Scene #9577: More Like Critter Crapitalism

Owner	Pose
Timekeeper	Last time, in Vertin's suitcase: In order to take advantage of the vast wilderness outside of the manor, Vertin made a deal with YuRia to allow her to set up her Atelier in the suitcase. In exchange for access to the suitcase as a psychoment curiosity, and the abundant and rapidly regenerating resources in the wilderness, YuRia's army of bears will act as a construction crew to expand the facilities as Vertin requests. The arrangement is perfectly mutually beneficial, and everything seems to be going smoothly until... Somehow, the first issue caused by YuRia grafting herself to the suitcase isn't from YuRia's personality, or from any environmental disaster. The request that Vertin puts out is for a low risk 'critter infestation', the term for the semi-magical or outright magical creatures that thrive in the woods of the suitcase, mentioning that they've flooded into the Atelier and need to be gently, but firmly, removed. With the warpgate in the basement now operational, it's a much simpler process to get to Vertin's manor and go upstairs and out the front doors to where Vertin is waiting in the yard. Beside her is a scarecrow man with a disproportionately massive torso and a head made of a tuft of straw, wearing a torn up shirt and vest and smiling blithely at the butterflies and bees flocking around the wildflowers in the yard. Vertin doesn't appear to be all that worried about the issue that she put in a notice for, placidly dipping her head in greeting when the others come outside. "Hello, everyone. It's rather unfortunate how this all happened-- I'd thought that some simple measures to bar the Atelier doors from the outside would be enough to put off the critters until a more permanent solution was found, but they caught onto it. Just as I'd feared, they're quite passionate about factory work now that they've discovered it, so it's proven difficult to lure them out." The scarecrow ponderously nods, holding out his long straw fingers to reach out to a butterfly. Thoughtfully, he concludes, "Bang . . . bang . . . crash ." The last noise that comes out of his mouth isn't a word at all, but the sound of several large metal objects smashing into each other, like a speaker hidden in his throat. "Ah, right. Ahn, Hibiki, this is Rabies. Rabies, this is Ahn, this is Hibiki." Rabies makes a sound exactly identical to a cat purring. A short walk into the woods, where Rabies lopes a ways behind the group, and there's a boundary where the trees present suddenly shift from flowery and spaced to allow sunlight to come through, to darker coniferous trees and a shadowly lack of undergrowth. Around here, Vertin takes a second to get their bearings, then points to one of the trees, which has a door to nowhere built into the side of the trunk. "There we go. Wouldn't want to take the wrong one by accident."
Distortion Dets.	A door to nowhere, of course, isn't complete if the place it does lead obviously can't fit in the space provided- warm golden light from no discrete source lights up the forest floor the moment the door is cracked open, the hallways of YuRia's Atelier extend, down to junctions and turn-offs, the walls themselves consisting of steam-pipes and click-ticking brass clockwork, the whole of the pocket world some infinite, interconnected mechanism. Currently, that mechanism is at war. Interrupted by the door opening, one of YuRia's enormous teddy bears (currently being ridden by four or so itty bitty teddies), is frantically plastering up a poster on a flat spot of the wall, fresh of the presses: a rendition of the suitcase carbuncles, with a red crossed-circle no access symbol overlaid. Of course, this is of no real effect. One of the tiny teddies, on seeing a fresh wave of reinforcements, waves the group onwards and to the left, deeper into the mass of corridors, past access points to dumbwaiters and conveyor belt inputs, until- "Finally! Vertin! I swear, this is an infestation! I'll have to waste time with customs checkpoints if ferrying lumber isn't possible without uninvited guests clinging along." YuRia, hands on her hips, ambushes the group by stepping right around from another corner, herself unsurprised to see them all here. She's holding a monkey wrench, which appears to have bite marks in the metal, covered over with a gold-piped red ribbon bow, like a bandage for the metal. "I need them out of here, and quickly. I've had to slow everything down, down, down. I can't be productive like this!" As YuRia holds her wrench near a wall cutout, where some manner of material ought to be plunked down to be ferried off elsewhere by conveyor belts, a fuzzy interloper peeks out, snatching the wrench in its paws, and ducking away, leaving YuRia flabbergasted. "Unbelievable! I just got that back from them! They're using it wrong, where torque wrenches are needed, instead! They won't listen!" YuRia, in, by her posture and expression, must be some sort of drastic act, grabs at a meter-long mechanical lever- the Atelier shudders, as walls raise up panels into the ceiling, baring the internal infrastructure of her infinite factory, at least in part. Rows after rows of conveyor belts, ominous brass machinery, metal stamps, mills, and looms, are made visible, and like pulling the bark off of a rotten tree, a convocation of troublesome carbuncles stop in the middle of factory mischeif, stare, and try to scatter.
Hibiki Tachibana	"...Nice to meet you, Rabies," she offers with a little shoulder-height wave. "...You like cats?" All things considered, she takes meeting a scarecrow named Rabies remarkably well - despite the sound of falling pipes he's somehow able to emulate perfectly - though it probably only helps that he's clearly the gentle giant kind of guy. Hibiki is as Hibiki as ever; her hair's a tad bit longer, but there's the same favorite jacket, the same everpresent hairpins, and the same apparent fondness of cargo shorts that Ishirou has for some godforsaken reason. The crimson pendant hanging from her neck still has a few hairline fractures running through it, but not quite as many as before. "Out of everything that could've come up, I gotta say I wasn't really expecting the woodland creatures to take a huge interest in factory lines and construction," she intones as they make their way through the woods, tilting her head up at where the vibe of the place changes right away, and their destination comes in sight. "...Where would some of the other ones even lead?" Only after she says it is she not entirely sure she wants to know. Doorways in the trees of a shaded wood is the beginning of at least several stories of people getting spirited away and never being seen again. "Excuse--" She's seen the interior design of YuRia's place of business once before, so that isn't what cuts her off as they enter so much as her immediate blinking at the sight of her bears setting up a no-carbuncles-allowed sign. Her voice again catches in her throat as the craftswoman herself blindsides them inside, just to come out in a drawn-out 'er......' as she goes on and on about her critter conundrum. And gets her wrench snatched right out of her hands. "Did they /bite/ that?" She asks on a delay, right before the sort-of-literal curtains are lifted so they can actually navigate the place proper. And also lock eyes with at least one horde of the mischief makers. Before they scatter. "Huh?" Huh. "--Oi! Oi!! Hold on a second!!" Also as ever, Hibiki is the act-first think-after type of person, which is probably a decent trait to have when a number of Small Critters are hightailing it. She singles out a few that have darted off in the same direction, and instantly breaks to sprint off after /them/ as fast as her legs will take her - and as she goes, she slides her jacket off her arms and holds it by the collar. Is she... yep. She's going to use it in the same vein as some sort of net to try and catch several of them at once. She's definitely going to literally jump them and cover them up to make sure they don't slip away from her.
Regulus	Regulus isn't really all that keen on YuRia (who didn't admire her fashion) but if Vertin asks for aid you can bet the captain will jump to the occassion, even if she might complain about it later. Or during. It really depends on how annoying the activity in question is. Of course, since Ahn is around, Regulus is waaaay more uneasy about complaining too much in the presence of the One Who Called Her Out For Complaining Too Much And Not Appreciating Turnips. The peace may have been solidified, the Turnip Wars may be over, but a lasting peace can only endure when the spirit of the terms of the peace treaty are respected. Once everybody is COMFORTABLE with peace, only then can Regulus relax! APPLe, of course, is floating along beside her, who is carrying a small critter carrier and a broom. Regulus also has a broom. It's likely these brooms are for shooing critters into the critter carrier so they can be released back into the wilderness with a conservationist mindset to respect the ecology of the suitcase. "Rabies is cool." Regulus says, instinctively patting him on the arm as he purrs like a cat. ''Wouldn't want to take the wrong one by accident.'' "How many of the other trees have doors?" Regulus asks, no doubt imagining a Nightmare Before Christmas Scenario. ''I need them out of here, and quickly.'' "Yeah, yeah, just hope they don't start biting and bumping." She takes a look around the Atelier and says, "Crazy yhou can fit all this in a tree." ''Where torque wrenches are needed, instead! They won't listen!'' "Wait so you can't just give them the right kinds of wrenches?"
Distortion Dets.	'Did they /bite/ that?' "Yes! A casualty of playing tug of war. It's fixable, but it shouldn't have happened at all! You have to be careful with softer metals, you know!" YuRia, at the mention, checks the soon-to-be-stolen wrench, and tightens the little bow on it. "It's functional, still, but this is more wear and tear than a wrench should see so soon!" 'er......' Hands on hips, grey-eyed stare right at Hibiki, "Hm? Did you have something to say?" 'Crazy yhou can fit all this in a tree.' "It isn't! We're in my Atelier, it's only inside itself. You..." Embarassingly long time spent trying to think, recall, and, a finger-snap, right before the wrench is snatched out of her hand, "You built the warp gate here? The whole world isn't inside the manor basement! So it's- HEY!" Wrench snatched! 'Wait so you can't just give them the right kinds of wrenches?' "Huh? Why would I give them any wrenches? They're stealing them, case and point!" A bear that's clambered up on YuRia's shoulder points at the carbuncle that scurried away with her bandaged monkey wrench, and a lumbering bear that's taken to chasing it down, unsuccesfully, so far. "And they're using them wrong once they've taken them! A monkey wrench isn't suited for tightening sensitive bolts! They'll strip the threading! YuRia Atelier is a high quality Workshop! This isn't a place for stripped bolts!" YuRia purses her lips, and picks the bear that's been on her shoulder up by the scruff of its neck, carrying it as she follows, less hastily, after Hibiki's dash off to chase the carbuncles down. Half-shouted, "Mind the conveyor belts! They aren't built to handle being careened into, this isn't a reception zone!" So, the normal hallways, as industrial as they are, are reception zones? Does she have tables and tea sets somewhere..?
Timekeeper	"...You like cats?" In response, Rabies tilts his head at Hibiki, slowly raising up one of his hands in a confused mirror of the wave. In his raspy, rumblingly low voice, he eventually says, "... Paw? Give . . . paw? Vrrrr...." Which seems like a positive reaction! Hibiki is correct in her assessment of Rabies as a gentle giant. Easily seven feet tall if he wasn't hunched over all the time, despite how scary he looks, he moves like he wouldn't even crush a ladybug by accident with his footsteps. Vertin follows up the introductions by adding, "Rabies used to be a doctor before becoming cursed. Even like this, he has an extraordinarily kind heart, so I trust him to be gentle with the carbuncles." "...Where would some of the other ones even lead?" Vertin lifts and drops the bar on the door, glancing around habitually to check to make sure she isn't allowing any more uninvited creatures inside. "Other sections of the Atelier; it's quite large. YuRia may be able to find us in there, but I'd be terribly lost. I believe there's four doors operational as of now, all leading to entirely different areas." "I'll have to waste time with customs checkpoints if ferrying lumber isn't possible without uninvited guests clinging along." As cartoonish as this is, this is a certain tone of disaster that happens sometimes, and Vertin gives it all the gravitas it needs. It wouldn't do to be casual about something that's stressing YuRia out, after all. "I'll facilitate that if it's needed. For now, let's get them out of here." "They're using it wrong, where torque wrenches are needed, instead! They won't listen!" Vertin's text box displays her widened eyes and wordlessly surprised noise over "...!" when the wrench is snatched away from YuRia. Then, ambiguously sincerely, "Maybe we ought to hold classes." "Did they /bite/ that?" Vertin carefully takes off and folds their jacket while the walls raise up, placing it on top of a flat surface in the factory. While rolling their dress shirt's sleeves up to the elbow, "Carbuncles are intensely curious about anything they see people using, and they're rather mischevious about having it themselves. Usually, they'll fixate on one particular sort of interest and toy around with it in their own way as long as they like. I'd hoped that I'd nip that in the bud by teaching them etiquette, but it appears there's carbuncles I've missed."
Timekeeper	Regulus's question is answered pretty quickly, by the fact that the carbuncles are doing what carbuncles do. Their misbehavior doesn't end with just using the wrong tool, but creating the wrong products entirely. The little black blobs of fur with teeth and little stubby limbs are swarming over the factory lines of the Atelier to repurpose them for their own ends, or by attempting to do YuRia's job, extremely poorly. There's dozens of the volleyball-sized little guys, tugging at brass machinery to take it apart, wailing in panic as they're carried up and down by a rhythmic mechanical press that they grabbed onto, wasting fabric by sewing random pieces of cloth together into patchwork 'clothes' that look horrible, and so on. Like guilty cats, they immediately scatter when Hibiki charges at them with the intent to discipline. One of them scrambles over a stalled conveyor belt and hides behind it, and when Hibiki hops on to chase after it, there's a THUNK that throws the belt into motion again, causing her to topple over. In an instant, a cluster of carbuncles wielding sewing needles swarms around her and rapidly stitches her jacket around over her head, and then they scamper away. Rabies is beset upon by a clump of them when he wanders over to see what they're doing at a control panel, but he's too sturdy for them to bowl over. Instead he starts patiently plucking them one by one holding them up in his hands, and carrying them towards the exit door while dragging along the ones chewing on his ankles. Regulus, looking into the Atelier for where the critters might be causing problems, hears an ominous metallic scrape-clunk in the shadows over by some machinery with its brass paneling pulled off.
Regulus	''I believe there's four doors operational as of now.'' "Woah, guess that makes getting around a breeze if you know what's up." And makes getting around a terror if you don't, but Regulus isn't hurrying to say that out loud. ''Crazy yhou can fit all this in a tree.'' Regulus doesn't comment on the typo being echoed back at her but she does say, "Yeah I built the Warpgate--but I guess if this is like the Suitcase it isn't weird at all, though now I'm wondering if you can put Suitcases into Suitcases like one of those nesting dolls but it can actually get bigger as you go." She winces as a wrench is snatched but this is more chaotic and infested than she actually expected. Maybe they should put the doors higher up? ACtually maybe it's too late to do that. And also sometimes critters sort of hop up on top of each other so they'd be able to reach the door anyway. Hmm. "I guess I figured since you already had those bears helping out--well don't worry, we'll get them outta your hair." Okay, she's glad she came here to help out now. It's nice to see YuRia kinda taken down a notch! But then she feels a little bad too, she wouldn't want her own workspace infested with with a critical critter csituation. APPLe floats over to try and corral the smaller critters into the little critter carriers and guide them out, bobbing along with Rabies. Yeah, Regulus thinks, taking a look at the clothes they are making. This is the worst! Poor YuRia! She's now feeling sympathetic again, dang it! But running around all over the place chasing after them seems like a good way to increase the level of critter chaos circulating rather than lessen it. So she's gonna be SMART about it. Well, okay, first she's going to take a look at what caused that ominous scrape-clunk noise over by the machinery over there and try to discover why it sounded so ominous. She sneaks over carefully to get a look, hiding her carrier behind her back but ready with the broom in case she has to sweep sweep sweep! "Nice little critters..." She murmurs.
Vantablitz Remnants	'Ah, right. Ahn, Hibiki, this is Rabies. Rabies, this is Ahn, this is Hibiki.' <<Hey. Hey Vertin. Hey what the fuck? How come it's like this? How come it's a talking apple, then a mission where people get used to grow plants out of, then it's the scary tree dimension, and now a freaky guy made of straw? Are you making fun of me? Is this a test? Are you trying to make me catch a hint? What do you know?>>] "H-hi, Rabies! G-good to see you buddy!" Ahn, who is the same as always, except frankly looking better fed and better slept since before Regulus was consigned to clean up her house, marches along stiffly in the direction of 'the place she had a tea party at recently', and then past it. She can be seen turning her head to stare yearningly at that spot on the suitcase lawn, as if begging it for help with her eyes. 'Just as I'd feared, they're quite passionate about factory work now that they've discovered it, so it's proven difficult to lure them out.' <<You're totally making fun of me!! What's your problem!? Are you mad at me for making Regulus clean up?! I said you didn't have to help! Vertiiiiiiiin!>> 'Vertin! I swear, this is an infestation!' Ahn, who is frequently made jumpy by fruits and vegetables, reacts to YuRia suddenly popping into view as if she were an unpleasantly-looking bug hanging out on a kitchen counter. She says "I thought they call it automation?" on reflex, flat-toned. She adds on "Well looks like it's hopeless I guess. It's not too late to change strategies." slightly too hastily to reply, removing a-- survival hatchet? From her backpack. Like, really fast. Just to kinda try to shove it off into YuRia's arms. "I can show you the basics." 'Other sections of the Atelier; it's quite large. YuRia may be able to find us in there, but I'd be terribly lost. I believe there's four doors operational as of now, all leading to entirely different areas.' Ahn stares at Vertin. She strikes a masterful balance between 'wet pleading eyes' and 'I'm not mad, I'm just disappointed'. "Can we . . . Minimize, the um . . . number of spooky doors? If you keep putting doors that go to giant make-believe worlds together in the same place, I think you're kinda asking for it." Yeah she's still thinking about the Motherlobe.
Vantablitz Remnants	'Rabies used to be a doctor before becoming cursed.' "Oh gosh . . ." Ahn claps her hands over her mouth and double takes back at Rabies. Now it's exclusively wet eyes. Despite staying ten feet from him the entire way here, she inexplicably lunges to throw her arms around the big straw guy and give him a hug, smushing the side of her face into his threads and saying "It's okay buddy. I know you tried your best. We're all so proud of you.", punctuated by a quiet hiccup. She looks like she could-- 'Woah, guess that makes getting around a breeze if you know what's up.' Ahn's eyes shoot open, wide enough to be threatening. Staring over her own upper arm, she looks at Regulus as if she intends to telepathically beam her a throat-slitting gesture of warning. 'Yeah I built the Warpgate--but I guess if this is like the Suitcase it isn't weird at all, though now I'm wondering if you can put Suitcases into Suitcases like one of those nesting dolls but it can actually get bigger as you go.' "Regulus." Ahn says, singsong neutral. "We're buddies now, aren't we? We buried the hatchet and everything. So there's no need to go doing stuff, right?"
Distortion Dets.	'I guess I figured since you already had those bears helping out-' "It should be fine, but it isn't. I can't mount a real defense, they'd get hurt." Whether that's because she's not allowed to, or wouldn't want to, is left un-clarified. 'I can show you the basics.' YuRia takes the axe for a moment, and examines it; no doubt to try and read into something about Ahn from her having this, retrieving it immediately, and decided YuRia must need it. With a small "Hmm..." YuRia hands it, handle-first, back to her. "That's fine. I have plenty of axes, and I know how to use them. I'll manage. Unless you need this fixed up, so it's more than just easy to carry? It's not a real weapon, it's not for traversal, do you use it for firewood or something else?" Still, YuRia doesn't really want it! 'Maybe we ought to hold classes.' Distracted enough by the sudden tool theft, YuRia chews on her index finger knuckle as she waits to get past the raising walls, and sort-of agrees to the statement- "It'd be better that they at least know what they're doing, if they're going to be here." Wherever YuRia or her bears notice the traces of carbuncles, like detached panels of the brass walling, or opened-up machines, organized little teams immediately start to look for parts to fix them back as they should- on occasion failing to, as the parts may have wound up repurposed or displaced, to be found only later at inconvenient times. For the tiny bears, whenever carbuncles approach to hassle again, they can't exactly stand their ground; but the large bears do their best to lumber after the critters, to scoop them up, and find ominous unlit chutes in flat walling to deposit them into, hopefully leading to them being ferried outside? When you think about it, maybe it's a bit like a game, for them to get yoinked up and put down a waterslide. Hopefully that isn't encouraging them. Seeing Hibiki's plight, a frustrated YuRia scampers over, navigating the industrial layout deftly- from a small tool cabinet mostly unnoticed, she pulls out decorative brass shears, holding them at her side, necessary to undo the makeshift jacket-prison, while at the same time, with the heel of her foot, slamming a stop button on the now-active conveyor line. She'd say, surely, it's to protect any down-the-line machinery from whatever might happen if a carbuncle is caught up in its workings, but it also will protect any unwary carbuncles from getting machined. Ominously loud snipping noises free Hibiki, and despite this, as YuRia manually dusts Hibiki's head off, the Workshop Meister still just mostly looks through her. Then, once that's accomplished, with a dainty little hop, YuRia descends from the conveyor to go run after the escaping carbuncles, as bears try their damndest, in tiny squads of tiny bears and lumbering beasts of large ones, to corral the critters towards other Elites and away from their projects. In Absolute Despair, every time she comes across a carbuncle project, and sees the (lack of) craftsmanship, it looks like YuRia is actively being hurt by it all having been built here. Out loud, greiving, "The clean-up this will all need, so no one else has to see this, oh, why can't they listen to signage?!"
Hibiki Tachibana	"I'll watch it!!" Hibiki calls back to YuRia behind her, remembering that she has to minimize damage to the place. She's careful when she slows herself to hop onto the stalled belt in hot pursuit, just to stumble and stagger as it starts the thing back up, catching her entirely off guard. "Gah-- they're not just curious, they actually know how to use these things!?" While she fumbles with the unfortunate fact they're making all the wrong things while also knowing exactly how to abuse the belt to throw her off, she gets jumped. She is awash in fluff, and then the world goes dark as her beloved jacket is weaponized against her. Somewhere in the muffles that this turnabout has caused, there's a remark about how they can be this cute, but also this devious. They really /are/ like cats. Poofy, mischevious cats. Rabies was right... Thankfully, YuRia saves her from having to do drastic measures... by snip-snipping it off her head. "...Thanks a bunch, YuRia--" she manages before scrunching her eyes shut briefly as her head gets dusted off, grimacing a bit as she hops back to it. Deciding to ball up the remains of her jacket and leave it on the spot for the moment, Hibiki exhales and grabs at the pendant hanging from her neck as the poor Meister laments over the state of things. A plan has formed in her mind, which she murmurs to herself as if to ensure it doesn't sound ridiculous. To herself. "...If they're curious about machinery, and want it to themselves... maybe I can get them to come to me, instead of having to chase them all down. That, or I end up with my scarf looped around my head next time... Balwisyall nescell Gungnir tron...!" A flash of golden light obscures her body, and by the time it's faded, she's /already/ caught up to YuRia... and running /past/ her in fresh pursuit of the troublemakers - muffler trailing behind her, her civilian outfit replaced by the oranges and whites and blacks of her Symphogear's undersuit, and every step coming with the metallic impact of her armored boots on the factory floor. "Hey! If you guys are fans of everything YuRia's got here, I've got something for you...!" She only diverts from her path to try and snatch up a few of them directly that have gone and gotten taken for a ride on a press. She can't just leave them like that...
Vantablitz Remnants	'That's fine. I have plenty of axes, and I know how to use them. I'll manage. Unless you need this fixed up, so it's more than just easy to carry? It's not a real weapon, it's not for traversal, do you use it for firewood or something else?' Ahn stares, agog, as YuRia hands the axe back to her. She glances down, at her feet, then glances back up, and says in tones bordering on nauseated awe, "Are you sure you should be touching all this grass?" She wobbles back one step, and holds the hatchet in her hands out at arms length, as if suddenly expecting it to have become a biohazard. She hesitates before even putting it away again. "N-no, that's fine. I fix up all my own stuff anyways. I don't trust anything I didn't invent or make myself, so . . ." Begone. Begone back to your teddybear's union strike picnic level.
Timekeeper	"I thought they call it automation?" Vertin's unparalleled social perception allows them to pay attention to a woman's face and notice the fact that Ahn appears to be shifting through the five stages of grief during the walk through the forest. When Ahn finally slips into being vocally upset, Vertin decides she has to step in and attempt first aid despite having no clue what's freaking her out so badly. "Not a fan of the Atelier, are you?" Of course, Ahn is a survivalist, so is she unhappy about... the concept of industrialization? Vertin snaps a carbuncle by creeping up behind it, and when she wraps it in her arms, it's oddly soothed and contented enough for her to pet. "I wouldn't worry about it, if it's that. The Atelier is entirely safe on its own, and it'll only intersect with the suitcase when necessary." "If you keep putting doors that go to giant make-believe worlds together in the same place, I think you're kinda asking for it." Vertin gently strokes the carbuncle in her arms, displaying no hint of pain while it bloodlessly gnaws on her exposed forearm. Ahn's scolding does work, in a practical sense, causing them to furrow their brow. "Ah... hm. That may be true. Without a full grasp of the suitcase's spacial warping arcanum, it may be reckless to add another portal like this to the wilderness before getting a full examination of its properties." Heading towards the door with her one carbuncle in hand, she calls over her shoulder, "The Atelier's been stable enough, though!" "I know you tried your best. We're all so proud of you.", Rabies comes to a slow, hobbling stop when he realizes he's being hugged, gently maneuvering his bulk around to not topple over Ahn. He makes a wordless questioning rumble and carefully lifts his arm while a critter hangs off his elbow by its teeth, and then wraps it around Ahn in return. "A... licia? Gooood. Friend Ali... cia . . ." Then just as slowly, he ends the hug, and resumes tottering towards the door. As explanation, he plucks a carbuncle off of the back of his vest and holds it. "Woof woof woof woof woof!" "It'd be better that they at least know what they're doing, if they're going to be here." "It'd be nice if they were able to behave themselves, wouldn't it? Perhaps they'd be satisfied by a workshop of their own, so they can participate without getting in the way. That's how I've managed to keep them off of the tables outdoors." Really, the carbuncles aren't as interested in 'machinery, in of itself' as they are 'machinery and how people interact with it', but Hibiki Tachibana is a new and flashy piece of machinery and she's running around right in front of them. They might also smell the perfect comedy opportunity of wrapping the scarf around her face, because several carbuncles clamber on top of each other from the factory floor to reach Hibiki-height (it takes shockingly few), and the one on top of the stack leeaaaaaans to try and grab the scarf from behind as she passes.
Timekeeper	They're thwarted by the fact that they're little cat sized greebles and Hibiki is very strong! When the stack tumbles from getting snatched, the squeals of complaint of all of the carbuncles fades away rapidly as they're carried away by swarms of tiny bears and deposited into laundry chutes. Caught between Hibiki and one of the large bears, one carbuncle runs back and forth in a panic, bushing up its fur so that it's visible as nothing but a black cloud and two big bugeyes. It stops in the middle once it's penned in, reaching up its little hands to cover its head and squeaking pathetically, but when Hibiki leans down to pick it up, it switches to a maniacal chortle instead. Clutched in its tiny hands is a remote with one singular big red button, and pressing it activates a catapult that falls apart upon firing, but launches a big sheet of fabric over top Hibiki. Regulus slowly rounds the corner of one tall brass processing machine, where metal scrapes on metal and a chorus of tiny squeaky giggles can be heard. Revealed behind it is a taller-than-Regulus mecha made out of brass gears and glass parts, wobbling on two legs with hydraulic presses, with a trio of carbuncles gathered in the top. When she shows her face, they simultaneously make a singular loud AAAAAAAA, and the mecha charges her down.
Regulus	''They'd get hurt.'' Regulus imagines bears with stuffing ripped out of them and the like and shakes her head. "Oh--yeah, can't have that." She admits. Can carbuncles read? Surely they can't, Regulus thinks. She's never run into so many critters in one location before. In the Wilderness they're usually a lot more spread out... ''So there's no need to go doing stuff, right?'' "Huh?" Regulus has no idea what Ahn is worried about. "Um, no?" She pauses. "What stuff are we talking about here?" She thinks back. "Oh I'm just wondering!" She tries to reassure her, tapping the side of her head in a manner that might be a bit frightening. It's easy to imagine Regulus tapping the side of her head like that before she gets into ANTICS. But at least, for now, there doesn't seem to be antics and she doesn't seem INTENT on violating the don't do stuff principal. But obviously, having doors in trees HERE is different. These are good trees. Not government trees. But she is a little suspicious about doors in trees all the same. Maybe it'll work out, even if she's partial to Vertin's schemes as a general rule. And she's further convinced to not be reckless with Vertin agreeing with Ahn. See! It worked out! ''THE MYSTERIOUS AND OMINOUS NOISE'' REGULUS TYPICAL LUCK ACTIVATION! Regulus immediately runs into a mecha. Granted, it's a mecha that's 'taller than Regulus' not, well, a giant robot. But her mouth drops open for a moment in stunned silence. "Um... YuRia!! They made a robot! It's--AHHH BUGGER BUGGER IT ALL SHITE!" She comes running around the cornr, the mecha chasing after her. "APPLE!" She shouts, all letters capitalized for the occassion. "Do something! These crazy carbuncles have constructed a contraption!" APPLe, dutifully, throws his broom at it--creating a dangerous situation where the mecha might become ARMED with a broom if they catch it fast enough. The pure shock of running into something like this preempts any opportunity for Regulus to try going invisible. "Summon the Applemachine!" "Captain, the Applemachine isn't finished yet--"
Distortion Dets.	'Are you sure you should be touching all this grass?' YuRia stares through Ahn, and blinks. "I don't get it." She doesn't seem too bothered by this fact. "I'm a trustworthy inventor. You could trust me! But I wouldn't trust anyone else's work to be better than what I could do, either." YuRia seems... happy to agree, sort of? Huh. 'Perhaps they'd be satisfied by a workshop of their own,' Still distracted, but actually giving it the thought it deserves, YuRia puts her hand to her chin to mull it over. "If it's what you want added to the task list, it's... doable." Somewhere, a series of bears are scrawling out plans on a whiteboard. . . . '...If they're curious about machinery, and want it to themselves...' Uh oh, Hibiki! It isn't just carbuncles that are curious about machinery! Running past YuRia, she might not see that, now, actually, YuRia's eyes properly lock on her, wide and curious- if she'd really had a chance to look at the pendant, it's possible she might have been somewhat similarly curious, but this is something delightful. Who would have known that a kind of awkward stranger (that YuRia has definitely met before, possibly memorably so, for a while) had interesting and likely magical equipment! Unfortunately, YuRia, while unbothered by the precarious terrain of her own Atelier, moves at the speed of a normal speedwalk. Fortunately, this means, that despite immediately deciding she's chasing after Hibiki, she's still a ways back when Hibiki and the bear helping her corner the trap-setting carbuncle are catapulted with the oldest trick in the book: a big blanket to catch someone. While tiny teddy bears immediately swarm to further-disassemble and clean up the catapult remains, YuRia, with an utter lack of shame, picks up the edge of the mahou-capturing sheet, and ducks under it herself, with Hibiki. Distressingly close to her face, YuRia says, "You were holding out on me!" "You have to tell me all about what this is, you have to!" Tapping on some of the armor plating of the symphogear user's arm, and ambiently being so, so in the way of Hibiki actually getting free of the sheet, YuRia is simply capitalizing on the efforts of the carbuncles. "Is this armor, or something else? Did you keep it stowed away, or was it some sort of trick, and this is what you're always like? Do you have a name for it?" Poor Hibiki. From somewhere, YuRia has equipped a screwdriver. God help Hibiki.
Vantablitz Remnants	'Not a fan of the Atelier, are you?' "Staying in the Motherlobe didn't do it any favours, but that's not the point." Ahn mumbles. Now that Vertin is actually asking her, she feels a little bit childish about this. "Isn't it, you know, just kind of cynical? You only just discovered this whole magical land, all pristine and untouched and full of wonders, you know? And it's special, and just for you, and she's--" Ahn goes to gesture emphatically, then awkwardly stuffs her hands into her pockets instead. "--moved in to strip it down and turn it into a profit. You heard her. The first thing she asked was if it could infinitely replace stuff." Ahn tries to play off the fact that she's sulking, unsuccessfully, by saying, "The City is awful and the less of it touches anything else the better." and meaning it anyways. 'Ah... hm. That may be true. Without a full grasp of the suitcase's spacial warping arcanum, it may be reckless to add another portal like this to the wilderness before getting a full examination of its properties.' Effective means. Effective means. Effective means. Come on girl, effective means. "Yeah. So. Um. Maybe don't add any more doors for now." Nailed it. It can't last anyways. Not two minutes later, '... licia? Gooood. Friend Ali... cia . . .' "Yeah . . . You're a real good friend and Alicia is really proud of you." says Ahn, releasing Rabies, who has previously scared the shit out of her, with a squeeze on the arm and a trailing-off touch. She waits a while before daring to actually ask Vertin, but, "Hey Vertin. Did . . ." She reaches for words, and has to settle for hoping the ones she has are good enough. "Did he win? In the end?" 'What stuff are we talking about here?' "Stuff." Ahn says, full of unclear emphasis. "The kind of stuff that maybe ends up with your apology to turnips getting strained." Well that's a little more clear. "You already learned from Flamel." Ahn declares, nods to herself, and then Decides. 'I don't get it.' "Yeah figured." Ahn mutters under her breath. 'I'm a trustworthy inventor. You could trust me! But I wouldn't trust anyone else's work to be better than what I could do, either.' "Sorry but I don't think I'd trust anything from the City. It seems like people are always making stuff they don't really understand using stuff where they don't know how it works and at the end of the line somewhere there's a dead person in some kind of box and it's all--" Ahn takes a deep breath. "If I work it all out myself then I automatically know exactly what kinda emergencies it can handle and how to fix it." Beat. "And there's no dead people in it." Seeking some kind of solidarity, Ahn unfairly picks out Regulus, points to YuRia, and says "She'd definitely ignore the skull." like it's a kind of popular joke YuRia isn't in on. "Right? Turned into a plant so fast." Is this supposed to be implying it's okay for Regulus to come over because she's trustworthy? Is it even doing that? 'You were holding out on me!' "Do you want your stupid build-a-bear workshop cleaned out or not?!" Ahn whines, invoking the late 90s again. She pivots to "This wasn't a trick, was it?!" next, then steps back, turning her left side away and clutching her arms to her chest as if YuRia were somehow a threat to her modesty.
Vantablitz Remnants	'Captain, the Applemachine isn't finished yet--' Perfect segue! Ahn has decided to: Do Her Job! She did actually come prepared to catch carbuncles, even if she spent most of her time bickering one-sidedly at YuRia, so Ahn doesn't have to figure much out. Her backpack quickslots yield what looks like tightly wound balls of black string, fixed in place with a water-filled clear epoxy spindle straight through the middle, which she pulls-- literally a repurposed grenade pin from? Before throwing! The first one bursts open with a puff of hot steam, then the second one, unravelling into loose tangles of wispy thread that flash-hydrate and become sticky resinous webs. She throws one at the mech's legs first, then another at the carbuncles up top when they scarper; she'll pop the hatch herself with a crowbar if they won't! The sticky thread attaches weirdly well to the ground. Like 'it suddenly grew roots' well. It smells unfortunately unpleasant up close, but it's oddly tough, and the pieces grow back together when Ahn uses a survival knife to cut Critters out of it.
Hibiki Tachibana	Girl in magimechanical armor, strong. The details are slightly off, but making herself a big shiny target worked out well enough, so all's well that ends well. Like this, nothing like mere conveyor belt shenanigans will put her down again, and the fact she is a blatantly open mark to mess with is an advantage more than anything else for once. She nods decisively as the stack of critters are all contained for the moment thanks to the timely work of the bears. But then, it happens. Underneath her scarf, her lips purse tight, and her eyes squint. A sound of emotional strain comes low from her throat, and she averts her eyes through extreme effort. Ah, damnit. They're so... fluffy. And those big eyes staring up at her seem to make all the strength leave her arms. When it's scrambling around in a panic like that, she starts thinking... maybe they're not so bad. They get up to trouble, sure, but if you treat them right, they're probably not actually that bad. "C'mere, little guy. I won't hurt--" She reaches down to gently pick it up, a significant amount of the wind taken out of her sails, just to stare as it pulls out... "...Huh?" She looks up at the encroaching shadow right before the falling sheet completely covers her. There's a lot of power she's packing, but when you're sputtering in surprise and dealing with loose cloth, it doesn't really do a lot right away. "This is the second time!! Why are they so good at sewing!?" Just when she thinks she's free, once again thanks to the timely aid of YuRia, she cuts herself off before she even starts beginning to thank her. Because she's suddenly face to face with her, leaning back automatically just from the suddenness of it. "U-Uh... I was?" She doesn't even get to ask what she was holding out on either, because she gets a very in-depth interrogation about exactly that. She sort of just holds her arm up as it's poked, as if looking for what she's looking for, staggerlocked at this happening while she's still stuck under here. "Wha-- it's sort of armor, but also more than-- it came from my penda-- huh?? N-No, I'm normal, though I guess I used to have pieces-- it's called Gungn--" She tries (and fails) to keep up with the mile a minute questioning, just for her rapidly blinking and spinning eyes to widen and turn towards the screwdriver with the look of someone looking at fast approaching death. "H-Hey, YuRia-- it's not really designed to be... removable or... messed with while it's... on me... so, er..." She makes a break for it. She ducks low and tries to /scramble/ out from underneath the sheet, clawing for freedom. Why is all of this happening to her today?
Regulus	''She'd definitely ignore the skull!'' Ahn didn't add the ! there, Regulus did mentally when she heard Ahn say it. Regulus is adding a lot of !s to what people say right now. "I'd definitely ignore the skull!" Regulus already used a ! there so she mentally adds a second ! so that it's skull!! not skull! She is pretty keen on this strategy of adding !s. Regulus is eager for Solid-Ahn-rity herself right now. And only partially because of the small mecha chasing after her. "Not that there's anything wrong with being a plant!" She adds, since she's worried by implication she has something against apples. APPLe blushes faintly. He's a little more red than normal. "My hero!" Regulus calls over to Ahn, whose reputation score is SOARING in Regulus's book now. A critter has helpfully placed a banana peel in Regulus's escape route as she's about to turn back 'round to help. She hops over it deftly only to slip on the banana that was hiding behind the banana peel, falling flat on her back, knocking up the banana peel with the flailing of her broom so it spins briefly in the air and then lands on Regulus's face. "I jufft wanted to hepp.." She says as APPLe loyally pull plucks the banana peel off of Regulus's face with one of his stick figure hands.
Timekeeper	"The City is awful and the less of it touches anything else the better." Throughout this entire ordeal, Vertin remains calm in a way that's unusual for her, almost like she's relaxed. Her jacket is slung over her shoulder to use as a soft shield against the carbuncles if they get feisty, but she's very adept at just calmly and steadily removing them from the premises, occasionally taking a few dislodged mechanical pieces and gears with her and tossing them into the woods outside. One carbuncle is dangling from its teeth from a piece of cloth stuck in one of YuRia's machines, wriggling around to free itself, and Vertin carefully extracts its teeth while responding to Ahn with full sincerity. "I don't disagree on principle. There's just one thing I'd like to bring up as a counterpoint." Vertin frees the carbuncle and places it on the ground to see if it'll run towards the door on its own. It immediately swivels back around and tries to dart through her legs to get back to the cloth, so she lunges and snatches it before it does. "Ah- mm, that is, YuRia is a person from the City. Not the City itself. The Atelier could be considered the same." She nods to Ahn, reassuringly certain. "The sprawling machinery of the Atelier can only ever be from an 'individual's aspirations, not a system's, and not the whole City's. And an individual can be negotiated with. I've set limits on how much she can harvest per month, and on the visibility of the encroachment of the Atelier into the wilderness, and I'm not one to be haggled with on that." She seems like she's ending the thought there, but she pauses and turns back towards Ahn a few steps past her to the door. "I could never be happy with it being 'just for me', besides. I'd like to create a world where it's correct to rely on each other." Vertin tilts her head slightly, a nearly-imperceptible appreciative smile touching her lips. "So thank you, but there's no need to worry." While Hibiki and YuRia are wrestling under a sheet, they're surrounded by loud hammering noises on all sides. By the time Hibiki bursts out, the carbuncles have bolted (hitting bolts with hammers) sheets of brass into a box around them, trying to imprison them. In her blind flailing to escape a woman's interest in her body, Hibiki pretty much shatters the entire flimsy construct with one swing of her gauntlet, causing the carbuncle builders to topple to the ground. The one who baited her into the trap bounces to rest right between her feet, looking up at her with an embarrassed expression knowing that this is the end of the line. With big wet eyes, it drops the remote, and then flips over onto its back and droops all of its limbs to dramatically play dead. "Did he win? In the end?" Vertin watches the interaction between Rabies and Ahn from a small distance, until Rabies diligently returns to his duty shepherding armloads of carbuncles outside. ""... He did. He was a traveling doctor, visiting a town that was in the grips of a mysterious disease with a guaranteed fatality rate. We still don't know what it was, but when he was taken to the Foundation in this state, they were all cured. By a miracle worker doctor, they said." She adds after a short silence, "Alicia was the name of the first person he managed to immunize against the disease."
Timekeeper	"It's--AHHH BUGGER BUGGER IT ALL SHITE!" That moment ends with a bang, when the mech chasing Regulus slams into every conveyor belt and piece of machinery in its path. It's only half-finished, with one arm ending at the elbow and gadgets and gizmos falling out of its torso with every step, but it's enough to charge and flail menacingly at Regulus while the critters inside laugh. Vertin whirls around, eyes widening. "Regulus!" APPLe tosses a broom at the carbuncles, and the mecha isn't at all dextrous enough to catch it. It thwacks against the glass dome cockpit, causing the mech to come to a stop and teeter before revving back up again. Which leads immediately into the mech getting caught by Ahn's vine balls and falling over. The arm flails around and tries to pull the vines away at first, but soon the panicked carbuncles inside start bickering over the controls and pulling them every which way, rolling the machine around in the vines until it's stuck even worse than before. In the midst of fighting for control over the one lever in the middle of the control panel, Ahn's shadow falls over them and they all look guiltily up at her. Their escape is cut short in the next panel, where they have made it three feet away from the mech in a last desperate dash. While she's cutting them free, Rabies wanders over to help her, squatting down and simply tearing one out of the vines with one straw tuft hand. "Loud . . . dog . . ." He groans, sagely.
Vantablitz Remnants	'Ah- mm, that is, YuRia is a person from the City. Not the City itself. The Atelier could be considered the same.' Ahn sighs through pursed lips. Her hands end up back in her pockets. Despite it being Vertin, and thus speaking in the most understated manner imaginable, Ahn looks a little bit like a woman put out by her partner saying 'and that's final!'. "Okay, well . . ." Ahn looks for a rock to kick, and can't find one, thus heightening her sense of defeat. "She's mean and annoying and selfish and won't take anything seriously." Ahn says, using up the last of what she has in the tank, and describing, really, the core of the one-sided conflict in the process. "If you're taking precautions, I guess." she pouts. "But for real be careful with the doors okay?" 'Alicia was the name of the first person he managed to immunize against the disease.' Ahn takes a deep breath just so she can let it all out when she needs to. She putters around in a little circle, chewing on that for a while, and conveniently has an excuse to be looking in a different direction. "Now I feel kinda arrogant telling him I'm proud of him. Haha." 'Loud . . . dog . . .' Ahn puffs out air trying to focus on the task instead. "Thanks Rabies." she says, lowering her voice yet again. "I'm gonna have to show off more. I'm the last person who should be needing your help . . ."
Distortion Dets.	'And there's no dead people in it.' Flat stare, "I don't use corpses as a material in anything. I also don't make anything I don't understand. I like to understand things. Doesn't everyone?" Still somewhat in one-sided agreement, Ahn gets a little bit of the YuRia stamp of methodology agreement; a short nod and "Doing it all yourself is good for that. I do it that way, too." Tilting her head to the side, "If a skull was around I'd clean it out of here, because I don't work with corpses. I wouldn't ignore it. But I think it's a myth that skulls can turn anything else into plants." What? . . . 'H-Hey, YuRia-- it's not really designed to be... removable or... messed with while it's... on me...' "I won't break it. I'll be careful!" YuRia is one to take advantage of Hibiki's stunned compliance, unceremoniously poking and prodding around the characteristic gauntlets of Gungnir. That's, also, where she's aiming that horrifying normal screwdriver, spotting somehow that the mechanism to them is Strange and Probably Openable. "Came out of something so small? It's definitely something more than just mechanics, isn't it? More than armor? So. Tell me. What does it do?" Unfortunately, Hibiki does escape. Bummer! She'll get another shot someday, surely, though. It's too bad that the carbuncle's efforts in concocting a new prison are so quickly stifled! Sure, they shouldn't be doing it at all, but it would have been convenient this time actually! Standing there, poking at her own cheek with the tip of the screwdriver, YuRia sighs. "Another time? Can I borrow the pendant, maybe, if you're squeamish while wearing it? That's when it's able to be taken apart, yes?" Hibiki is saved from YuRia when the fight with the carbuncle mech starts to do more and more damage to the conveyor belts of her factory, cursing, tucking the screwdriver into a pocket, and dashing off to help mitigate the wreckage with a task force of adorable teddy bears. In the ensuing wind-down, that's a lot of what YuRia focuses on- bears can assist with the ushering-out of guilty cornered carbuncles, of course. Multitasking is easy if you're operating a one-woman infinite factory.
Hibiki Tachibana	"Ah." Well, she didn't even /plan/ to destroy this latest trap the carbuncles set up... nor did she know they were even doing it in all that chaos under there. These things are dangerously wily, and as fluffy critters tumble down all around her, she stops on the spot mid-escape as her eyes slowly turn to fall down at the little mastermind itself. A long stare is given down to it as it tries to play dead, looming over it... ...and then she takes a knee to pick it up in both hands, sighing down at it. "...Honestly, I hate that I can't even be that mad at you guys." And much like a cat herself, she goes stiff with her hairs standing on end when YuRia speaks up again from behind her, having apparently forgot about that entirely in the five seconds since it happened. "I, uh..." She sputters without turning around, shufling her feet. "...It's not exactly-- something I can just let anyone poke around... it's--... ..." Fortunately, she's saved from having to get into deeper things about what her little transformation greeble means to her and how it's technically technology that can't get into just anybody's hands, but that can be saved for another day now! Hibiki lets out a much larger sigh of relief than she thought she'd be making today as the Meister runs off to pull damage control. Leaving her with the carbuncle she's holding, and the rest of its motley crew. "...Hah." She gives it a few pats. "Alright, let's get you all together before you dash off again. Seriously, if you get taught how to do this stuff right, I don't think I'd be able to actually catch you..." What a scary thought...