{VOICE OTA}

[rootandbranch]

[Today you feel a few strange pulses in your signets before you hear anything over Qri's network. It's fairly pleasant, exactly as the signet communications tend to be, and fortunately doesn't at all resemble the strange fluctuations that plagued everyone back on days 103-105. It's more like someone poking at the network to be sure it's stable and not going to do any more of that before they speak. They seem to conclude it's safe after all.]

Hello? Oh, hi-- hi, everybody. It's Geir. If you don't know me, I'm the dragon.

[He's very matter of fact about it. He's the dragon. You're probably aware, his tone seems to say.]

Listen, I don't actually care if you know me, you should just help me and Nines out! He knows all kinds of technology things, so I asked him what we could find out about the Hub with them. But the question is really, what does everyone want to find out? There's been a lot of weird to chew on!

Chew...on? [9S echoes this thought quizzically, for an instant quite distracted. But right, right, the matter at hand—] Er, anyway, like Geir said we’re lacking data on our surroundings. And to know what we’re dealing with, gathering more would be best, so I was thinking I can probably scrape enough parts together to build a pod for that job, once we know what kind of information it should collect. I mean, unless we want everything...

[Geir's tone is still bright and interested. he loves hearing about this, even if part of him is still skeptical.]

Nines isn't even the only person who knows how to build... robots. I know a bunch of you build stuff. Who wants to help?

[9S clears his throat, quietly tacking a little disclaimer on:]

...Not that pods should be mistaken for machines or anything.

[When your kind’s fought machines for millennia certain lines get drawn. Thin, confusing grey lines. (Geir doesn’t know what to say to that, so he just lets it stand.)]


((both 9S and Geir may reply to your toplevels, and also feel free to jump each other! this is the start of a player plot to get a little more technology on the island. ♥ more details here!))

Comments

[deem]

Yeah, that sort of thing can cause some real havoc in a fight...

[Because of course that's what he thinks of first. All hell breaking loose]

It can impair motor and sensory functions. Temporarily, anyhow. But pods can even go underwater without problems. Mine's had to fish me out a few times, since I uh. Kind of sink like a rock if I fall in.

[alphonse]

I know the feeling.

[Or he would, if he ever actually fell in anything other than the shallow water in Resembool.]

Something like that would have been really useful back on Aimintas.

[deem]

It would have, since it could easily lift my weight, or 2B's. Or yours, for that matter. Pretty sure I've got you beat in the weight department.

[More like he knows, because Alphonse's soul isn't composed of metal]

At the time, it felt like I'd be replacing my own pod, and I didn't like the thought.

[alphonse]

Maybe, but you're also less likely to fill up with water.

[Okay, so that's probably the dumbest thing in the world to jokingly compete over, but it's nice to even to be able to. Metal people solidarity.]

Yours wasn't brought here with you, right?

[deem]

Guess we'd better just avoid deep water, huh?

[At least they both know the life]

I've been convinced it was Qri's "price" for a while now.

[And the edge of bitterness that seeps into his voice bespeaks his feelings on the matter]