hadriel_logs | We'll sight the shores of islands

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We'll sight the shores of islands

Who: Crewmembers of the Law-Curufin-Floki sailing fleet + OTA
What: The three ships and their crews finally make landfall after many weeks at sea! Come greet your friends (?) on their return as they disembark and bring the fragments to the lab - or meet them for the first time if you've just arrived!
Where: Island shoreline, or anywhere
When: September 19th
Warnings: Will update as needed but nothing terrible expected here unless someone hugs a Door fragment too close.

Just over four weeks ago, the three boats set off in search of some of the more distant Door fragments. Under the experienced eyes and hands of a few seasoned ocean voyagers, the crew has suffered boredom, kraken attacks, stormy weather, a captain gone mad with the chaos of the fragments themselves - and perhaps most notably, a trio of Null that were waiting at one of the locations.

But as the sight of islands loomed ahead once again, they finally were sure of one thing - they had all made it back alive.">

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Alphys had known Law's crew was coming back with some fragments- after speaking to him on the network, she was anticipating about the day they would arrive. She's spent some time with the one that Barry and his family brought back, but-- there's a lot of possibilities going forward. There's the chance that these things give off different signatures, or have different powers, or... well, maybe they have been duped. Who knows.

Still, after she's gotten these, this other woman in the group still seems to be lingering. Alphys isn't really certain if she's met her before- or if she has the right to say anything, since the Lab is a public space- but there's no use in trying to be friendly, so she waits until she's looking her way to give her a little wave.

"Hey, uh-- h-hey! Do you need anything, or, uhm... help, or something?"

Edited 2018-09-19 19:08 (UTC)

Just because Caedra has been talked into letting the people at the lab collect the Door fragments doesn't mean she likes it. Letting go of something so powerful, letting other people keep an eye on them, trusting them to keep them away from the false gods - none of it sits well with her.

The others leave. Caedra remains, arms folded over her chest as she meets the gaze of what she's always taken to be just a particularly small dragonborn. One from an interesting world, too - for as she's come to find, anything that isn't 'Earth' is fairly unique here. And didn't this one say she had built an intelligent golem of some sort?

Those questions can come later. For now, Caedra's black eyes fix on the little creature. "You're Alphys, right? What's your plan for those?" she asks, tipping her head slightly in the direction of the boxes. "Everyone seems content to let you study them. What does that involve?"

Man, she wishes she was a dragonborn. Caedra is like the fourth or fifth person to think that and every time she just wishes it was true. At least then she could breathe something cool and be related to dragons or something. Instead she's just a squishy little nerd.

Regardless, she blinks at her question, trying to think of a way to put it that makes sense to someone who may not be scientifically inclined. "Well, it... it's g-going to involve a lot of things. I'm going to start by tracking their magical signature, seeing if it matches the Door and the levels they give off apart and together." Alphys is gesturing a bit with her hands, though it doesn't make much sense in the context of the conversation, turning them over one another as she speaks. "Do you, uh... have any information about them? How they reacted, or, uh, w-were acquired? Anything would help."

The way these people always word things is still strange to her, but she does nod along to Alphys' explanation, which she's able to follow well enough. She may not know the machines that some of these people love so much, or the jargon they've invented to speak about them, but she's picked up a little here and there, and yet finds that sentence refreshingly free of most of it. Good, someone who can actually communicate, even if in vague terms.

She hesitates, though, to answer the questions posed to her. Giving anything away for free, even information that's generally available to a few other people already, doesn't come easily. "I do," she says with the slightest touch of reluctance, but then seems to acquiesce. "I was one of the divers to retrieve those. In fact, I went down alone to the one that turned out to have been guarded by Null. I've handled the fragments directly, and I've seen others do so. I know the effects they seem to have on the mind."

As she watches Alphys, she leans casually back against a table. "But if you want those details, you'll have to agree to my terms."

Perhaps thankfully, Alphys works largely in the theoretical and in magic; it's easier to explain in layman's terms. She could go into the more complex electronic information of how the devices she uses figure out the information, but she doubts most people would be interested.

That said, as soon as Caedra admits to her role, Alphys' spines perk up. "Oh! Y-You must be Caedra, then! Law talked about you being one of the divers with Glacius, so you're perfect for--"

Alphys cuts herself off as the woman speaks her last line, and tries not to let her face fall too much. "Terms? I mean, I, I w-won't talk about this publicly, but, there are other researchers here... plus, I can't do all of this alone."

"Don't worry, they're quite simple. I do expect you'll need to collaborate with other researchers here, and I don't require that the information I give you be kept confidential. However, I do need you to agree that whatever happens, these fragments are not to be handed over to the gods unless we've exhausted all other possibilities first."

There's an intensity to Caedra's voice that mounts as she speaks, and although her full height isn't much, this is one of the few people she actually manages to be able to look down at and she absolutely does so now. As far as intimidation goes, she could do much worse - but Alphys seems nervous enough on a normal day. No need to cause her to break down too far or she won't be of much use.

She gulps as Caedra looms over her, tapping her claws in anxious motions as she meets the other woman's gaze. That... makes sense. Law was anti-god enough to build his own boat- it tracks that they wouldn't want these getting int their hands. It makes her uneasy, but... it wouldn't be the first time she lied to them for the greater good.

The question, of course, is if this is the greater good.

"I, uhm... I know this may sound silly, but, uh." She's almost scared to ask, but her curiosity outweighs it for what she thinks is an innocuous enough question. "Can I, uh... a-ask why? I know Law was, uhm, really against working with them, but... what about you?"

She's been a little out of the loop about Caedra's whole... everything. Whoops.

Ah, so it goes. Really, though, it's an easy question to answer, and Caedra doesn't mind at all.

"I don't trust them. They want to survive, and that means keeping us here so we can fight the Null for them, since they seem unable to do so directly. Many of us want to go home - and they won't allow that. They'll use the Door against our friends from home, too, if they have better control of it. You realize that, right? They'll just draw more people in to pit against these killer machines. They're using us against our will and they will do the same to anyone you care about if given the opportunity."

She doesn't know much about Alphys, and doesn't know enough about her research on machines to really play up that angle reliably. But most mortals tend to be swayed by emotional arguments like these. Perhaps this will work well enough.

Besides, it's not hard for Caedra to sound earnest about it, because while it's a manipulative set of reasons, even she can sympathize just a little with that viewpoint. Her son, her grandson - they have important things to do. She doesn't want them here, much as she misses them. They don't need to suffer like she has.

It's not an unknown or otherwise impossible answer. People have every reason not to trust them, if they're people. It's a fault of her race, if you want to be manipulative- monsters trust, monsters are kind. It's just not wired into her.

"I, uh... t-that makes sense." Alphys tries to tamp down on the fear, the anxiety of this woman's apparent dedication to this thought. She's not wrong- Alphys wouldn't want to see her friends die. But to see the Surface... it's a hard bargain. Especially since Alphys has actually endured the Null attack, and met ones who only wanted to learn. It's a lot. It's just a lot.

"Well, I, uhm... your fragments aren't the only ones here, so, I c-can't speak for the ones other people collected. But I won't give them yours-- I mean, not that I'd be giving anyone anything that wasn't mine, but uh, if someone wants me to give them, yours won't be in it. Okay?"

Her smile is still nervous, but she thinks that's a reasonable enough strike of a bargain.

"Fine," she agrees after a moment of considering it. "And I'm reasonable, I do want to go home and if this is the only way then I'll allow it. But only if you've grown certain there's nothing else to be done."

It's an irritating set of options. The mortals aren't likely to have the sort of abilities to do much with the fragments, but at least she can push them around easier to get her way. The false gods aren't likely to do anything she wants, are only likely to continue to torture and imprison her here where she can't be with the only people in this multiverse who matter to her. She doesn't believe they'll ever help her, but they certainly have the ability to do so.

Nothing good can come of this, and she hates everyone involved, basically. Lose-lose.

She nods, maybe too hastily, because what other options does she have? She can sympathize with those who are eagar to go home, but it isn't her priority, for sure. She just kind of fell into all this Door stuff, and it's coming to a head in a way she never imagined. She didn't mean to become Hadriel's only Door expert- it just kind of happened. And now here she is.

"Of course! I mean, uhm, I'm g-gonna do my best to figure out what I can, see if I can get them to have any effect on the Door." Alphys knows full well she likely won't be able to do anything directly with them, but now is NOT the time to say that. "I can let you know if I find anything, uh, I guess?"

"All right. That won't be hard to do, as I expect I'll be here frequently as long as they are. Nate and I both wanted to have a look at all of them once they were brought in. Is there a free table to work at?"

If not, she'll make one by clearing stuff off of someone else's desk. Her needs are far more important than others'.

"Uhh, I--" Caedra's moving before Alphys really has time to react or put together the words coming out of her mouth, so she just scurries after as fast as she can and tries to keep up physically and mentally. "Depends what you want to work on, I mean, I w-was going to run some preliminary tests! So if you, uh, know anything about shielding or exposure like you mentioned, we could take a look together...?"

Her smile is still strained, but she's trying to be as accommodating as possible. More interest means more research, right? More research means more answers?

Well, that's really all she can hope for at this point.

"No, no, none of that," she replies, waving a hand like it's completely unimportant to her, though she does stop to look down at Alphys. "I mean, I know what I experienced, but I don't know anything about the cause behind it. No, Nate and I were going to try and see if we could translate the carvings on the surfaces of the things, we just wanted to have a look at all of them together. More material to work from."

And she doesn't mind saying so; it lends credibility to her desire to just take over a spot and camp out where she can keep an eye on the fragments and ensure they're not just handed over to the gods by people who think that's really the best way to handle the whole situation.

"Oh! Oh." Well that's exceedingly more reasonable, and not something she has basically any experience in, so it'll be better to have someone looking into it regardless. For all she knows, there's instructions just written on there that they can't understand, so yeah, having someone take a crack at that is perfect. "Okay! That t-totally makes sense, uhm. Yeah, we can make some space..."

"Good. Go on, then," she replies, and waves with a hand as if to shoo Alphys off. "Wherever is convenient."

The particular location doesn't matter, she'll let Alphys decide that. Probably will make the little creature feel better that Caedra doesn't actually seem to want to just storm in here and knock things to the floor in order to make herself some room. She would do that, of course - gladly - but she's even more content with someone doing the work for her. She does miss having servants, after all.

Well, she's come to the right place if she wants someone to do something for her, considering how Alphys is effectively always. Caedra's also right in that it makes Alphys feel better to be able to partition the space- it makes Caedra feel more like a new member of the team than someone invading the building. Thankfully, due to a recent departure, they have a desk with some workspace not far from Alphys'. She hastily gathers the items on it, some fine tools, pressing them to her chest as she moves back to dump them on her desk. "Is this o-okay? Let me know if you, uh, need anything, or tools or something."

"Yes, that's fine. Paper and pens should be sufficient. If Nate needs something more, he'll let you know directly."

Because Caedra is sure not going to babysit the guy. She pulls out her phone with its photos as if to start working, though really she's not in any major hurry to be doing so, but then it occurs to her -

"Oh, one last thing. Do you have any easy method of making these images larger?" she asks abruptly, holding out the phone as if to indicate what images she means. It's a bit of a reach - her own experience would indicate that illusion might be the easiest way to do this, but perhaps this strange lab has methods she doesn't know about for displaying or printing pictures from these odd phones.

Her head spines prick upwards when Caedra asks her one more question, and tilts her head for a moment before lifting her hands, giving a little finger waggle.

"You know, I-- yeah, I do! If you don't mind, I don't know if I have, uh, a d-direct line right now but I can make one to get the communicators hooked up to the computer. From there, if the images are high-def, we should be able to make them bigger!" Honestly, Caedra has given her a project and shown a willingness to work, meaning now she's a little more endeared. "So maybe not this exact second, but-- give me just a little bit, okay? I bet I can make an adapter."

"Oh?" That's a pleasant surprise. Not only does the creature have a means to do so, she actually seems eager to achieve it. The type, then, who is eager to serve, to prove herself useful.

Good. If only more of these people could adopt that particular kind of attitude.

"Go ahead, then. But do make it quick," she insists, for allowing the thing to have all the time she wants to work on a project isn't a precedent she wants to set.

Oh, Caedra's got her number all right. But she nods, giving a smile. Surely, this is just the start of a path to a wonderful friendship...!

"Right! I'll uh, I'll let you know!" And she scampers across the Lab to do exactly that.

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We'll sight the shores of islands

lab!

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