "S-so where do we do this gravity thing? How do we do it? I was thinking of making the work-out gym a good spot. There's some rooms past the main floor... but how's this work? Can you turn it on or off? Make it heavier or lighter? Will it bring down the roof? I'll get yelled at if that happens! Or... do you have a better idea...? It's kinda hard to spar in those rooms... they're a bit small. But the monks won't let me touch the arena grounds."
Lilian Rook	Lilian bristles a little bit when Arthur is suddenly behind her. Mostly because that's her thing. When he goes to stare directly at the sword though, what'd previously looked like, at a passing glance, a fairly generic, leather-wrapped handle and steel quillion affair is now clearly something made of polished and whorled black iron, etched with bright scarlet vines curled around the hilt and spreading into the pommel and guard, blooming into elaborately stenciled crimson flowers. The crossguard itself is complex enough that it almost looks like it should tick, and half-bloomed petals of dark steel at the base of the blade allow the scabbard to fit between them and the edge to keep it anchored. It's cold. Cold and radiating bad juju. She seems to be more taken in with the bizarre display in front of her though. She gets all the way to Arthur's realization of having made a backwards clothes potion instead, before saying "Who on Earth invented this? Why does this exist?" with a flat, unblinking expression. "Anything that involves turning things into cards to punch them to put them into a computer to 3d print a dowel to carve the dowel to scan the dowel to print the- ugh I'm giving myself a headache. Are you really sure about this?" she continues, stopping only to hold the side of her head as if hit with a sudden, tiny migraine. Still, it's nice to smile and wave back to Note, albeit hers is a Princess Diana wave instead of an industrial fan. "Known for a little property damage are you? I guess you're at about that age." she says. "Enough energy to burn that you're looking forward to being crushed by gravity, apparently." To Touta: "We haven't, but it's a pleasure to meet you. Lilian Rook, Immaculate Extinguisher, of the Immunes. Alternatively, Dame Commander Liliana Isabelle Rook, of the Unseen Order of the Scarlet Cross. Whichever suits you best."
Staren	Staren looks at Sarracenia and makes an 'ehhh, so-so' gesture with his hand. Then he looks at the tower as Arthur comments on it, and there's an expression of recognition on his face as he remembers the childrens' planets. As Arthur runs the combinations through the machine, new entries print themselves as if by magic in his book. It seems to be a list of objects and alphanumeric codes. When Note exposits the issues with setting up a gravity training area, Staren muses to Arthur, "Would making some kind of room-sized pocket dimension be an easy and safe thing for you, or would it be dangerous? I... don't know, it's your bailiwick aftert all." The issue of upgrading Touta and Yang's clothes has Staren asking if they have spares to 'CAPTCHA', whatever that means, then thinking better of it and suggesting Arthur fetch the WARDROBIFIER, whatever that is. To Lilian's concerns, he replies, "The answer is really complicated and involves time moebiuses. And the destruction of a planet to start a death game that gives birth to a new universe. It's... unusual, but it absolutely works. Not that I'd reccomend repeating the process that led to all this." Once others have had a chance to see the device in action and maybe ask for their own combinations, Staren approaches Arthur. "So, first of all, I was wondering what I'd get if I..." he pulls out the card Arthur gave him the other day and holds it up for Arthur to read the CAPTCHA on the back, then points to another code labeled BOOK in his... book. "AND combination should tell me something about it, right? And if that doesn't work..." he points to CHARACTER SHEET. "OR combination." "I was also wondering if I have enough in my grist cache for these..." he points to two other entries in the list: MAGIC CODEBOOK and MAGIC CODESCANNER. It seems Staren is a seasoned PUNCHCARD ALCHEMIST who knows what to ask for.
Arthur Lowell	Arthur Lowell looks to Touta, who has requested further help! "Oh, you wanna get some fancy ALCHEMY CLOTHES, dawg? Sure stuff." He then puts a hand on Touta's shoulder. "Take off your pants." He says, with intense seriousness. Then he laughs. "Nah, homie, gimmie a sec. We bringin' in that old WARDROBIFIER? NICE." Arthur snaps again, disappearing very suddenly between blinks. And then a few seconds later, he's back, with what looks like a solid metal wardrobe, the WARDROBIFIER! This wonderful device allows instant changing of clothes, no changing rooms needed. Thank goodness. "Alright, that's SORTED OUT. LET'S BREAK SOME CODES!!" Arthur shouts, throwing a huge stack of punched CAPTCHALOGUE CARDS into the air, and then jams one card into one of the PUNCH CARD SHUNTS of the alchemiter, causing it to protrude a large GRIST BLENDER. Now begins CRAFTING!
Yang Xiao Long	Yang grins a bit as Note goes flying off to check out the Alchemiter. She then has a bit of a conversation over radio. "So, Arthur, I'm gonna be like, ten minutes, I'll be back with my outfit and some Dust to try on that machine of yours." she says, giving a wave to those around before leaping over the edge of the plateau. Yes, she just did that. The report of her shotgauntlets echoing against the mountains tell she doesn't splat at the bottom, and the deep growl of her bike confirms it, before it silences through the local Gate.
Arthur Lowell	Arthur starts off with something odd. He flares one hand out and sort of crackles his fingers in odd gestures, producing a RAW GRAVITY SPHERE, one that he instantly CAPTCHALOGUES before it disperses. From his pile of items (https://pastebin.com/2RsQHC4X) he procures a punched card of a TOASTER. Arthur combined TOASTER && GRAVITY to make GRAVITER ITEM COST: 400 BUILD GRIST, 40 STEEL, 5 RUST ITEM: The GRAVITER is a small appliance that looks very much like a toaster with no open slots. When the little knob is turned to a setting of Gs, and the levers pushed down, a field of intensified gravity is produced, the way a toaster might produce heat! Someone with some electronics skill might be able to turn it up even more...
Arthur Lowell	"HEY!" Arthur calls out to Lilian Rook. "Lilly, lemme get at that GOOD GOOD SWORD, yo. Hand that off so I can CAPTCHALOGUE it in my SYLLADEX." Who in the what? "Then we can get its CAPTCHA CODE and get into LOOKING at the BUSINESS." He's got a card already inserted into the slot! The moment Lilian lets him at the blade, he'll make it vanish away into another CAPTCHALOGUE CARD! Let's see, is that terrifying enchantment going to do anything strange with that code...?
Sarracenia	Sarracenia can only stare in curiousity as Arthur does all of that crafting with whatever that thing is. Yang runs and hops off the mountain, and Staren gives a so-so gesture that makes Sarra laugh a bit. She seems disappointed that there is no more interest in her battle dress, but one can hardly expect a young child to realize true fashion when it is presented to them. And even she has to admit that Arthur's work with this Alchemiter is impressive. She just watches for now, and finally offers an actual wave to Touta.
Touta Konoe	Touta complies with Arthur's request as a hand is placed on his shoulder. There's nothing wrong with this. Oh wait, that was a joke...It really looked like Touta was about to follow that request. He's lived a very...Carefree life-style. Thankfully, a WARDROBIFIER will apparently fix that. Hopefully it's not a magic contraption though, right? Right? Wait does Arthur know about Touta's...Issue? Whelp guess we'll find out. "This is awesome! Nice going, Art! Give me a second and I'll change then. Here let me put this down real qui-" "DON'T YOU DARE LEAVE ME ALONE WITH THAT THING LYING AROUND WITH THESE PEOPLE!" A loud shout comes from Touta's katana. For whatever reason it seems very concerned. This of course stops Touta in his trakcs towards the new machine. "What's wrong with you? You're not gonna miss me that much are ya?" "He just took that woman's sword! I'm not letting him turn me into some gravity toaster contraption! DON'T LET HIM DO THAT TO ME!!!" "You'll be fine, stop freaking out so much, besides I'm sure you'd make a cool contraption or whatever too. Anyway, I'm going inside, just relax. "Touta wait!!!!" While this black katana has no face there's a feeling of panic that stares at Arthur from the blade without its master...
Lilian Rook	With some great amount of reluctance, Lilian does finally draw the sword. It's not super clear how, considering back mounts and long swords and all, but she produces it with a rasp that sounds like shivering glass. The length of the blade is the same onyx-black iron from base to tip, but where it approaches the edges, it greys and fades to an oddly translucent edge that catches light in strange ways. The floral stenciling extends half a foot up the blade from the 'flower' at the base, but the entire length of the fuller, all the way to the end, glows brightly with lurid ruby light as she lays her hand on it. All the red on it seems to glow a little, really. "If anything happens to it, do know that I will beat you probably to death." says Lilian, and in the moment it really, really sounds like she means it. Freed from its scabbard, the aura of the blade is suddenly extremely dramatic, like opening the front door to let a freezing winter gale into a perfectly warm home, rolling past to the back door. When she turns the hilt over the Arthur, her eyes aren't the emerald green of before, but taking on the same hue as the sword, and faint grey patterns can be seen at the corners of her face, both of which fade when she releases her hold of it. It's really heavy. Ice cold to the touch, but rapidly becoming blood warm. Then Touta's sword starts talking and Lilian is plenty distracted by that. She leans over to stare at the katana with some amount of quizzical interest. "Now why would someone make a sword that talks?" she thinks out loud.
Arthur Lowell	Staren combined MAGIC CODEBOOK \|\| MAGIC CODESCANNER to make the SIGHT OF THE INSPIRED ITEM COST: 40000 BUILD GRIST, 10000 STEEL, 8000 ROCK, 6000 BONE, 5000 INK, 800 LEAD, 300 GOLD, 5 MIRROR, 1 GEAR, 1 SAW, 1 SONG ITEM: What is this? This item that costs much of Staren's old Grist Cache is a remarkable and odd device. It looks like a pair of sciencey goggles, a mix of chemical safety and welder's goggles, black as night. Instead of a book of functions or a scanner of functions, instead when Staren looks through them, he sees a somewhat disorienting fractal of possibilities in objects around him. Most notably, if he looks at any of his own tools, he can see a diverse array of possible forms they could have had. Crucially, it seems to display many functions and missing aspects of items around him, as if calling for him to find a way to put his tools to work in inserting one into the other... An analysis of the devices might show it's a mechanism of examining uncollapsed waveforms and their intersections. They shine with a burning light when over Staren's eyes.
Tomoe	Tomoe has been late, there was a monster that had wandered out of the floating castle and into a small coastal town. She handled that and had made with all due speed for the warp gate finally he does arrive just in time to hear Touta's sword talking. The Salamander pauses for a moment "So I'm sorry I was late and wait...what Touta? Your sword is talking?!" She'd come to have some fun with the grist and catch up with people but the towering woman is a bit distracted by Touta's talking sword.
Note	And so it is that Note finds herself handed a Toaster. She is extremely excited about this! Like any kid, all of her focus is on it while all the crazy stuff happens around her, somehow tuning everything else out in a fury of imaginations of finally having a good way to push herself further and further! She dashes off away from the group carrying the Graviter, about twenty feet away... sets the thing down on the ground and sets the knob about a third of the way and PUSHES DOWN on the handle-- The device emits a strange THRUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM and then... Note's feet CRUNCH into the ground, she gasps out in alarm, wobbles... and then falls forward at tremendous speed-- WHAM!! The impact does kick up a dust cloud, and leaves a vaguely Note-shaped depression in the ground. As the dust clears, Note's... well, her whole body trembles as she rises, inch, by inch, struggling against what looks to be INCREDIBLE resistance. Eventually she manages to reach the Graviter and adjust that knob SOMEWHAT BACK THE WAY IT STARTED and turns it down from thirty times to just ten times. At which point, she just collapses to her hands and knees, panting. "wow... WOW!" Problem is, going only that far away might not have been far enough.
Arthur Lowell	Yang's right on out of there. Arthur pokes a head over the edge she just jumped off. He decides to fire a portal down there with his broomgun briefly, just to make it a little easier to get back up by taking the matching portal he summons up top!
Lilian Rook	"Note, make sure that you-" Lilian isn't quick enough to prevent Note from dropping the GRAVITER after barely walking ten paces and firing it up on the spot. Turning to take a step and reach out, Lilian's arm suddenly drops, her boot heels creaking and knees flexing as she partially enters the super gravity field unprepared. Uttering a slightly less dignified "Whoa!", she halts for a second, freezing under the increased load rather than continuing and stumbling over, then takes a deep breath and straightens back up again, squaring her shoulders and walking further in. When Note gets to her knees, she reaches down and offers her hand to help her back up. It seems she was being entirely truthful about the Immunes' martial training and physical strengthening methods. The strength of her aura is elevated from before, but she seems to be handling 10gs just fine with a moment to get used to it. "I was going to say 'start slow'." she says, the corner of her lips upturned.
Yang Xiao Long	So... about ten minutes later, Yang's motorcycle growls across the mountains again, and in characteristic style, Yang's leaping up the side of the Plateau instead of using Arthur's handy portal. She overshoots the top, does a flip and lands with a crunch and cracking of ground beneath her. She's got a big backpack on now, and takes it off as she stands and walks back over to Arthur and the group. "So, there was a weird thing at the bottom of the plateau... didn't like the look of it." she comments, offhandedly, then hands the pack over. Inside: A cowboy-style outfit, more covering than her current outfit. Also several vials of glowing Dust powder, and a hard-case which looks reinforced against explosions. "Be careful with the crystals, they can sometimes be explosive. The powder too, but that's more of a 'singed eyebrows' kinda deal."
Staren	A lot of things happen! Touta's sword starts talking, loudly. "Your sword can TALK?!" when Touta puts it down though, on impulse, Staren pulls a camera out of his bag and takes a picture of it. There's the distinctive click, and a card slides out of the camera, with Staren looks at. "Hmm. Well, I guess he doesn't need you to experiment with you now..." He moves like he's about to flick the card in Arthur's direction, then stops. "Okay, okay, calm down, I'll give it to Touta." Another entry appeared in his codebook. Arthur whips up some of the things Staren asked for! "Wait, I didn't mean to /combine/--" he starts to interject, but then the hologram shows a result, and he stares at it, approaches, and starts to look through the goggles, spellbound-- And then Note makes everything heavy and he drops to his knees, "Agh, what!" He starts to turn towards note but ends up falling on the ground. "Too close! Use it farther away, farther away!"
Arthur Lowell	Arthur hoists the sword. Boy, that feels weird. When he captchalogues it... Most of his cards are a sort of dark greenish color, but for some mysterious reasons, the captchalogue card of Night Mist has a brighter color. Is that something to do with Night Mist? Something to do with Arthur? Something to do with Sylladexes? Well, whatever the case may be, Arthur quickly reads off the code. "Huh, lotta VOWELS." He mutters, before flicking the card to her, and gesturing for her to shake it until her sword returns to its proper form. Has Lilian ever experienced a card feeling deadly cold and ominous? Arthur combined NIGHT MIST && CHARACTER SHEET to make KILL COUNT EXPANSION FOR ADVANCED CIRCLES AND SECRETS, 7TH EDITION ITEM COST: 3 BUILD GRIST ITEM: Kill Count for Advanced Circles and Secrets, 7th Edition, is a somewhat dramatized expansion of the classic tabletop game Circles and Secrets 7E. It lists many pages of somewhat melodramatic descriptions of common victims of Night Mist killing, and how they might be depicted in C&S games. Many of the latest pages are blank. Many of the first pages are violently torn out. The blade itself is given an extensive description of its status and stats at the start of each chapter, providing a rather gamified assessment of its progression over time.
Arthur Lowell	Touta, poking at the Wardrobifier, finds that he... doesn't exactly open a menu? It's like someone else, perhaps the Cartesian Dualistic concept of an entity responsible for operating Touta externally, is given the chance to poke at menu buttons after pressing an interact button. But if said entity happened to enter a relevant password, Touta would find it wouldn't be difficult to suddenly select from most of the clothing he has at home. It's a surreal experience, but one of convenience. "Hey, homie," Arthur assures the sword. "You don't gotta freak. You don't wanna be diamond sword, that's cool! You wanna make a FANCY SHEATH? You like SHEATHES or whatever?" He offers, shrugging broadly and positively. "Dunno if TOUTA'S got enough shit to GRISTGRIND, but we could GIVE IT A GO."
Note	This definitely the problem with excited kids. Looking before they leap! The good news does appear to be that Note's tough enough to survive it and learn the lesson there is to be learned here. She's WOBBLY as hell, grunting and groaning with every motion, and definitely accepts Lilian's hand up the rest of the way after managing a half-rise herself. Even so, she's hunched over and struggling to manage to stay straight, legs constantly shaking. Even though this is just ten times... "Ten... ten times... definitely not going higher than this..." A sucked-in breath later, she hoists herself up fully for a full stand, and just focuses on breathing. "This... is... GREAT!" Only then does she double-take and realize... glancing at Lilian, "Hey... you're handling this great! Did you do something like this?"
Sarracenia	Sarracenia blinks as she suddenly feels...very heavy. "Guh! N-note! What did you...!?" The princess's feet also suddenly sink into the ground and with a yelp she falls forward. POMF! She looks like she tries to flail, but with all that gravity she is definitely having some trouble even moving. She isn't super strong or anything, you know! She does manage to turn her head enough not to drown in dirt. And enough for a shrill, ear-piercing scream of, "Tuuuurn thaaaat thiiiiing ooooooff!!
Arthur Lowell	"Heyyyy, Tomoe! Been AGES since we did THIS BUSINESS. How's it HANGIN'?" Arthur calls out, waving to the new arrival. "Grab some CARDS, make some COMBOS! And-- Gah!" Arthur stumbles slightly, but only slightly, under gravitic barrage, after making the offer to Tomoe.
Arthur Lowell	"Yo! Dawg, you gotta put that thing INDOORS is the IMPORTANT BIT." Arthur calls out, to Note! "Those are CHARGED GRAVITONS, not PHASIC GRAVITONS. Shit SELF-CONTAINS, but you gotta put that rad motherfucker INSIDE! Keeps shit from LEAKING." None of those words made sense. He snaps, generating a field of gravity stabilization! Looks like he still has the control over his own magic here.
Touta Konoe	"Tomoe, that you?" He says nothing at first still inside the wardrobe machine trying to figure out how this contraption works. Though it seems that Kurobo is already panicking the moment he's left by himself. He was popular apparently! Good for him! After some time Touta does think he's got a hang of what is going on. He probably doesn't, but at the very least he does figure out how to get most of his clothes from home brought in. He's got his favorite t-shirt with the 'Salty' logo on it. His black gakuren, his red t-shirts, his black pants, and even his work clothes. He figures if he can make all his clothes regenerate, why not try to get all of them to do so?! He hears some more of the remarks about Kurobo to which he responds from behind the curtain. "Yeah, I was super surprised when I found out too. But apparently he's been able to talk since he was made. Still, I'm surprised you didn't know, he's talked on the radio a few times. And Art, do you think you could make a sheathe for him? I've been thinking of getting one for him but just never had the time." He finally comes out of the selector with a stack of clothes in his hands and a grin on his face. Though the smirk leaves with a look of curiosity as he sees Note, Staren, and Sarracenia kissing the floor. Though it seems like Note finds her bearings which is good! He looks down to realize the gravity toaster's on! He thought he had felt a bit of a push on his shoulders but wasn't sure what it was at first. That definitely made sense though. So he picks up his blade and heads over to the machine to try bringing it down to normal gravity so everyone can relax for a moment. Or at least Sarra since she seems to be not the martial artist type from first appearences. Plus Staren probably would appreciate it too. Though seems like Art has it under control as well. Once that's resolved though he'd notice something in Staren's hand as he tried helping him up. That photo. "Oh, good idea. You should totally let Art scan that." Did Touta just give him the go ahead to scan that? He's pretty sure that was a go ahead to scan it. This boy is definitely not in tune with his blade's wishes.
Arthur Lowell	"Oh, that was a SHORTCUT. I make those! You ought'a try 'em. LINKED SPACE! GREAT STUFF if you put ONE over the OTHER ONE." He says, giving a double-fingergunned wink. Then he snatches up the pack, pulling out the outfit. With a short blip, the outfit is CAPTCHALOGUED in his SYLLADEX, and is a fresh card! "Let's check that PRICE, and..." Arthur inserts the cards. YANG combined the ELIXER OF LIFE && WESTERN CLOTHING to make ETERNAL FRONTIER FASHION ITEM COST: 40 BUILD GRIST, 10 BONE ITEM: The ETERNAL FRONTIER FASHION is essentially second verse same as the first for Note's Gi. This one has a fancier yellow burning effect whenever it's damaged, covering up any of the damaged sections with cinders of light. Arthur takes the vials, and then... "LET'S GRIND THESE MOTHERFUCKERS!" He jams them into the /blender attachment/ of the Alchemiter, but instead of exploiding, they're spun into... Odd shapes. Blue, brushed-steel, and gray hexagonal shapes, white cubes, or weird black droplets. "Looks like the NORMAL DUST has a good SECOND TIER VALUE. You can grab this stuff, maybe a little EXTRA STUFF?" He opens a latch on the blender, which deposits the odd powerups for Yang to take. With that, they should disappear in order to fill her GRIST CACHE! And allow he to cast the ALCHEMITER and make her ETERNAL FRONTIER FASHION! Words had meaning!
Tomoe	Tomoe says "It has been Arthur, been busy a lot back home and elsewhere. With Afterus not being on fire so far as I know I not been that way much lately. I really should drag Kirito there at some point though." She nods to Arthur as she goes to get a few cards and pull some things out of her own inventory. Which was far saner designed than the ones she recalls Arthur and his friends having. She'll hand the card and the loaded items off which are one armour set some casual clothing and a swimsuit. "Got some drops I already had, I figured I'd have some fun with it but no need to combine them all at once. Let us try the clothing and the armour first?"
Lilian Rook	"Something just a little bit similar." says Lilian, more than a hint of a self-satisfied tone in her voice. "Gravity, high pressure, telekinetic force, mega winds, just having a building collapse on you; there are a lot of things that can be used to immobilize or crush you, and you can't blow all of it away with the externalized arcane arts." When she releases Note's hand, she suddenly flicks her own to her side and then back up, clenching her splayed fingers into a tight fist with such speed and force that the air lets slip a resounding bang from escaping between her fingers. "Physical conditioning is mostly rooted the eastern traditions these days. Those crazy monks who balance on red hot pokers and live off of mountain mist. Accelerated and augmented with other forms of magic, though, so you're not eighty by the time you start to see real gains." Retrieving the code of obnoxious Celtic vowels from Arthur, Lilian does indeed shake the card until it's a sword again. Obviously tense about the uncanny blade's condition, she flips it over a few times in her hands, slides her fingers down the length of the flat with a critical eye, then sweeps it around herself in a pattern of lightning fast motions that kick up a roaring wind, weaving an ink black 'weapon trail' streaked with scarlet light in its wake. Extending it out in line with her arm, she focuses on the tip, and the edges seem to blur and flicker in place like a hint of visual static, making a quiet, low keening sound. A second later, she shifts her focus back down, and instead the blade erupts with a stream of white and black flames running down it; focused, fast, and howling, rather than crackling away like a generic flaming aura, bleeding off into blooms of swirling black that disappear into the air. A second later, she shuts that off too, swinging it back over her shoulder and into the scabbard with an icy snap. "Well, it feels fine." she settles on. Now let's see . . . Lilian cracks open the weird book she just got, initially flipping right to the start with a little sigh of expected disappointment, then leafing through the pages thereafter at a measured pace, clearly drinking it in. "Unbelievable. Outside of the family rumour being true, that is, it looks like an entire third of this is all just from the Onslaught. Looking at these . . . it's somehow motivating. I want to do even better than that."
Yang Xiao Long	Yang grunts a bit as she finds the local gravity being weird. Feet sink into the ground, but she manages to remain upright. "Man, that's someting alright. Then Arthur does his thing, and Yang blinks as the Dust turns into video game icons. "Huh, that's neat... kinda like Ninja Conquest!" she says, then gets to generating her Lightmass Frontier Outfit. "Man, it'll make my Semblance look even more dope!" she says.
Note	"Oh." This is a thing Note seems to understand. Lilian's explanation makes PERFECT sense. But still, seeing Sarracenia in a panic over yonder, and with Arthur yelling, she swiftly turns the thing off and tucks it under her arm, still all but bouncing for joy seeing that it WORKS! "S-so I gotta use it inside only?" She dashes over to Sarracenia, and crouches down to help her get up!
Sarracenia	With gravity both stabilized and reduced, Sarracenia is able to lift herself up again...and definitely has one of those anime vein pop expressions. "Seriously?! No one offers to help up the -princess- who has just been faceplanted by a gravity field?!" she huffs in exasperation at the group. Note at least does come over to offer a hand up, but in her still somewhat flailing attempt to get up...Sarracenia mistakes Note's tail for an offered appendage to help the princess get back to her feet. "Well, at least you were raised properly." she says to Note, then starts to dust herself off.
Note	And the moment that Sarracenia's regal hand clenches tight on Note's tail... the weirdest clenched gasp escapes the tailed youth. A shiver runs through her WHOLE body. Her knees wobble and THUMP down she goes with a squawk, faceplanting herself and twitching on the ground. "Tail. Not the tail..." She wheezes out, sounding utterly exhausted out of nowhere!
Arthur Lowell	Touta's looking for Fancy Pants, but first, the matter of the sword. Arthur gets that CAPTCHAROID of Touta's sword, and inserts it all on his own! ARTHUR tried to duplicate KUROBO ITEM COST: 800000 STEEL, 500 SAW, 80 FORGE, 3 JEWEL ITEM: The Gravity Blade. Arthur peers at the holographic depiction of the blade, which is, of course, irreplicable. "I think I only ever saw maybe ten JEWEL GRIST in the WHOLE GAME." He says. "And it was all for SUPER CRITICAL QUEST SHIT. Yeah, there's NO DICE on you getting to DUAL WIELD, Touta. Let's stick to FANCY PANTS."
Staren	Staren grunts and stands up once gravity is normal again. "He's saying it works on line of sight, I think! There's probably SOME limit, but better to use it inside..." He's somewhat distracted with the goggles, looking at things through them and then not-through-them. When Touta says to go ahead and give the card to Arthur he does, glancing at the hologram curiously. "It's concerning that you can duplicate an intelligent item at all... then again, if you never DO, perhaps it doesn't matter. Maybe a captcha exists anyway because you can make /upgrades/?" he suggests. And then Sarracenia grabs Note's tail, apparently! His own sort of curls around his body. "It's super rude to grab people's tails! I'd think a lady like yourself would know that." he chastises her. He keeps trying to look through the goggles, even though it seems whatever he sees is giving him enough of a headache to recoil.
Sarracenia	Sarracenia blinks and freezes in place as Note suddenly collapses. "...Note?" she asks, still holding that tail. At Note's wheezed protest and sudden change in demeanor Sarracenia quickly releases Note's tail. "Note! Are you alright? Forgive me!" She reaches down to pick up the smaller girl quickly. "Oh dear..." The princess looks around at the others. "Are any of you familiar enough with Note to know why one should not touch her tail?" she asks, seeming worried. She huffs at Staren. "I thought she offered it!"
Arthur Lowell	Arthur takes up those items from Tomoe, right into cards because mutually compatible videogame infrastructure! "Huh, what's the BUSINESS?" He turns them over in his hands... "What'cha wanna COMBO on this, T? We got all the old ITEMS here!" He gestures to his 52 pickup mess of a bunch of captchalogue cards that are scattered all about, punched and ready. He'll definitely help her combo!
Note	"Ooooooooohfhgh---" Is all that Note can manage... up until Sarracenia releases it. The moment she does... Note inhales sharply. She's kinda limp as Sarracenia picks her up but after about five seconds of DEEP BREATHING she springs back to vigor. "Touching's not the problem. Squeezing it is. This thing's always been so sensitive to that... don't tell anyone, please?" She glances about at everyone present pleadingly...
Lilian Rook	Lilian mostly speaks up from having all her attention absorbed by the book. "Apologies, princess. I thought you could handle it." A moment later, she makes an odd little waving motion at Note. "Are you so sure you don't want clothes covering it then? That sounds like a severe weakness in a combat situation." Then back to mumbling to herself, pacing around as she flips through pages and lists off nonsense names and what are probably game numbers.
Touta Konoe	Touta has no idea how any of that would convert monetarily, but Art's description gives him a bit of an idea. "Huh, here that buddy? Didn't realize I was holding such a rich fella." "Of course, I'm not just some regular old katana you can find off the street. I can't be replicated so easily. Anyway, if that's dealt with you should get those clothes dealth with." "Oh right! Art you mind?" He'd start handing the clothes his way hoping that'd be somewhat more manageable. Though in regards to grist...He has no idea how toa accumulate those, but if Yang was able to convert dust into that strange currency...Maybe he could do something similar.
Arthur Lowell	Lilian Rook gets a look from Arthur, the look of someone who is solving a puzzle. He peeks his face over the top of the book. "You get DROPS outta those things, or you just in for the MURDER SATISFACTION, lady?" He also peers over his shoulder at the book. "What's that DEAL here? Really wanna get that CATALOGUE going?" No, he's fiddling with the Alchemiter again. "Getting motivated by the death there is iffy. You're making sure to draw the right kind of enthusiasm off it, yeah? I mean, I did a lotta monster-killing back in the day, but it was kinda my quest I got assigned, what's your deal?"
Tomoe	Tomoe watches the items get carded with no real issues. She thinks for a moment and she looks to the old item stacks. "I was hoping to get some interesting looking near clothes or armour out of this actually. I realized I'm falling prey to JRPG syndrome and only having a few outfits." She's saying it mostly jokingly but the fancy night out had made her realize it couldn't hurt to pick up a few more things to wear for when she needed it. She goes digging for a few elemental items and passes them to Arthur. "How about these though if you have any picks I'm down for it, this is fun and I haven't done it in years."
Staren	Eventually Staren looks away from the glasses for a moment. "Nothing wrong with only having a few outfits. But I think if you're trying to generate new clothes for looks rather than purpose, you might want to have an idea in mind first? Randomly mixing stuff is one thing, but... suppose you were TRYING to get your villain outfit -- you might combine your clothes with grimdark poetry or something."
Arthur Lowell	"Well, I mean, you CAN get it OUTSIDE, just," Arthur gestures around at Note. "Remember it's kinda LEAKING. You don't run SPACE HEATERS outside, for real. And I'm the guy whose whole BUSINESS is SPACE, remember?" He laughs a bit. "HAAAAH. You get that thing PUMPING SOON, homie. I wanna hear those GAINS, you BLEED WHAT I MEAN!?" He flexes dramatically. "Put that shit to WORK once it's time to GET IT GOING." Encouraging enthusiasm! Discouraging disruption. It's almost like Arthur is being /responsible/. /Almost/.
Sarracenia	Sarracenia blinks at Note's plea, then smiles. "I promise." she says, then sets Note down once she seems able to stand on her own again. "Well, all of this technology is not really my area of expertise. I shall leave you and your friends to your work, and I shall leave the building supplies I brought. It seems wasteful not to use them, especially if these men have so much in compact storage."
Note	"I can't wait to try this!" Note exclaims gleefully, cradling the Graviter between her arms as she gets her bearings back. Holding no grudge, she simply waves as Sarracenia seems fit to leave after being set down... and instead WANDERS over towards Staren. Whom she promptly LEANS AGAINST. From behind, arms sorta folded 'round the Graviter in a kid-with-attutude'y sorta way. And then her tail sorta wraps around his legs and SQUEEZES GENTLY for emphasis. "So you keep talking about stuff I do... Seventeen was talking about some Saiyan this or that too."
Arthur Lowell	"Oh, yeah," Arthur explains to Staren and Touta. "I mean, we could GRISTGRIND this cool bro and get that GRIST, then use that to make an UPGRADE. I'm nnnnnnnNNNNNINETY NINE PERCENT SURE that that maintains CONTINUITY OF EXISTENCE AND CONSCIOUSNESS. So yeah, you ever wanna be DIAMOND, SWORDBRO?" He delivers a pair of fingerguns, and a short wink. "You CALL ME." He grabs up that set of clothes, and CAPTCHALOGUES it! "You got anything to cover that GRIST, dawg?" Arthur says, gesturing to Touta. "You're all about that WANDERING WARRIOR shit, ain't you? Don't got many good MATERIAL POSSESSIONS? Maybe you wanna add a little extra STYLE from the STYLE PILE?" He gestures broadly at the many available cards that could be combined!
Lilian Rook	Lilian mostly just glances up over the edge of the book when Arthur invades her personal space, apparently still incredibly distracted. "What? No. I mean they're monsters, so who cares? They have valuable things sometimes, yes. Commissions on them too. Internal bounties. Important experience too. On the promotion track, you have to have a record. Why wouldn't you?" she replies, more than a little scattered. "You prove you can do it, so you get bigger jobs, more respect, more responsibility, more nice things too. There's your 'leveling up', right?" Almost like a distracted mom, she goes "Be careful with that." when Note runs off hugging the GRAVITER, without actually moving her eyes. "The other one with the tail looks very frail."
Staren	Staren's honestly surprised Sarracenia didn't try to alchemize an impossibly resplendant dress -- say, make actual diamond cloth or something -- or the perfect prince or something. His frustration at seeing people not immediately grasp the potential of the alchemiter and attempt to experiment with it is ALMOST enough for him to ask her to stay. Almost. And then Note leans against him, and he jumps slightly and starts to turn, and then his leg is tailsqueezed. "Uh..." He's not sure what's happening here, but then she speaks. He's relieved, but somber. "So. You finally believe me." Beat. "Multiple versions of this world's distant past have unified in the Multiverse before. We've seen... Saiyans, before. People with tails and wild hair, and the ability to do that Golden thing you do. People with incredible appetites for whom the adage about that which does not kill you makes you stronger is literal truth. Whose repeated seeking of challenges and recovery from the ensuing fights brings them to ever-greater heights of physical might and depths of ki reserves." Staren turns to look at Note directly. "Son Goku. His brother Prince Raditz, his enemy, Prince Vegeta... and evil versions of himself and his son Gohan, who respectively led planet-conquering armies." Staren folds his arms. "I'm sorry you didn't show up earlier -- you might have met Goku or Raditz, and they'd have had so much to teach you I'm sure. All I have is observations and partially-recalled memories of what Raditz told us about his people." Staren tilts his head, scratching it a bit with one hand. "...What would you like to know?"
Touta Konoe	"FORGET IT! Mixing me with something would be like mixing a clear diamond with another gem! It'd be a downgrade! FOR-GET-IT!" The sword vehemently denies Art's suggestion with a passion that rarely boils to the surface. For a blade he can get awfully moody. "Sorry Art, guess that's a no. But uh... Style?" He puts a hand on his chin, he hadn't really thought of that when getting these clothes made, he just figured they'd reform. "Now that you mention it Art, you might be on to something. When I was training with Lady Da- Ah...Someone back from my world, she talked about how immortals always have to have 'style' even when their regenerating. So I think I'll take you up on that!" So he takes the pile of cards and looks them over trying to see the types of 'styles' they would give him when he would regenerate. There's probably some flower effects. Flames. Plenty of other flashy things that catch the eye but nothing really clicks with Touta. Nothing was....Personal enough. And that's when it hits him. He pulls up his sword and walks towards the captchalogue. "Hey Art, get the log held still for a moment..." "Touta, why are you bringing me near that thing..." Touta says nothing and continues walking. "Oi, s-seriously, what are you thinking? I said forget it, right?" The boy stands right next to the strange contraption holding his blade out... "Touta I don't want to be a diamond, sto-" And before the blade can say another word he pulls out his other hand, and slits it at the wrist with his blade. Blood pours out onto the captchalogue without warning, lots of it... He then turns to Arthur with an inquisitive look, think you can make some sort of combination using that?" Well if not, he probably just spilled blood on the nice man's machine for no reason.
Note	Note's making an 'area you serious' look at Staren through the whole explanation... but in the end she just sighs in submission. "Well I know there was a Gohan but wasn't that all two hundred years ago? I -know- I was born here. ... was just kinda hoping you might know something more. Like if there's any more to this golden thing I don't know about yet! It's pretty hard to control as it is!" No she... doesn't seem to really -care- if she's part alien.
Arthur Lowell	Arthur says, "Hmmmmm... Alright, INTERESTING. Well, not gonna do this RAW, that's FOR SURE." Arthur checks around his lengthy, extensive list! "You're lookin' for a VILLAIN THING? Maybe if we..." He acquires several cards from the pile, such as SILK, GHAST TEARS, an ancient TRIDENT, a SILVER-EYE TIEPIN, and BLACK DYE. "Get that shit a PROPER DARK LADY OUTFIT instead of TRASHY GARBAGE." Arthur combined (CLOTHES && SILK && GHAST TEARS && BLACK DYE) \|\| (SWIMWEAR && TRIDENT && ELEMENTAL GEAR) \|\| (ARMOR && SILVER-EYE TIEPIN) to make the DREAD COUNTESS. ITEM COST: 800 BONE, 50 GLASS, 1 CLOTH ITEM: Where a normal Dark Lady armor set might be bikini armor, Arthur has forced it into as much luxury as possible. Where it might be exposing, it's instead frequently thickly embroidered silk with occasional light semi-transparency. Armor plates arranged tastefully have exotic engravings on them, and the entire thing is given interesting shades of black. The skirt is layered and draped, but light enough to move in easily, and hosts its own plates of armor placed strategically. It looks good for a ballroom and a battlefield equally! Celtic-looking fae runes occasionally flicer along its embroidery, conducting exotic elemental enchantment. That should be a good, tasteful upgrade from a Dark Lady concept that we almost ran headfirst into.
Staren	Staren rubs his chin. "Yeah, and I go to lots of worlds where there's a 'United States' and that hasn't been a thing for three hundred years when I come from, so? The Multiverse is like that." He sighs. "Unfortunately... martial arts techniques aren't really my thing. I heard the term 'super saiyan' thrown around, but something you have to be a specific species to use, and a martial art to boot? Wasn't the kind of thing I studied. I was entirely serious before, though -- from observation, I can only conclude that other super saiyans' superior control and endurance came from repeatedly taking on challenges, barely surviving, and coming back stronger. You're young and you haven't pushed yourself to the limits like they had. I'm not saying to TRY to get hurt... but if the challenge isn't strong enough to hurt you, it's not strong enough for overcoming it to make you improve, not in this way." Staren shrugs slightly. "It's advice that I'd find ghastly in your place, certainly. But I'm the kind of person who says, hey, if my body is weak, then I'll use a machine instead. I'd have thought you'd be all over this sort of thing -- in fact, I thought it was your natural inclination." Staren tilts his head to one side. "Is that not so?"
Arthur Lowell	"/They're/ monsters, sure." Arthur says, pointing a finger rudely into Lilian's face. "Yeah, I'm not gonna sass you about killing monsters, I'mma just sass you about the murder-love. Is it the feel of the fightin' that gets your blood pumpin', or is it the corpses that do it? That's the /key/ bit here, homie." Arthur waggles his finger a little bit. It varies enough that one might be able to tell he's using space magic to /over/waggle it. "I like most of those, though. Remind me to hang out where you hang out and fight whatever you're fighting. Sounds RADICAL."
Tomoe	Tomoe says "Not for a villain thing just something new..." She pauses at what has come out of this she stares at the result for a moment her eyes widening a bit when she looks more closely at it she takes a moment to look over. "Armored formal? I can make use of this." She's going to get this made up as soon as she can she actually seems quite please about it. She laughs "I don't know how Cardinal got that idea I'm just glad we were able to clear that quest without putting any of the people involved in the ground. That was darn near a miracle really."
Lilian Rook	When Arthur breaks the laws of physics to waggle his fingers in her face beyond human limits, Lilian finally snaps the book closed with an irritated huff. "If I wanted to see corpses I'd visit a mortuary. Or a hospital. Or a museum. What kind of deranged lunatics are you used to?" A glance goes to the dress he'd just printed off for Tomoe, finally acknowledging the goings on. "Oh but that's not bad . . ." Then to Note "Don't get yourself killed because a boy who's never lifted weights in his life told you it'd make you stronger, please. He's just confessed to stunting his personal growth with shortcuts and machines." says Lilian with an unexpected degree of firmness. "Especially not as thirdhand wisdom merely observed from the sidelines. You should be planning out a proper regimen of development and an attainable set of goals using what works for you, not hoping for some magical shortcut ticket to power by getting your bones broken."
Arthur Lowell	"JeeeeeEEEEEZ DUDE!!" Arthur kind of turns his face away and closes his eyes while he quickly holds a CAPTCHALOGUE CARD under Touta's... freely bleeding wrist. "AUGH! Give a homie some warning!!" It just sort of pours cleanly into his SYLLADEX as if the card were a big tupperware container. "That's so... /fucked up/, dog." He mutters, taking the card to the GRISTBLENDER and dispersing it directly into the thing. It blends mostly into INK GRIST, but Arthur exchanges the equivalent value in the required BONE GRIST. TOUTA combined the ELIXER OF LIFE && CLOTHING to make ETERNAL CLOTH (xMany) ITEM COST: 40 BUILD GRIST, 10 BONE per SET ITEM: Third verse, same as the first and second! This has a fleshy feel to it; the clothing tends to try to knit itself back together the way Touta's meat tends to.
Staren	Staren blinks and can't help smiling a little. "Ya know, she's got a point. That's really good advice too. Who knows how you'd end up if you did that? The most disciplined Saiyan -- more like Gohan or Raditz than Goku or Vegeta. Maybe you'd even be able to control-- mm." he frowns for a moment, then looks at Lilian. "You know, though. Searching for shortcuts and evaluating the ones you find, and collecting the ones that work, bestows its own kind of wisdom. I've /survived/ this long, after all."
Tomoe	Tomoe quite happy with her new outfit she'll look to Arthur again grinning. "Humm lets see about making something a bit more casual?" She's got an interesting formal outfit which protection. Given she's been to several parties that had been violently crashed in the past. She'll suggest using the clothing again and starts digging for some earth and light elemental related cards.