VVVVVigil: Valorous Veterans Vanquishing Venal Vermin

[5a Violista]

[Skybase - Academy indoor Training Facilities]

To undo the summoning, first Awen has to get to the summoning circle. Luckily, with that thing locked in a life-or-death struggle with its shadow, she has some time. Unfortunately, with her broken ribs and now-bleeding arm and everything else, everything hurts too much to concentrate, or even run.

And so, she tries one more spell by placing a handprint-shaped blood thing around her neck. With only a minor spell, she manages to temporarily rewrite her brain so that it craves pain and confuses pain and pleasure.

After that, she's in bliss. She has never felt this good before, and forgets why people even try to avoid pain in the first place.
She can now run without worrying about a limp, and think without wincing.

She reaches the summoning circle and begins analyzing it: what's the anchor of it? What part brought that thing here? Where's its life force coming from, and so on.

Unfortunately, just at that moment, the beast manages to tear its shadow apart to pieces, and it turns towards the witch once again.
...
I'm a little worried about Awen: rather than trying to dodge the attack, she might actually lean in.

[Recaiden]

[Lower Village - Alice's House]

"On this scale it's more cost then it is worth." Mia replies. "Especially when you already got problems with energy. I would suggest you remove that from your drohnes and either makes astation here so they can be treated or you make your own device with them to carry around. This way you will have less, but it will benefit all the drones."

"You're right, aren't you?"
Alice sends a few shutdown signals to the self-repair components, and reaches over to take them out of the first of the drones.
"It will certainly be a weight improvement, though I'll need to change the design a bit to work with an external source." She sounds a bit distracted, already thinking about it.
"Thanks, Mia."

[Dragons Arriving]

Calm Reed can't help but smile a little in amusement.

"I think it might be better if Halae fights a more human-sized or larger opponent for her first test. Perhaps I could serve if one of the senior members doesn't have anything better in mind."

"Do you have anybody in mind who'd best fit my skill level, Calm Reed?" Halae asks. The Monk clearly knows enough about Vigil to be a better judge than she is.

"I thought we saw someone new!" calls a human-sized opponent strolling over to the Dragonblooded. It's a blue-haired girl wearing a fox mask and pink kimono*, with six eagle-like wings on her back. "Friend of yours, Calm Reed?"
"You'll be wanting to show off your skills, and prove you have what it takes to be part of VIGIL? Follow me."

[Morty]

[Dragons Arriving]

"She's a Dragon-Blooded, as I am," Calm Reed says. "She wishes to join, but I thought that a member who's been here longer should induct her."

[Training Grounds - Enter the Dragon]

"What do you expect?" Calm Reed asks rhetorically. "They haven't quite descended on us yet, but that's because they've got their own problems. The Solar Anathema are back, armies of the dead rise up... I left home in a very interesting time."

[Rebonack]

[Geneva's Lab]

Her goal hasn't ever change.

Well, no, that isn't totally true.

Her original goal was figuring out what was going on and surviving. But pretty quickly that goal matured into 'find a way to make a bridge home'.

She isn't quite ready yet to forge passages between universes on a whim, at least not stable ones. But she IS ready to try something a little less ambitious.

"Test run of the object retrieval array, iteration seventy five," Geneva says aloud, using her wrist computer to record her notes as she works. "Time stamp, please. Initializing in three, two, one, mark."

The rather complex looking, ring-like gate she has assembled in her lab gives a low hum, then nothing. Geneva sighs.

"Adjusting the resonance chamber, plus point three gigahertz," she says, tweaking a dial ever so slightly. "Test run of the object retrieval array, iteration seventy six. Time stamp, please. Initializing in three, two, one, mark."

And this time?

This time something does happen.

There comes a sound like a thunderclap as the whole lab is illuminated by a brilliant flash of rainbow light.

[Purple Eagle]

[Skybase training grounds - by the track]

Thanks to Karasu's help, Awen is at least able to get the form of the on-the-knees pushups down.

"It - it was because...because he had a broken leg and...and...and I saved him," she manages to say between push-ups, while breathing heavily.

For his part, the fox continues to act cute.

Even though breathing heavily makes it hard to speak, the witch still tries to answer. "Maybe," she says. "I'm sure it's..." still breathing, muscles straining "...possible. But I never..." She brings her body down in another push-up "heard anyone" She tries to push up, but isn't making any progress upwards, "speak anything" still trying to push upwards, but her arms start to give out "like it before."

She collapses down on to her stomach, trying to catch her breath. "So, good luck."

[Skybase training grounds - by the track]

Karasu finds time to stop, having completed her reps, and returns to petting the fox. "Repaired a broken leg and gained a loyal partner, huh?" She asks, noting how difficult Awen's finding physical exercise. "So, he's magic, you both are, then; and either you're not used to exercise, or you have the classic 'mage body'." She adds, once Awen's in the process of gulping in air. "I bet that means you're like, a thousand years old?" She asks the fox, though doesn't stop her constant attention of him. "The young teen and her ancient being. I got one of those the first time I came to the Nexus. Already had shadow powers, but not a second shadow. These days he just watches or sleeps, but he used to be a lot more active."

Training Grounds

"I think so." She will adopt the pose she remembers when she arrives at the arena. She's got quite a good memory, but unlike her physiology it isn't enhanced by her power. So she's not copying it exactly- and an exact copy might not work best with her strange elongated limbs. She's matching it pretty well, though.

Training Grounds

Karasu nods and adopts her own pose. "The stance, how you position your body from resting position, must be done correctly, or you could be swept off your feet. However, your mindset is also important. If you remember nothing, then you are quite mentally young. If an enemy approaches, are you prepared to defend yourself?" She points to the training dummy. "That is your enemy for now. Show me what you got."

Then she stands back and watches to see what Makuro does next.

[Lycan 01]

Geneva's Lab

Thunderclap! Rainbow lights!

At first nothing.

Then another crack of thunder. And another.

Static energy crackles across the gateways face, shimmering tendrils of arcane power snaking their way through the air around it. The lights begin to flicker in the lab. Sparks fly from various pieces of equipment. The tendrils of arcane energy grow brighter and longer, as rainbow lights and echoes of thunder once more fill the chamber.

A rock appears next to the hippogriff.

Followed by another rock about ten feet away.

The smell of dust. Ash. Burnt earth.

Home...

Geneva's research warned of the possibility of a resonance cascade, bringing more than what she intended into this world. One or two small items was one thing, but... More rocks appear. Bits of debris. An old glass bottle, of some soda long since drank and forgotten. A few spent shell casings from a battle long since lost.

For a moment, the energy begins to recoil, the thunder and flashes of light fading...

And then the sirens wail.

Something is coming. Something larger than a rock or a bottle of soda. Something big.

The gate crackles with energy brighter than before, metal groaning and sparks flying. And then, with a howl of wind and thunder, the fabric of reality gives way, and two glowing figures suddenly materialize in the gateway before the resonance cascade fails and the laws of physics reassert themselves. For a moment, darkness falls as the lab's lights and other systems are briefly overwhelmed and shut down, before springing back to life.

When the lights turn back on, Geneva finds herself staring at two ponies! Two pegasus ponies in fact! The one on the left has blue wings, while the one on the right has dark brown wings. She can't really tell much else about them, because they're wearing power armor. Dark grey power armor with almost insectoid helmets, scorpion-esque tails, and an "E" emblem emblazoned on their flank. Also large energy rifles mounted on either side of the torso under their wings.

Oh hey, they're members of the Grand Pegasus Enclave. Looks like Geneva succeeded in bringing her mortal enemies to this reality instead of something nicer like a radroach or Discord himself. The good news, though, is that the two Enclave ponies are both looking around in dumbfounded confusion, rather than trying to shoot her in the face. For the moment at least.

Maybe she can hide before they notice her?

[Rebonack]

[Geneva's Lab]

Geneva shields her eyes from the eldritch glow, excitement steadily building with each rumble of power. Her eyes flick between the archway and her readouts, everything is still within safe parameters, even as the Neighstein-Roseluck bridge continues to swell! First not bigger than a grain of sand. Another flash! Another rumble!

Then?

"A rock! Oh my Celestia it's working!" she practically squees with delight as the first of several unremarkable looking stones pop into existence.

And then another rock.

And another.

"Umm..."

And then an empty nukka cola bottle. And some brass.

Geneva squints at the readouts again, starting to get a little concerned. It was only supposed to grab one object.

She'll have to pour over the data she's getting once the experiment is done. The bridge should destabilize any moment now.

The glow grows even brighter.

Aaaaaany moment.

BRIGHTER!

Then darkness as the emergency fail-safe flips. Too much power draw.

And when the lights come back on?

Geneva makes a tiny strangled noise in the back of her throat on account of the pair of Enclave ponies in power armor that just materialized.

It wasn't supposed to grab anything organic what happened what did I do wrong oh no oh no ohnoohnoohnoohno!

The hippogriff slams her talons down on a large red button situated on her control panel, causing several hexagonal tiles in the floor and ceiling surrounding the gate to suddenly spring to life with a soft purple glow. With a soft thrum a force-field springs into place around the now inactive portal.

What?

It pays to be prepared!

Geneva takes a few deep breaths to (poorly) calm herself before approaching the glowing barrier.

"Hello! You're probably wondering what's going on which is a perfectly normal thing to be wondering about since you were just somewhere else and now you're here I guess it turns out that my object-grabber works a little better than I thought it would which is to say it shouldn't have been able to grab ponies unless maybe it built a sympathetic link with your armor I should check that out maybe that's what happened definitely needs more testing," Geneva rambles rapid-fire. "No, come on Geneva, focus. So, ah, you're here now! Which is great! Just, uh, just great. Weeeeelcome to VIGIL! I can probably get you back home but you have to promise not to shoot me when I let you out and you have to REALLY promise that you won't get mad and blast any of my equipment. So, ah, I'm Geneva. I said that already. And you're... ponies. From the Wasteland. Oh my Celestia you're really from the Wasteland, aren't you? It really worked!"

She smudges her beak up against the glowing purple force field.

"You HAVE to tell me what's happened in the past few years. I mean, it would be nice if you did? Have things gotten any better? You were both in range, so you must have been on the surface. Has the Enclave normalized relations with the surface tribes?"

[Lycan 01]

Geneva's Lab

As the purple forcefield bloops to life, the pegasus on the right adjusts their weight a bit, as if sizing it up. "Cute," he grunts under his breath. "Want me to break it, Fearless Leader?" he asks with what almost sounds like sarcasm.

Before the other pony can respond, Geneva suddenly speaks up. There's a long moment of quiet after she gets done with her rambling introduction.

Eventually, though, the stallion on the right lets out a low whistle and mutters "Wow she's big."

The other pony merely lets out a very undignified squeal and throws themselves bodily into the forcefield, kicking it viciously. "GENEVA~" the pony practically shrieks with a mix of excitement and desperation, revealing themselves to be a young mare behind that mask. "GENEVA OPEN THE DAMN ENERGY FIELD THING AND LET ME HUG YOU!!"

Actually that excited screaming sounds quite familiar to Geneva. A voice she hasn't heard in what feels like years...

[Rebonack]

[Geneva's Lab]

Geneva goes dead silent.

Just... staring, her world folding in on itself.

This couldn't be real.

Could it?

There's no way this could be real. The statistical likelihood of a random (tiny! far too small to grab a person!) bridge event pulling in one specific person is so astronomically unlikely that there are probably better chances of having your atoms spontaneously rearranged into a sofa. And yet?

Yet there she is.

Geneva darts back behind the control panel and shuts down the barrier. And then? She practically leaps OVER the control panel to tackle the armored equestrian.

"Dawn! Ohmygosh Dawn I thought I would never see you again! The teleporter blew up and things happened and I've been gone so long what happened to you!?" she blathers as she wraps her forelegs around the pony.

It takes a few moments for the OTHER pegasus to be acknowledged.

"And... umm... who's this? A friend?"

Hopefully.

Hopefully a friend.

[Lord Magtok]

[Training Grounds - Enter the Dragon]

"What do you expect?" Calm Reed asks rhetorically. "They haven't quite descended on us yet, but that's because they've got their own problems. The Solar Anathema are back, armies of the dead rise up... I left home in a very interesting time."

"There's Lunars and Solars? And an army of the dea-" Saint Lazarus's study of the Exalted setting will have to wait, because a loud, harsh beeping sound goes off. Reaching into one of her gauntlets, she produces the source of the noise, a phone, and frowns at the screen. It's that late already, huh? Fi's going to start getting worried if she doesn't head home with dinner soon. She'd better cut this short and get going. Lots of progress made here today, but it won't amount to much if dinner is late. Hunger makes her stupid; she can't focus on using sensible tactics and combat strategies when she's stupid.

"Sorry, I've got to get going. We should do something like this again sometime, though. Maybe I can tell you all about the Nexus instead," Jenette offers, handing back the tetsubo and her guard is down, she has forgotten what you are, bite out her throat now and drink deeply from the well of divine ichor picking up her sword with shaky, nervous fingers. It hasn't been that long; she shouldn't be having those kinds of thoughts so early in the week. Is it because her ghoul brain can smell all that power radiating from Calm Reed? Is it just the natural progression of her condition towards exponentially greater and greater bloodlust and carnage? Never mind, it doesn't matter. She can figure out whatever's wrong with her later; she has to go now.

[Lycan 01]

Geneva's Lab of Mad Science and Friendship

"Ack!" the little pegasus squeaks as she's tackled and squeezed by the hippogriff. Thankfully she has some pretty good power armor, otherwise the petite little pony would probably have some bruised ribs. She can't help but giggle though, and wraps her armored hooves around her friend to hug her back, careful not to squeeze too hard. "It's good to see you too Geneva!" The polarized visor of her helmet fades to transparency, revealing a pair of violet eyes that sparkle with genuine joy. "I'm okay, I'm okay... The Wasteland is still, uh, terrible. I've actually spent awhile in the Applelacian Mountains, and..."

Those sparkly eyes suddenly flicker with mild annoyance, and she tilts her head back over her shoulder. "And that is my idiot cousin, Lucky Break."

The stallion behind her waves a wing. "Howdy!" he chimes cheerfully. "Dawn told me about you and this place. Nexus, right? Weird. Do you have corndogs?" he casually asks, as if he's used to this sort of strange shenanigans.

Dawn gives Geneva a flat stare through her visor. "Why did you bring him with me? Why?" she deadpans.

[Earl of Purple]

Training Grounds

Makuro nods and adjusts her footing. When told to attack the dummy because it's her enemy, she nods, steps forward with her long legs and lashes out with a fist. She's got a very low-level enhancement to her speed, and a pretty significant boost to her strength, primarily through her reinforced bones. She hits the dummy hard and fast, and the heavy sand-filled bag swings back a considerable distance. But these dummies were built for superhumans to use, and it doesn't actually break. Nor does it come free after her second punch, which lands as it swings back towards the mutant girl, and she steps aside out of the reach when it swings back again, before punching it in the back- and that, combined with the momentum of its swing, breaks the chain, sending it flying across the room. Makuro looks shocked; it's the first time she's used all her strength, and after it didn't break from the first blow she thought it could take the punishment.

((I know little about how punching bags work, and it probably shows.))

[Rebonack]

[Geneva's Lab of Mad Science and Friendship]

No squishing happens, because that would be sad and unfortunate. Geneva's trying not to cry, though. And she's doing a... mostly good job?

Probably?

"I guess the Wasteland being terrible isn't that much of a shock, they're still lacking basic... everything," Geneva admits thoughtfully as she finally released Dawn. "I'm hoping to change that, though! Since most of the conflict there stems from radiation poisoning and shortage of basic necessities, I think a permanent bridge to the Nexus help alleviate both of those problems! Equestrian gemstones are incredibly rare and valuable here and, well, basically just rocks back home."

Rocks used for powering some old world tech. But still mostly just rocks.

"Trade gets set up, goods are shipped back over, radiation is cleaned up. And the pegasi wouldn't have to live off cloud-seeded food anymore!"

Which, for the record, is awful. There's no blandness quite like cloud seeded vegetables. Especially not after you've had some real earth-pony grown stuff.

Geneva is obviously very behind this plan.

Then? The other pony is regarded with that bird-like stare. "Oh, I was wondering about him. Nice to meet you, Lucky?"

Then a question. That catches her completely off guard.

"I... think so? Not here. VIGIL's cafeteria tends to lean toward a healthier diet. But you could probably buy one in any of the cities?" Geneva replies. "Nearly all the plants here are edible. And the water isn't poisoned. It's all pretty increadible."

At Dawn's next question the hippogriff looks a bit sheepish.

"Ah, hehe, I was actually just trying to retrieve rocks?"

Maybe it got Lucky because his head is full of them.

[Shadowcaller]

Moon Well Grove

These snakes are not moving in a single unit so it is more difficult to hit some center mass.
Still, Blanche manages to hit three snakes and make others turn and flee and while Anika isn't nearly as successful just the sound and force in those shots is enough to send the snakes scampering and soon the entire swarm breaks off. At the same time Blanche can feel whatever presence that was there dropping whatever pressure it was putting on the area. Thus her fur won't stand up in such a silly manner if she waits a couple of seconds.
"We did it! I knew they were cowards!" Anika exclaims and fires another shot at the fleeing snakes.
Though while the pressure is gone, Blanche can still feel as if she's being watched...

[Arkhosia]

Moon Well Grove

Blanche isn't as quick to rejoice at their success, keeping her shotgun raised as she watches the horde slink away for a tense couple of moments before she lowers the weapon with a sigh. She takes the opportunity to slot a couple more shells; they were gone for now, but their work wasn't done yet.

"We should get to work on that ritual of yours, I'm sure they'll be back. The terseness in her voice seems to catch Blanche by surprise as soon as she hears them, and she looks back towards Anika with a weak smile as she shakes off her battlefield mindset. "You ain't the worst shot I've met, but neither was I back then. Guess we'll have to find the time for a few more lessons." There's a decidedly good-natured tone this time, perhaps even the tiniest tinge of cheekiness at the last bit - the offer of lessons is more a pretense to hang out some more - but there's the slightest tinge of awkward nerve behind it.

[Lycan 01]

Geneva's Science Lab of Sciencey Stuff

Dawn nods along, her eyes once more sparkling with excitement. "Whoa, an interdimensional bridge? That would be amazing! We could send doctors, scientists, diplomats, help to rebuild the wasteland-"

"Or," Lucky cuts in, as the polarized visor of his own helmet clicks to transparency, revealing a pair of bright blue eyes, "It might allow all sorts of creepy crawly horrors, bloodthirsty raiders, and hideous Taint abominations like... what did Swiss call that shapeshifter thing? A Skinwalker? Yeah, that. Or, worse, a bunch of arrogant pegasi with power armor and who think they're better than everyone else and-"

He's interrupted by Dawn kicking him in the side of the helmet.

This results in his vox-speaker crackling to life, as the radio system in his helmet overloads and goes haywire from the impact.

HELLO MY BABY HELLO MY DARLING HELLO MY RAGTIME GAAAAAAAL

While Lucky flails around trying to wrestle with his helmet and get it to shut up with the showtunes, Dawn turns back to Geneva. Her eyes give the hippogrif a flat, unamused look through the visor. "He's technically not part of the Enclave, ignore him when he starts to ramble like that," she deadpans, as Lucky trips over some power cables in the background and his wild flailing intensifies.

[Rebonack]

[Geneva's Science Lab of Malfunctioning Radios]

Geneva frowns slightly at the head-kicking.

"We already deal with things like that. And worse," she says matter of factly. "This place is tough, we can weather the worst the Wasteland could throw at us."

She makes a gesture with one wing toward the window. "This place has everything Equestria needs to thrive again. We just need to give our home a chance."

The really loud music is... kind of bothersome.

Okay, really bothersome.

But maybe Lucky won't mouth-off again as a result?

And he roils about on the floor comically, Geneva turns back to Dawn.

"So... when I met you I think you were just a private?" she says. A private in a crashed raptor. "When did this happen?"

[Shadowcaller]

Moon Well Grove

"Awesome!" The druid exclaims as she raises the gun into the air and accidentally lets loose another salvo.
The next moment the shotgun is handed straight over to the catgirl.
"Uh, hold on to that for now so I can gather stuff for the ritual. Probably need a lot more sticks." A beat. "Are you gonna stay here, or are you gonna come along? Those freeloaders might come back." She eyes the still fleeing snakes.

[Arkhosia]

Moon Well Grove

It's a good thing that Anika hands the weapon over so promptly; otherwise, Blanche would have attempted to yank it out of the night elf's hands, albeit with a fair amount of difficulty due to the great disparity in height between the two. It also quickly tempers the flash of anger that her misfire triggers, so she is chastised rather than berated once Blanche finishes switching on the safety and slinging it over the shoulder.

"Never have your finger on the trigger unless you're willing to kill, and never fire up into the air like that. That bullet's gonna have some velocity on its way down, and we don't know how far it's gonna go." Thankfully, the power of fictional narrative allows us to disregard such consequences

"Sure, I'll come with," Blanche answers. "I dunno about you, but it feels like something's watching us, and I'm not too keen on being alone here."

[Lycan 01]

Geneva's Science Lab of Arcane Companionship

Lucky is now tangled up in power cables, slapping his helmet repeatedly to try to turn it off. Classical music is now blaring.

"Hm?" Dawn looks down, before giggling awkwardly. "Oh, the armor and rank pins? Yeah, uh, funny story. We kinda ended up in Applelacia, and there were giant dragon-bat monster things, so Lucky suggested we get me some power armor. I found an abandoned Enclave bunker, but the AI there was a bit... faulty. It wouldn't let me have armor or weapons until I reached a certain rank, otherwise I'd face a court martial. With lasers. But then it also kept giving me random little goals and objectives to help me earn a higher rank, and it put Lucky under my command as a 'probationary recruit' or something like that. So I spent awhile killing random monsters, recovering pre-war technology, fixing satellite arrays, so on and so forth. It was weird, and my proper Enclave standards I'm probably still a recruit. Buuuut I was able to get armor and weapons, it helped me keep Lucky in line, and we were able to gain access to enough explosives to kill most of the monsters before they got big enough to fly up into Enclave territory."

She shrugs aloofly, even though Geneva can probably imagine the sort of destruction a mare like Dawn, whose cutie mark is an explosion could wreak with a bunker full of ordinance.

Lucky, meanwhile, is sitting in a jumbled mass of cables, tied up and sporting a dejected look of defeat in his eyes as smooth jazz filters through his helmet's vox unit.

[Rebonack]

[Geneva's Science Lab of Absurd Nonsense]

"That sounds... typical for a rogue AI, honestly," Geneva replies with a hardly stifled smile. "Things have been pretty eventful here, too. This place is about as exciting as the Wasteland, but there's more actual food and less radiation-poisoned everything. And speaking of exciting, I met my special somepony here. Or somegriffin, technically. Nick is actually in charge of the security forces in one of the major Cities here. He came from a different version of our world, actually. Very different and also very similar. It was kind of fun quizzing each other about similarities when we first me."

Ohh!

Geneva got hitched!

She trots over to Lucky and begins to disentangle him from the cords.

"How did you manage to do this to yourself? It's inexplicable," she huffs, her head feathers poofing up a bit in exasperation.

Hopefully he'll be loose soon.

"I've been working for VIGIL here for a while now," Geneva explains. "They needed an engineer and I needed a well funded, well protected organization to work on my bridge project. As you two may have noticed I've made some real progress!"

[Lycan 01]

Geneva's Science Lab

Dawn blinks in surprise when Geneva mentions being married. "Wait, really? Congratulations!" she chimes excitedly. "That's great!" She then slumps a bit, her power armor's shoulders sagging as her wings droop. "Sorry I wasn't around to be... y'know... supportive and whatnot..." she mutters.

Lucky, meanwhile, is giving Geneva a flat look as his helmet's speaker plays a smooth saxophone solo. He clearly doesn't enjoy jazz.

"It's inexplicable because that's his special talent..." Dawn sighs, sounding as if this is something she deals with often. It probably is. "He defies probability. That's why he can survive being shot in the face with just a concussion, but if he tries to walk and talk at the same time he'll trip into a minefield that wasn't there an hour ago."

That might also explain why Geneva's experiment went so... squirrely.

Speaking of, sparks suddenly crackle along some of the gate's metal plating, an errant bolt of arcane energy snapping into the air.

A giant roach the size of a small child appears in the air, glowing with an eerie green light. The emerald insect flops to the floor, its antennae twitching a bit before it starts to scuttle towards the nearest dark corner of the room, casting a soft baleful glow as it goes.

Uh oh, looks like the planar bridge to the Wasteland didn't terminate as well as Geneva had calculated...

[Rebonack]

[Geneva's Science Lab Of Mostly Disentangled Pegasi and Giant Insects]

"Thanks! And don't worry, you had know way of knowing about it," Geneva replies before regarding Lucky.

"That's... a pretty unusual talent. Extreme luck? That would be an absolute nightmare to quantify," Geneva mutters as she finally manages to free Lucky. "It's like having a draconequus follow you around. 'Luck' manipulation skews any statistical work."

And that's terrible.

Less terrible?

A giant roach appearing in her lab.

Now, normally you might think that people would be upset about huge insects spontaneously poofing into existence.

But Geneva?

Heck know. Instead, she practically squeals in delight.

"HIS TALENT CREATED A STABLE BRIDGE!" she squawks as the insect goes scurrying off. She bounds over to the ring and begins assembling equipment around it. "Or at least a transitive one. I've never been able to hold anything open for more than a few seconds at a time, I have to get readings! Dawn, grab that tool that looks like a rod with a big pin-wheel at the end. Lucky, don't move. I think the bridge's stability might be keyed to your exact physical position."

She hastily assembles an array of rather hodge-podge looking machines around the ring. Anyone familiar with the Wasteland would recognize the style of cobbled together, scavenged technology. That thing goes here. That other thing goes there. That odd blocky device gets balanced on Lucky's forehead...

[Lycan 01]

Geneva's Lab

Dawn does as ordered! But she shifts her weight awkwardly a bit as she passes things to Geneva with a wing. "Um, Geneva? I hate to be a downer or neighsayer, but... I'm not sure if this is a good idea. Lucky's got a way of making things... weird."

Lucky gives her a rather indignant look from behind his visor. His helmet's vox is still playing music; placid piano music is filtering through the lab. The roach has found a new hiding place. It will likely return at an unwelcome time.

"Your experiment might go great! Or... we may bring over pure raw radiation and an army of ghouls," she shudders. "He's... really not the best catalyst for anything. Even pleasant conversation is dangerous," she laments.

[Shadowcaller]

Moon Well Grove

It's a good thing that Anika hands the weapon over so promptly; otherwise, Blanche would have attempted to yank it out of the night elf's hands, albeit with a fair amount of difficulty due to the great disparity in height between the two. It also quickly tempers the flash of anger that her misfire triggers, so she is chastised rather than berated once Blanche finishes switching on the safety and slinging it over the shoulder.

"Never have your finger on the trigger unless you're willing to kill, and never fire up into the air like that. That bullet's gonna have some velocity on its way down, and we don't know how far it's gonna go." Thankfully, the power of fictional narrative allows us to disregard such consequences

"Sure, I'll come with," Blanche answers. "I dunno about you, but it feels like something's watching us, and I'm not too keen on being alone here."

Moon Well Grove

Who knows? It might hit a snake or cause something else of critical plot relevance.
"Ohh... so that's why they wear helmets." Anika nods and displays her palms. "Don't worry though, dude. Won't do that again." She eyes the surrounding wood. "Yeah, probably old snake-eyes giving us the evil-eye." A beat as Anika turns back to look at Blanche. "So, are you a good climber? Cats tend to be good climbers." If Blanche is cat enough for the job that is considering it seems like most of the branches on these trees are pretty high up. "I could fly up and shake some down, but this would go a lot faster if we work together."

[Zefir]

[Lower Village - Alice's House]


"You're right, aren't you?"
Alice sends a few shutdown signals to the self-repair components, and reaches over to take them out of the first of the drones.
"It will certainly be a weight improvement, though I'll need to change the design a bit to work with an external source." She sounds a bit distracted, already thinking about it.
"Thanks, Mia."

[Lower Village - Alice's House]

"You'r welcome" Mia replies. Unless there is more to discuss, Mia will head off to gatgher the batteries. This might need a while since she will need to go to riverside for that.

[Halae]

[Dragons Arriving]

"I thought we saw someone new!" calls a human-sized opponent strolling over to the Dragonblooded. It's a blue-haired girl wearing a fox mask and pink kimono*, with six eagle-like wings on her back. "Friend of yours, Calm Reed?"
"You'll be wanting to show off your skills, and prove you have what it takes to be part of VIGIL? Follow me."

[Dragons Arriving]

"She's a Dragon-Blooded, as I am," Calm Reed says. "She wishes to join, but I thought that a member who's been here longer should induct her."

[Dragons Arriving]

Halae gives a raised eyebrow to Calm Reed - likely in regards to the winged woman - but she nods to the question, "Yes, I'd like to do this relatively quickly if at all possible," The Fire Aspect will follow the girl in the fox mask wherever she leads on the island, frowning all the while. This place is so strange already.

[Recaiden]

[Dragons Arriving]

"She's a Dragon-Blooded, as I am," Calm Reed says. "She wishes to join, but I thought that a member who's been here longer should induct her."

Halae gives a raised eyebrow to Calm Reed - likely in regards to the winged woman - but she nods to the question, "Yes, I'd like to do this relatively quickly if at all possible," The Fire Aspect will follow the girl in the fox mask wherever she leads on the island, frowning all the while. This place is so strange already.

"You're in luck then. I've been with VIGIL since the beginning." Often to VIGIL's chagrin.
Arlem leads Halae (and Calm Reed if she'd like) to the outdoor training grounds, where there's plenty of space.
"Now, what are your particular areas of expertise? And are you ready to be tested?"

Assuming she answers that in the affirmative, Halae might feel a prick of magic at the back of her head, peering into her thoughts and feelings to be sure there's nothing untoward about her attempt to join.
If she doesn't really want to be here and is only guilted into it by Calm Reed, that's one thing (but probably fine).
If she's really an infiltrator aiming to destroy VIGIL and establish Exalted dominion over the Nexus, that's another (but still probably fine).
Now, a normal mortal wouldn't even notice it, but perhaps she's more perceptive than the average mortal? She might even block it with heroic willpower or a bit of essence, though that wouldn't be an encouraging sign.

"I'm sure we'll be glad to have you on our side."

[Morty]

[Dragons Arriving]

Calm Reed is silent, letting Halae speak for herself. It's odd to think of the abilities of a Dragon-Blooded being questioned, but they're strangers in a strange land here.

[Halae]

[Dragons Arriving]

Arlem will find that Halae's mind is ironclad - her resolve and willpower may make it difficult to get in, but the psychic intrusion will find that this isn't in response to her tampering, but merely how she passively acts. The Dragon-blood won't even realize her mind is being read at the moment. Halae doesn't have any aspirations for takeover; she's not even really here for Calm Reed's sake. She's here because of a duty, represented by a small emblem, made from Red Jade that's the centerpiece of the entire fortress; her duty stems from this small, unassuming mon engraved with a crane carrying a peony blossom upon it. This duty is relatively simple - help people. Solve crimes. She received this symbol only seven years ago, but her devotion to it is very strong; Calm Reed likely didn't even realize what she was pulling on in their conversation.

The doors are currently open, but if Halae realizes Arlem's been in her mind, the doors will slam shut on pure reflex, not even by her own choice. Be careful in there.

"I'm a swordsman," Halae says simply, drawing the impressive red blade from her hip, "I'm also skilled in investigation. Whenever you're ready to start." her combat stance is immaculate, her blade held out before her ready for any incoming strike.