Scene #9529: Please Help Me, Dimo!

Owner	Pose
Regulus	Regulus is a lover of peace and a peacer of love. But she hasn't forgotten when Petra, whom she thought of as a friend, made her jump over a laser repeatedly and then blasted her off a platform forcing APPLe to rescue her before she splatted against the floor. Regulus is a generally laid back person and is a pacifist (not a complete one, but even so!) so the idea of trying to hurt Petra in revenge never really occured to her--at least, not REALLY hurt her--but she does feel she's gotta do SOMETHING about that! She might be a believer in nonviolence, but she isn't a believer in doing nothing about someone building a giant robot and launching missiles at you. The fate of America, of course, doesn't really factor into her thought process at all. And so she came up with an idea to get her revenge in a way that should neither brush up too harshly against her beliefs nor result in hard feelings. She's going to build a silly robot and 'attack' Petra's castle or whatever it was she had with it and make Petra run AND jump, perhaps even CLIMB. There's just one problem: Regulus has never built a ''mech'' before. Nor does she know anyone, besides Petra, who does. But Dimo is some sort of mechanical angel jellyfish person who is like two Reguluses tall. If she knows anybody who can help that she actually knows, it'd be Dimo right? And besides, she is also a believer in multiversal peace and that means she can trust her completely! And so...
Regulus	Regulus has invited Dimo to an underground rock club in one of many multiverse terminals called The Subterranean. She'd be all too happy to invite her to the Suitcase but even she gets a little stir crazy trapped in that friend mansion as often as she is and this isn't really Team Timekeeper business. The fact that Regulus even has connections to an underground rock club at all is a testament to her ability to just sort of push herself into any rock venue and become a fixture with pure chutzpah and love for the art form. Regulus is sitting at a table with one bottle of Dr. Pepper perilously close to the materials she's working with. The teeth in question seem to be a number of teeth, a grinder tool, a strange looking crystalline clockwork device, and a colorful glass bird that is just sort of sitting there. As loud as a grinder can be, the music is even louder as an amateur band called Splatterteeth is playing some mid-grade grunge rock of their own making. She's using the device to grind the teeth into dust and is then scooping the dust into little vials. Regulus is wearing her shades on top of her head--less darkly tinted than usual, along with a poofy red hat with a white star outlined upon it. She's wearing a green miniskirt and scarf with black buttons and a red jacket. It's very easy to get the drop on her because she's both listening to loud music and foucsed on her work. The Dr. Pepper is already half empty.
Dimokratia	Invited to a meeting outside Laplace and the suitcase, Dimo is interested in the location ahead of arrival. Sensing out the theme of the location, the raw energy, isn't quite so easy for pre-modern worlds than those well past the information age. Infinite, unlimited, perpetual surveillance was an excellent way to learn about other cultures! Sadly, Regulus was a touch retro with her tastes and operated with the Timekeeper, Vertin, both of whom operated outside the arms of the Commonwealth's Paladins and special task groups. With a wealth of information on the style of 'Rock and Roll', and having contemplated the record of the King, 'Fats' Domino, and its evocative audial elements Dimo had spent time with the Champion felt like she understood Regulus better. Learning the belief systems of others gave you a window within their divinity. For some, it shone brightly, and in others, it was guttering-dim and choked in negativity and darkness. Still, there was worth all about the world. Arriving at the underground rock club at a stoop, the low door frame requiring Dimo to duck down to get into the underground bar and still at a tilted slouch that somehow is aligned exactly with her outfit. Having breezed into a rock and roll club as an eight foot and proportionately broad champion of metal, carbon, and ceramics in a familiar if uncannily scaled size, Dimo wears what she imagines is the local style - a leather jacket and leather pants over a white upper paneling (it's not a shirt but a color applied to her torso chassis) that cuts off at the rise of her slightly separated segmented hips, with the caps to the side implying hips and metal midriff or gutterlines out of gunmetal grey rims and carbon-dark interiors of matte cabling and shiny joints. With her fiber-optic platinum hair swept back and then across onto shoulder in gentle waves, she's hit all the Greaser beats while somehow getting jacket and pants in her size. Moving through the crowd with a confident smirk as she walks and people part out of the way, smoothing the path before her with an attention turning set of glances from aggressive to merely interested, because she has a target in the room. Regulus feels it before she hears Dimo, certainly, a creeping wave of warmth that heats the body like a walk of sunbeams while the pleasant euphoria crackles in forebrain. The synaptic effect makes every act taken towards her hard materials project gain a new living color, a wonderful feeling, an ache in the arms that percolates through the fingers, like Regulus and her tools exist in well-aligned system, and what she works on... Is paused by the arrival of a stooping and vaguely-Greek black-lipped sophont smiling faintly and gazing down perfect (and decorative) nose over Regulus' shoulder. Near to her, the effect of her cone of vision is simply everpresent, a dry radiator heat, a dry yet radiant heat, and a hum like an amp left on and buzzing. "Regulus. What an enjoyable name. A stellar name, I believe, in your culture. I hope it is fitting. What blessed complexity are you working on, here?" Dimo asks, while the trailing wings of chrome from her back pseudopod about to touch the two edges of the table for stability... and framing. Now she's trapped! Trapped in this situation!
Regulus	Regulus doesn't eschew modernity but she hasn't been living in the grand multiverse long enough to find it natural and even if so, certain calling cards and stylistic flourishes are bound to baked in for anyone in tune with her era as she is, even if it moved on without her. Naturally, a giant metal woman is going to draw some eyes though the band is just professional enough to keep playing. At least one patron with an alarming number of piercings lets out a low whistle at Dimo's style though Regulus, still, isn't looking up--when she's this focused, the rest of the world might as well not exist and she isn't worrying about missing Dimo at all--she's a gazillion feet tall, how could she? Of course, this only helps her miss Dimo, yeah. At least until she feels the warmth. She powers down the grinder, setting it half-carefully to the side and then spins in her stool to take a looksee. "Marvy...! You're practically a fashion icon, love. I knew you had style, but matching the vibe of this club before you've even set foot in? Gotta say, I'm bloody impressed." She moves from machinist to fashionista as smoothly as Night Mist through butter. Glad to get to talk to you outside of noisy busy mission time.")] She offers Dimo a fist bump. Did you know that the fist bump predates the high five? Well now you do! "Aw thanks." She says to Dimo before realizing Dimo means stellar quite literally. "Oh! Yeah, mhm mhm! It's the brightest star of the Leo constellation, that's why I always make sure to roar louder than any lion." She winks, visibly, thanks to the power of having her sunglasses on top of her head. Well, actually it's a multiple star system--Regulus A, Regulus B--")] She's asked a question. Is she supposed to keep the Warpgate a secret? She doubts it'll be a secret for long once it's built--Vertin didn't say it HAD to be secret, did she? She doesn't think there'll be any harm, anyway, unless it gets back to Laplace--but recently Lilian helped Vertin on their shared outing to Sotheby. She feels like she doesn't really understand the 'Dame Commander', every time she thinks she does--Lilian pounces on her! Maybe she's a bit of a lion herself. "It's a project Vertin's got me on." Regulus says. "Something for the suitcase, but before I can build it I've got to understand it. Haven't built anything like it before. I'm still figuring out what this--" She points to the crystalline array. "--actually does. But for now I'm collecting dust so I can inscribe ritual components with them later." She holds up an incomplete ritual disk and flaps it gently into the air. "To be honest, my specialty is mechanical alchemy but I've never done any project as big as this so I'm mostly hoping it doesn't blow up but hey--the fun of alchemy is the process of discovery--also important to really know what you're really doing." She grins. "Oh! I can show you how I do one of the disks if you'd like--" She cuts herself short, realizing she hasn't actually told Dimo the reason for her invitation. "Aw heck, I should--one second." She reaches for her backpack, with which the lotus pin is still attached, and pulls it off of another one of the chairs so that Dimo can sit down if she'd like. "It's actually related to what I wanted to ask you about. Recently Petra--do you know Petra?--well she used this sort of ... giant mechanical flying rat-themed machine to ... destroy America?" Regulus sounds a little unsure. "And also fire lasers at me. But the ''machine'' was cool, you know, despite throwing me off a platform." She scootches forward, chair and all. "I can build ships, but nothing like that--I don't even know where to begin--I was hoping you could maybe direct me to some literature on it, help me get started."
Dimokratia	Even being a gazillion feet tall, Dimo's natural aura and directed glances of her synaptic crackle makes everything better on the way over. The attention paid to her that's positive, of course, is reacted to: the Champion blows a kiss to the alarmingly pierced individual, knowing a Type when she sees one and having at least one potential target of interest here. Better, she's appropriately dressed and not causing a problem that a bar recognizes except 'potentially nondrinker'. Which isn't true. Dimo can drink! She is innocent in the eyes of a bar except for her general loathing of hypercapitalism and things approaching capitalism - they were incredibly negative systems! Meeting at a rock and roll dive bar simply required a particular uniform, which Dimo was happy to provide. That she liked to loom over people a little was moot, certainly. "I pride myself upon my attempts at wearing the local garb as a cultural attempt. I have rarely ever had a negative result, and garb is easy to adjust under most circumstances. This garbing was fairly easy yet surprisingly impactful - but it reflects a particularly impactful culture, I understand. That it pleases you is most welcome." Opening hands in greeting, Dimo commences walking about the table. Bracing around the table as she slides in across, smushing into a sat-up sprawl of Dimo slightly pinched into one of the seats across and the space to either side, she settles with a pleased buzz and a quirk of leaned-forward look. "I do not require your blood, but I would accept it. Your roars I have become lightly familiar with." She assures smoothly, before inspecting the crystal array. "You are on the right path, but it will be important for you to try, and fail, and try, and succeed, won't it? The whole arc of it, with the failures to know, that might be best. It may not realistically test that way, but it would be ideal for you as a person. Music loses meaning when it draws on no emotions." 'Do you know Petra?' "At times unfortunately, but, yes. We more than know of Petra." Dimo seems clipped, for all her glow and warmth, and then it's more than a seeming as she eases off hte point after a few ranging moments to contemplate. "Petra is an ongoing work of ours. Of, mine. Due to her abilities, she did not learn what she needed to be taught to change her life for the best. Now, she survives on half-measures and ignorant fumbling. Yet, she is farther than most. She, like you, bears some of the Silver. She, unlike you, bore much more - some of her own, for a time." A giant rat-themed machine to destroy America? The utter lack of even a look-cycling blink to her blue optics shows Dimo's true reaction. Sometimes people just have a type! (Of action.) "And you would like to... counter her? Do you wish to protect America, or destroy a hostile armored target? Do you wish to operate it as a vehicle, a mobile frame, remotely over a screen, or deploy a battle drone to operate your programmatical will? What complexities do you envision? Design with words and intent first, and then let the art within you carry it forward. When you have a solid concept, you will know what to research." Pausing for a moment, Dimo smiles a beat after and extends a hand to place in the middle of the table. "Petra will want someone to attack her with a hostile machine. Simply pick a pleasing and positive form for yourself."
Regulus	Regulus isn't exactly a fan of hypercapitalism but it is easier for her to imagine the end of the world before the end of capitalism--largely because her world did end before capitalism did, but she can envision what ''should'' be there instead in Regulus's very special and important opinion. "I'm pretty locked into my style, but that probably makes you a swell ambassador." She smiles. "Yeah, consider it a hit with Regulus. Top marks." She shows Dimo the peace sign to make it official, two of her fingers forming a v-shape. ''I do not require your blood, but I would accept it.'' Regulus's mouth drops open, slackjawed. What? What does that mean? What?? Why did she even bring up her blood?? Wait, is it because she said 'bloody impressive'?! Wait wait wait, calm down. Maybe it's a dietary thing? She never expected Dimo's people to have dietary requirements like Rita's. Maybe she doesn't know that you can just eat food raw and the government is lying about it? Wait that doesn't make any sense, she has her own government. Well, food definitely feels more appetizing when cooked so she supposes it's probable that only people who really have special dietary requirements would rely on that. Or blood, she guesses. Does Dimo's people even have blood, Regulus wonders, where do they get it from? The sun? Suns don't have blood, maybe it's a metaphor? Her name IS shared with a star after all. She ultimately feels she has to ask. If nothing else, it's going to bug her forever if she doesn't know why Dimo would have any interest at all in her blood. "Uh--" She manages. "Bloody impressive is an expression, but what do you mean you'd accept it?" ''You are on the right path?'' Regulus eases back in her chair. "Yeah yeah, don't worry. I'm not asking for help with ... Vertin's project. I just gotta work on it when I can. I'll be more useful to her if I work through it the slow way. 'Specially if I'm gonna want to maintain it." ''Music loses meaning when it draws on no emotions.'' Regulus's grin slowly returns. "See, you're already in tune with the rockin' heart. You're a smart cook--" She pauses. "A smart person." She corrects herself hastily before worrying that she's now complimenting Dimo's cooking. ''We more than know of Petra.'' "Oh daamn. You ''more'' than know of her? Like what even is her deal?" She has seen Petra as just a chill bud to rock with, a supervillian, some sort of #2 of some sketchy City person, and a 'Kamen Rider of Lilian'. Oh and she owns a country? She can't help but wonder what the hell happens to make a person involved in all that, and also frankly how she even finds the time. ''She, like you, bears some of the Silver.'' "She did?" Regulus blinks. "Wait--''I'' do?" Maybe Dimo is talking about bearing the Silver in the way that Regulus says Dimo bears rock? ''And you would like to... counter her? Do you wish to protect America, or destroy a hostile armored target?'' "Uh." Regulus says. "No. None of that really sounds like me. I just want to surprise her and mess with her a little. I think she needs a little messing with."
Regulus	''Petra will want someone to attack her with a hostile machine.'' "Yeah! She honestly seems gobsmacked it hasn't happened more." She smiles, glad that she and Dimo appear to be on the same page. She's a little more gobsmacked herself as Dimo starts throwing out design elements but after a moment steadies herself, "Well it's gotta be apple themed cause Petra's rat themed so--like--there has to be a THEME or it won't be right, gotta be LOUD, and.... It's gotta make her jump. Like---like--" She thinks of what that laser made her think of. "Like jumprope. She's definitely better at jumping than your mate Regulus but it's ''important''." None of this is about a mobile frame or remotely or anything like that but she says, "It's more fun if you pilot it yourself, innit?" She doesn't know what a 'mobile frame' is.
Dimokratia	As Regulus has her little mental moment with the Champion's comment about blood and its offering, Dimo's greaser aesthetic is marked against just in her compromise of leaning forward to rest chin on the low bridging of fingers and contemplate across to the clearly-worried and developingly free-associating engineer across. There's a playful curl of carbon-dark lips in smile while she watches the show of Regulus's process, and the two trails at edges of the table slide in to circle arms like idle wings. There's a little waveform buzz to her, like a deep amusement she hides behind the serenity of a diplomat but can't avoid giving away in glow. "Is something the matter?" She begins, breaking silence, then offers an open-handed gesture before pushing off from the table and leaving hands and winged-forward trails leaned against forward surface. "What I meant," Dimo begins, and right trail pours up through the air and becomes rubber-glove like and filled at the end to gesture liquidly in a rather accurate palm flourish to closed hand with thumb curled over. "Is that if you wished to offer me the opportunity to provide any..." It's not a long pause, but the word 'necessary' seems to pour out of the air in meaning and floss itself between Regulus' ears as an intrusive thought. "-medical care you'd like to undergo to overcome any physical, or, biological limits you experience? An offering of blood, as most cybernetic and uplift care tends to be, for better." As she speaks, the humanoid 'hand' at the end of her trail de-flourishes, and as it does, the character of it changes, from rubber glove or statue to a skeletally mechanical motion. For the simplicity of the exterior of the hand, the peel-away interior of the changed 'hand' at end of trail is blessedly and complexly mechanical, going as far as to preen like the dark chrome nails at the end of the fingers required filing inspection with a glance of blue optics. Then, the trail simplifies again back to skirted waves while settling back to table. "If you wish for assistance in freedom from the bacteria in your gut determining a majority of your life, for example, I - and my people - would of course welcome you, in part or whole as offered." Dimo eases off, already pushed back, but visibly relaxing from her pitching just a moment ago. "You won't understand this thing you are making - for the ones you work with, who trust you - unless you make it yourself. I understand, of course, and my sister would even agree with you. She and I both have a different approach in general but understand the other's preaching." Dimo's amused look cants off and up. "I am more than pleased learning secondhand, learning through research, learning from afar. She is... direct. And she wishes to know herself rather than be given the knowledge." Tilting back down, the motion of optics is a a smooth click to re-lock on Regulus who isn't defended by her trusty sunglasses and now is vulnerable! Flashing a black smile at 'smart person', Dimo wonders for a moment. "Do you not think I can prepare food? As a diplomat, I am capable of entertaining, Regulus."
Dimokratia	As for Petra's Deal... the smile wavers. Even this perfect machine has little faults. "Petra is a woman who couldn't be anything else but an Elite. She began as a disaster and arguably has not ceased to be so, but she has matured over time more than nearly all near her. From a moment-in-time perspective she is one of the most important figures of Sector Zero as a force for change. At one point, I medically intervened in her case. For a time, she had a body of similar concept to mine, but... scaled for her. She underwent a quest to undo that, and retained a sealed amount of what once flowed as medium within her, the substrate of self." Dimo's enjoyment has turned to flattening recital, but there's real praise within those words. She just also has a neutral reaction to Petra Soroka right now, which to a glowing champion of alignment to positive energy (as defined by synthetics) is telling in it's own way. When the glow dims, it's notable. "And yes, you also bear some. On your bag? I gave you a flower of my own creation - Princess Sarracenia took one from my younger sister Emmy, though truly it was freely given. Did you not like your gift?" She asks, returning to warmth and gentle leading. Petra immediately comes back up, though... She's pretty much the topic of the conversation. "Apple themed, with a priority on shock tactics, ideally to force her to jump. I have some thoughts about guiding her towards that, and can consult my sister for her expertise. And you wish to operate it personally - inside the apple? Or from nearby?" She'll just power through happily. Dimo loves to sell the best traits of giant robots, having many in the family.
Regulus	Regulus is a little bit stupid. "The opportunity for...medical care? ... Wow, you're a surgeon too, Dimo? That's incredible!" She thinks for a moment. "You know, APPLe has arms but only sometimes. I've wondered if they were mechanical myself but they are so thin and noodley and he only has three fingers on each hand..." She's not sure she understands what 'uplift care' means so she just asks, "What's... 'uplift care'? I've never heard the term before, love." But she leaves aside the matter of her blood for a moment because Dimo's showing off the complexity of her mechanical limb. "His arms are certainly not nearly as impressive as yours. Is all that mechanical complexity 'cause you're an ambassador? Or does everyone have a design as complex as yours back home?" Regulus IS a bit of a freak about machines and the fact that Dimo is, like, a person isn't really stopping her. "Uggh...hate to say it, but I got a long way to go if I want to become as capable an alchemist as the average machinist out there in the multiverse." A brief flash of homesickness crosses her eyes. ''If you wish for assistance in freedom from the bacteria in your gut determining a majority of your life'' "Oh, yeah, you probably get to eat whatever snacks you want... I'll think about it, love, I think I understand a little better what you're putting down." She wonders if accepting such a thing would mean telling the multiverse that, well, she is part of the multiverse now. That her old era isn't really her home anymore. They don't have freedom from gut bacteria back home. And it is true, whatever Regulus might feel about meat bodies--sometimes she just has to learn the thing first through her own processes. "I...don't know if want to make assumptions about someone I haven't met, or even someone I'm just getting to know, but--I think it's important to be able to accept help and also important to be able to know yourself. It's kind of a tightrope sometimes, innit? Let someone do all the hard stuff and you don't learn how to learn, but if you can't accept help--well everyone needs help sometimes--at least humans and arcanists do." Regulus's eyes are strangely dewey for a person with her personality. That's not why she wears the sunglasses though. She just thinks sunglasses are cool. ''Do you not think I can prepare food?'' Utterly defeated, Regulus hangs her head and says, "Uh... I was about to say smart cookie but was worried you were going to think I was calling you a cookie so I stopped myself --- uhh I don't think you are a cookie, Dimo, it's just an idiom--a way to say you are smart with slightly different words." She pauses. "Smart is still in the whole phrase so I guess it's inefficient but that's language for you." She has taken some damage from this. ''But she has matured over time than nearly all near her'' Regulus grimaces, hit by second hand critique of immaturity, looking over her shoulder briefly to see if there's a Petra robot hounding her nearby. There isn't, this time, but it's everpresent on the mind. "You seem a touch miffed about it, but it doesn't seem like you're upset at being told 'no thanks'--is it 'cause she had what you offered and then got rid of it?" As opposed to didn't have it and decided not to have it.
Regulus	She reaches over and collects her bag, pulling it up and tapping at the lotus with her index finger. "Oh--no, I mean, of course I liked it! I just ... guess I didn't realize that was 'bearing some of the Silver'?" Regulus rubs at her neck. "I thought it was... just art?" She frowns even as she says it, that tastes wrong on her lips now that she's said it. "No, no, I mean, I don't think art is ever ''just'' art. But I guess I didn't see it as, like, the art that makes up ''you'' but smaller." She hesitates and then nods. Yeah that makes sense, she thinks. Feels more right. "It's cool, don't worry, I like it! It's got meaning to me. Representative of the time we met, you know?" She is trying so hard to not use british or rock slang for the sake of interdimensional communication and multiversal peace. ''Inside the apple? Or from nearby?'' "Inside's more fun innit?" Regulus doesn't seem to consider that inside is also more dangerous because she's a lunatic arcanist.
Dimokratia	"You said you were a mechanical alchemist, so perhaps it would be 'transmutation' to your discipline." Dimo drops in, curious for a moment, clearly having categorized Regulus as a knower despite having access to her thoughts. The rock and roll concert of thought rising from the glasses-up Regulus is delightful in its own way, but it was hard to sift through the record racks and vinyl discs of memories to see if she know about the concept of cybernetic systems. Maybe it was between the Hendrix and the John Lennon? Regardless, "The motion from a body, in part or whole, to a more refined replacement? I understand people from your original time had poor efforts of prosthesis and hobbling simulacra, but my people offer many sorts of medical treatments for self-betterment. Really, the internal biome is an evolutionary necessity at certain levels, but it is not innacurate to say that you are already a hive mind - a collection of all the needful and begging impulses that drag down your beautiful soul with every kind of hunger. Your resource needs pour obsession upon your soul like a violent storm, and you are further hampered by the simple design and error drift of your vessel. And still - you can be beautiful, you can be genius, you can draw close to perfection through chance and knowing - and it is inspiring." Dimo extends a hand to brush a faintly-textured set of digits across the intervening project and then to Regulus' hand. "It is a particular joy of mine to bring others into alignment, to free them from the poisons of negativity, to correct these palpable wrongs I see in the world." She speaks while gazing, without need to blink, intent, drawing in everything about Regulus' face right down to the naked vulnerability of her eyes without the polarizing shields of her sunglasses. It leaves a faint smile on carbon-black lips, and her ceramic-pale expression still maintains warmth - built to show it, on purpose, an uncanny translation assisted somewhat by Regulus being simply beamed a current of the correct expression. The synapse sizzles the connection between neurons so Regulus can just link what Dimo shows to align right into certainly-warm and approving clarity. "So, to be clear, since I could play this amusing game with you about making food and good intent but you are too cute to lead astray into such an amusing worry a third time. It would prove a rule, yes, and I'd rather prove to you my warm consideration for your brightness and works." Bringing hands together back before her, Dimo's smiling playful-buzz tone switches to a more beatific declaratory. "Now, clarity: I am offering to assist in any replacement or enhancement of your body with a cleaner, more positively-aligned format, be it humanoid or otherwise. Something in the same realm as mine, but unique to you. I've met some true artists since coming to Sector Zero, and you've already the mind to think through tools, don't you?" Eventually she has to answer another question, though, and now she can be demonstrative: "The mechanical complexity is because it is divine to my people to become more complex, to work at refinement and furthering to ensure that the self reaches its highest state. Also, because it pleases me to be this way - and it visually pleases others to perceive a well-crafted piece of moving and active art. I am also shaped this way," Indicating herself now with the tap of a trail to outside of jacketed shoulder and sweeping down. "On purpose, and because I am an ambassador, and because it is a pattern that appealed to me."
Dimokratia	"It is important to know your self, yes. I agree wholly! There is nothing more divine to know yourself fully, and yet the most sacred act is to grow. So, I of course forgive your snacks." Dimo appeals with a wink, shifting from declaratory agreement to forgiveness for snacks. "To become adrift and undoing is a terrible isolation, isn't it?" Of matters Petra, finally, Dimo has to sigh and roll out onto a single shoulder lean, trails sweeping in to couch her elbow and the propping lean of arm. "Petra. . ." Is all she can exhale for a long moment, contemplating for a long pause of seconds. An agonizing full ten count clicks by, almost as if she had been struck moodily silent, before the calculations tumble out and Dimo pushes in for her chosen direct answer: "Is a moment that I underestimated the Multiverse. In our home space, and the spaces close to it, 'someone like Petra' was apocryphal. Apocalyptic. Something that was unthinkable, or so foolish as to calculate as one in a trillion trillions. And Sector Zero has... Some number. Any number higher than 'fractions spoken of in whispers', and among them is Petra, whole." Dimo explains, speaking a little less than measuredly, falling out of her in a kind of tumbling expression, unfocused, uncrisp. "I have considered that if our Mother-star was closer, the shine of Her light would be enough to clear the issue and it is our distant relay that allows such pause, but I have also considered that I am 'sheltered' by my people's experience." Sobering, straightening, Dimo then shifts back to a more relaxed perch a beat after, relaxing more into her once-original position. "She was incapable of hearing me - our society - despite our every effort to find her, meet her, lift her from her harmed crevasse of negativity. Like she was the negativity herself." Considering, but only for a long fraction of a single second, Dimo adds: "She is not. However, she thinks that she is. And she is convincing, to herself and to others." Fanning out dark fingers under pale cheek, Dimo is almost for a moment pouty. "That she gave up what she was given... Was vexing and expected. That she kept some was vexing and unexpected. We live in a world far past that point though, and I have come to my own terms about it." Looking up from the table where her optics had slid for a short while, Dimo fixes Regulus with a look. "But it is the same art. It flows through me and pours out, from core to tip, an extension of touch," Her free left hand lift and her left trailtip lifts to touch finger to rounded chrome end, tapping and leaving a dewdrop ripple across the surface that submerges after a short distance rather than keep gong. "-that is all-shaper and aligner when used externally. In that way, we can share complexity with the world around us, from immortal lotuses to... grander gifts." There is a beat, and then, Dimo lifts to sit proper once more. "For clarity, I am currently wishing for Petra's re-alignment because she was offensively one-sided with me, after everything. She expected to speak and for me to be silent, to express and for me to be shaded. I took that gravely poorly."
Dimokratia	"Therefore." Dimo gestures out with left arm, before sweeping to table. "I agree. Inside is superior in experience. I am familiar with your companion APPLe from compiled media and also your internet footprint - would you like help building a large combat-hardened mechanical Mr. APPLe with certainly mechanical arms? I believe manipulators would be most useful for defense and easy for you to use, and. . . you can draft in some of your own items wholecloth to use your abilities? I am more than happy to provide materials towards the purpose of. . ." "Pranking. Her." Dimo smiles, but it almost sounds like she found-replaced a word vocally right at the last moment with 'pranking'.
Regulus	''On Petra.'' Regulus is skeptical about a lot of things but ultimately she's an optimist. She barely knows Petra, really, which is why Petra keeps surprising her with all these weird new sides of her. Regulus doesn't ultimately believe that people are half as complicated as they believe, that humans aren't so above the intricate beauty of existence. They are neither aberration nor particularly special--a little special, perhaps, but not so much that she feels particularly precious about it. "I think...you are kind and you want to help people, but sometimes people don't want to be helped. Maybe it's pride, or maybe they just don't think they deserve it. You don't seem impatient or anything, but maybe thanks to that rad desire of yours to help people you see in a bad way--you jumped the gun a little? I mean, the way you say it--Petra ''isn't'' negativity, Petra sees herself as negativity--if that's true, she didn't really know herself yet, right? In the free love community, there were um--a lot of people who were really shy and reluctant to break out of monogomy even if they agreed with it because, like, society pushed the narrative that that was ''important''--and it genuinely can be for some people, but like--the world was also unkind to free love. They'd say things like 'death of the family' and--uh--worse. But it's really hard to get out of a posiution you've held for years and years and even if you're like 'here's this great gift, it's free' they get scared. Convince themselves it's not for them. And maybe it isn't, but they're not in a position to see one way or another yet." She'd feel awkward asking why Petra sees herself as negativity and all that but she herself feels awkward about putting THAT forward. Does Regulus know about cybernetics? SORT OF. She is from a time where there was a resurgent interest in the field! But it is, strangely enough, rooted in biological systems more than mechanical ones in her understanding of it. She HAS seen mechanical robots, but Dimo is so beyond them that she can't really imagine. She hasn't met Lucy yet or she'd probably have a very different conceit. Still, despite all this, she's not particularly uneasy about Dimo's offer despite not accepting it yet. She seems more ... cautiously curious. Someone who has been sold free lunches before only to find out the price later, perhaps, though she doesn't really suspect Dimo of trickery or anything like that. It's a habit formed from the sort of miniscule betrayals any rebellious free thinker experiences on the weekly. Whether or not she is a knower, she is someone who wants to be even more of a knower. She's fascinated by the idea of Dimo's weird space culture. She wants to spread multiversal understanding and acceptance. There is a small hesitation at the poisons of negativity. "Already a hive mind..." Regulus murmurs, rolling it around in her head. She has seen movements crash against itself and fall and has seen people unified so keenly in a singular idea it was like blood clotting a spiritual wound. She has been teased a little for comparing what Lilian's done to a union before, though, so she doesn't say it. Instead she says, "In times of need, humans really can act as one." She nods. Maybe to Dimo, it seems like such a minor thing that does so much. ''you are too cute to lead astray'' "Aw shucks...!" Regulus says, not seeing that as a potential mild dig. "I put a lot of work into my digs." She forgets to define digs in advance.
Regulus	''It is divine to my people to become more complex.'' "You know, you're really quite spiritual, Dimo." Well maybe her whole culture is but she's thinking of ''the story'' too which felt like ancient myth. In some small ways, Regulus has felt herself growing. Right now she wants to feel that out and see if she likes it. For a good long while, she has been completely convinced in her cause and its own innate obviousness. And now she's actually working hard at something right here on this table. ''I am more than happy to provide materials towards the purpose of. . . Pranking. Her.'' "Hell yeah! It'll be a great prank, don't you worry--" Regulus bobs her head rapidly. "Yeah yeah yeah that sounds great! If she just wrecks the Applemachine immediately," Oh god she already named it. "Then it wouldn't be much of a prank. I'd love it if you could help, Dimo!"
Dimokratia	Dimo soaks in the praise with an assured buzz, her radiant dry heat a soothing hug that wraps around Regulus as she reasons through her own side of their discussion. 'Free love' is a concept that perhaps the champion takes in a way Regulus doesn't mean, but the concept is received with palpable appreciation. Like a smile poured as honey across brow and soaking forebrain with happy context, Dimo nods with locked gaze and re-steeples her hands as a bridge for her head to sit in forward lean, with wing-trails slipping under the tabletop. "Here is this incredible freedom, Regulus. It is free, and will allow you to become things you dream of right now, and could only dream of beyond that. But, I understand," The smile turns to a smirk. "Many have offered much and few have laid out little. I could be any number of sorts hawking oils on streetcorners and alleys - I am not, of course, and clearly so," She drops to a little laugh, trailing off the thought. "It could be for you. But I would force it upon you this way." Despite poaching Regulus in the synaptic sauna that massaged in appreciation and contemplation for the mechanical form and supported already-existing structures for the same as they were drawn out, Dimo would still claim to have not forced it. Suggest, lead to, present and embody, of course. But that went without saying, didn't it? It was all a weapon against... "Negativity takes root within, becomes more of you than you, commands your decisions. It can become terminal, especially in the dispriveleged among biological societies. It is not their fault. They are sick, from the pollution in their surroundings and attacks against them. Relief from it is a 'humanitarian', a medical act. Relief from any of it is a mercy, but there are some particular plagues of mis-alignment that seem petty that are so eminently fixable. Nerve structure, for example! You are deprived because of borrowing from aquatic creatures for too long!" Dimo is immune to failing her roll at 'digs'. She is both dug into Regulus' mind as much as she is aware of Dig, Fit, Style, Flow, Aura, Clothes, and all other synonyms. She understands the thought-rune of the concept, and enjoys applying it. Regulus, for example, has a 'hard fit' or 'sweet digs'. "Spirituality is the blessing of awareness, and my people are blessed to be freed from many considerations that would interfere with contemplating at great depth and length. The gut bacteria, for example. I hear they are loud. Do you hear them? Or is it just a feeling for you?" Immediately swerved off of the human interest by mechanical interest, she's on topic a moment after. "The Applemachine. Marvelous. I had hoped it would be simple and punchy. I know exactly the resources to use. Have you ever been to the. . . Mushroom Kingdom? I have recently been royally granted lands to expand in." Lifting, Dimo seems wistfully certain as she places palms on tabletop. "It is a place with particular style of materials and necessary infrastructure for exploratory engineering. There is a certain character of the materials that make them robust and durable." A quick beat later, Dimo smiles beatifically with near-closed eyes. "Also, I will need to tell the local protector, Emmy, that she shouldn't obliterate your hostile threat so that Petra will have something to do. This, I believe, will make her do at least one jump."