RP Bastion of Winter: Mission to System E13

[demibear]

Finding a corner in Cargo Hold 2 that wasn't being used for storage at the moment, Yanfei and her drone went to work setting up her field lab. She then noted the emergency cot panel and smiled. She didn't need to leave unless she needed to eat or do hygiene related activities.

Once her medical equipment was sorted and put on the drone, she sent a simple message to Cecily that she was ready for her when ever free.

 

[SirSkully]

Rosi had been tapping away at their communicator as they followed the excited gaggle of consorts, trying to not let the admittedly less severe accusations weigh too heavily on their mind... but it was still unfair in the technician's eyes, what happened to Kozakura was beyond their control. How was Rosi'ya meant to know the gynoid had decided to take inspiration from their own bottom-heavy frame.

Regardless the Daur huffed and made their ears sit a little more proud, putting on a smile as the group finally stopped off in the workshop, where they retrieved a datapad and logged in with their work credentials.

"Right then, Kozakura, I'll be accessing your systems wirelessly and make sure everything is working as intended - if there's some fault we might need access to your sacral port to run more detailed diagnostics but I'm not expecting anything too out of the ordinary, understood?" Rosi spoke, tapping away at the datapad a little more before finally looking up at the recently hatched gynoid, a root-level system access request coming through as the technician adjusted their glasses.

 

[Immortal Cyan]

Port Jiyuu Docking Array Seven, Bastion of Winter Workshop

“I understand, Cherbanno-san!” Kozakura answered with a girlish melody. Then, with a trust that somewhat resembled that of a daughter to one of her parents, Kozakura granted Rosi’ya the root-level access they needed to perform the diagnostics.

All the while, the first of Kozakura’s new uniforms was printed by the fabrication system. The Consort changed out of her ill-fitting old one right on the spot, exchanging it for the new one which fit just the way she wanted, especially around her posterior! Next came two more uniforms, a jacket, shirts, and finally, cargo-style shorts, all created from exact scans of the gynoid’s frame to fit her new measurements!

 

[Yuuki]

With a hand on her hip, Mishitari watched everything being printed and tutted her tongue the entire while, in time with each item rolling off the fabricator. At the entrance to the workshop, she began going through Kozakura's duffel bag and tossing each thing as a new version was printed. Mishitari threw each out into the corridor, where one of the forklift robots waited at the top of the cargo lift carrying the SSCC that contained spare uniform and issue items. She said the name of each item aloud as she packed the new and threw away the old, between her tuts and tsks.

 

[Elissia]

After being shown to her bunk, Melody carefully stowed one of her large bags in the attached drawer while An'eya hopped up onto the bed and settled herself in. The second bag was set on top of the bed, where it was immediately turned into a pillow. "I would appreciate it if you didn't wrinkle my clothes too much..." Melody told the fox-like animal, before shaking her head slightly. "I don't know why I'm bothering, you never listen. I'm going to find the medical bay so I can figure out where everything's stored before my interview. Please just stay here, okay? No stalking the ship looking for friends until I get back."

After her admonishment, Melody turned and left the officer's quarters with the quiet sound of a sulking huff following her. Instead of heading to the lab, however, the Lorath's attention was captured by... a pile of clothes in the corridor? After a moment of internal debate and another thrown article of clothing, Melody approached the door leading into the workshop and peered inside. "Is everything okay in here? Is anyone hurt, or otherwise in need of assistance?"

 

[hyralt]

When Kwabba-an reached the end of a well-lit corridor full of blurry people racing to get wherever they were going, she turned a corner and was suddenly presented with another well-lit corridor full of people moving quickly from one end to the other. She stopped and let the people adjust to her sudden stillness, letting them flow around her like a river around a rock kicked up by a surge that had finally settled into a comfortable resting place, at least until the next surge. Everyone seemed to have somewhere else to be and something else to do. Kwabba-an supposed she did too, since she was supposed to find the Captain's office to be interviewed. But how was she supposed to know where that was when everything looked the same and she couldn't yet tell the sounds of the different areas of the ship apart? I could follow someone, she thought to herself. Maybe they're also going to see the Captain. But whom could I follow?

A tall woman exited a room and would have easily blended in among the other people flowing around, except for a couple of features that caught even Kwabba-an's unfocused eyes. Firstly, this person had a pair of wings. That instantly set them apart from all the others in Kwabba-an's range of vision, and indeed apart from anyone else she'd seen on her whirlwind tour with Sarosa. The only other winged person she'd seen had a single wing. Secondly, this person had a multi-coloured braid that Kwabba-an instantly recognized. She watched from afar as Melody paused for a moment, then followed as she made her way to the workshop.

"Is everything okay in here? Is anyone hurt, or otherwise in need of assistance?" When Kwabba-an heard Melody's almost musical voice, she closed her eyes and chittered softly with mandibles hidden in her mouth, which she always found herself doing when she encountered a pleasing sound. Kwabba-an opened her eyes again just in time to jump to one side to avoid crashing face-first into Melody's back.

"Oh, I am sorry," Kwabba-an apologized as she caught herself and peeked past Melody into the workshop that had grabbed her attention. "Goodness, what is happening in there?"

 

[SageShooter]

There was precious little time for Harmony to get over the shock of seeing her little sister, Melody, amongst the people of the crew. What had been an opportunity to help the Lorath yet again reach out and begin to build bridges had somehow turned into a reunion. Words had choked in her throat and before she had a chance to rush to her sister, they were swept inside by the caretakers of the ship in an effort to get everyone moving and get the ship out of dock. She had found her feet under her, and made her way to her room where she quickly enough claimed a bed and began to dump things onto the mattress haphazardly. A veritable cornucopia of small sized lab equipment she had simply carried around with her bounced on the soft bed before she was off and running through the halls, though sadly and painfully lost even in the small ship. It would be a few moments after Melody and Kawbba-an found the workshop that the elder Lorath aboard found them.

Everything in her body screamed at her to rush her sister, to hold her and hug her and question her. Why hadn't she gone with their parents, how were the little ones before they left, what was she doing here, a dozen and more questions rushed through her head, yet all the same the Llamnel woman held her place and her tongue, instead she simply fidgeted in place where she stood, watching and waiting for her sister to either see her, or move past so she could rush her. The single wing she still sported twitched with anticipation and nervousness at the idea of getting to see and talk to her sister yet again...

 

[SirSkully]

Rosi'ya felt like the workshop's occupancy had doubled at some point between looking down at their datapad and looking back up again, the technician's sparkling green eyes widening a little at the surprise before offering a little shake of their head, smiling across at Kozakura. A few taps and some murmurs later they had news for the Gynoid, nothing too scary, but news regardless.

"Aha... so, Kozakura! it seems like the firmware for some of your proximity sensors was a little out of date, explains why you didn't detect your clothes ripping apart as anything odd... uh it'd be preferable to flash you the update now, since it's pretty deep in there you might notice a momentary lapse in your train of thought but nothing too worrisome, it's fairly standard," they rattled off with that soft and quite charming accent, trying to not get in the way of all the people coming and going from the workshop, squeezing the gynoid's hand reassuringly and offering a kind smile.

"It won't revert any changes you've made, you'll have to do that manually if you desire... but given all the newly printed clothes I'd say you seem pretty happy with how things have turned out! Are there any other questions you might have before I zap the soft' across?"

 

[Yuuki]

Mishitari finished packing the new issue into the duffelbag and it did not take her long to sort the unworn old issue from the pile into the SSCC the ever-so-patient forkliftpup was dutifully carrying. "There! All done!" She gave a small bow to Rosi'ya. "I trust you can handle it from here. Please ensure her over-the-air updates are set to automatic, Technician. Thank you for your hard work."

As she began to return to her station in front of the Captain's office, Mishitari seemed to notice for the first time that their audience had grown. If Consorts had a flaw, it was hyperfixation on their current task, it appeared. "Ah! You are some of the new arrivals. Please check your inboxes for your assigned timeslots to have your onboarding interview with the Captain." She bowed once more to Melody and Kwabba-an. "Everything is well in hand. There was a simple equipment malfunction and our Technician," she indicated Rosi with a polite gesture, "resolved the issues without further incident. Please excuse me." She gave one more bow, and before anyone could interrupt or intercept, she power-walked around the cargo lift, and down the corridor to the stern. Mishitari soon disappeared around the curving portion of the hallway that avoided the circular bridge that was located in the center-aft of the deck and passed by the escape pods on the other side.

 

[Elissia]

Melody watched Mishitari tossing old clothes and sorting new ones curiously. When she heard another voice behind her, she turned her head to glance back at Kwabba-an. "Oh, no need to apologize!" Melody replied, pausing for a moment before adding "It looks like someone's mad about their luggage... that's my best guess, at least." It wasn't much of a guess, but since nobody was visibly injured it seemed like it satisfied the Lorath woman regardless. She nodded a bit at Mishitari's official explanation and turned to watch her walk away... and then she saw Harmony.

"Please excuse me, I need to go and hug my sister..." Melody addressed Kwabba-an, before slipping away. She approached Harmony with a wide smile and pulled the taller woman into a big hug. "It's so good to see you after so long!" Melody's tail swished back and forth behind her as she spoke. "I was hoping you would be coming aboard when I saw you at the docking bay. I'm guessing you have a lot of questions for me, and I promise to answer them all. Do you want to find a place to talk now, or wait until our interviews with the captain are done?"

 

[hyralt]

Kwabba-an watched as Rosi spoke to Kozakura, then Mishitari turned to address her and Melody. They were all quite blurry, except for Melody who was much closer than the rest. But Kwabba-an recognized Rosi's blur as the blonde-haired fox person with the pencil skirt she'd seen earlier and Kozakura was the one whose clothes were disintegrating. But she hadn't seen Mishitari before, so she squinted her big eyes to try and resolve more of her features.

"I-" Kwabba-an started, but Mishitari was already gone. She seemed like exactly the kind of person who would know where the Captain's office is, Kwabba-an thought to herself. When she turned to look at Melody, it was only just in time to hear her parting words.

"Please excuse me, I need to go and hug my sister..." Kwabba-an listened carefully to Melody's musical voice and then bowed slightly as she left. Kwabba-an spent a moment watching what seemed like a touching moment before she turned away to give them some privacy.

Curiosity got the better of her and Kwabba-an walked up to Kozakura and Rosi, close enough to resolve them clearly with her poor vision. She smiled and looked back and forth between them.

"Hello," Kwabba-an said as sweetly as she could. "I am Kwabba-an. I have never seen equipment fail in that way before. I might be mad about my luggage too if my clothes were falling apart. Though it was a very punk look, which is something I can appreciate."

 

[Immortal Cyan]

Bastion of Winter Workshop

Things were getting busy outside of the workshop! For her part, Kozakura offered a wide, airheaded smile and wave towards Melody, her ears twitching with pleasure upon registering the Lorath’s musical voice. Since the newly-activated gynoid was still at the stage where she was dangerously impressionable, she immediately decided that she wanted to have a voice like that as well, especially since doing so wouldn’t necessitate a change in her clothing size, as well!

And so, Kozakura ran a quick analysis of the Lorath’s voice, executing a small change to her software in the process. The change wasn't visible to the eye, but the next time she spoke…

“No questions at all, Cherbanno-san!” The gynoid sang out. Her voice still retained its original register, but it now exhibited a distinctly rhythmic flow.

“Give me the zap!” She cheered.

All the while, as Kwabba-an entered the room and mentioned a ‘punk look’, Kozakura immediately processed what that meant in her mind and suddenly, a sad pout manifested across her features…

If it wasn’t for the corporate appearance policy, the gynoid might would have ripped her clothes there and then to the end of achieving a ‘punk look’!

 

[Miyako]

YCS Bastion of Winter: Engineering​

The sound of shuffling in lower engineering held constant while others were getting settled in. After the ship got underway, the phantom on deck four continued to work away. It was only by the time the Bastion had dropped out from their first leg of the journey that the Chief Engineer emerged, using the staircase between decks to scamper up to the main section of Engineering on deck three.

"That was satisfying." It looked satisfying, and her state explained all too eloquently why her normal white duty uniform was folded on her desk, next to her computer. The Nekovalkyrja managed to keep her hair out of the mess of lubricants and oils she had become worming around in the bowels of her new home by placing the tonnage of her sparkling mid to dark blue hair up into two large buns that resembled balls at the back of her head, covering them with clear caps which she pulled off and disposed of for recycling given their state, much like the rest of her. Wiping her expressive face with the back of her coveralls sleeve was not the best idea, leaving even more black smudges on her cute features, even her nose which wrinkled charmingly as she got a real whiff of her work, being the most dirty thing in the section since she finished her work. The woman's fluffy ears sit higher on her head than many of her sisters, basically at either side on top. The insides feature snow-white fur and they are large and expressive, as is should be noted, was a tail that sprang from the expected spot. The extra-soft appendage included a snowy white cap on the end, and meant she would be able to practice Tinacen, something she downloaded once she was aware of the nature of her crew mates and mission. True, she had almost no practical experience, but she hoped at least one person on the crew would humor her with lessons, practice, or maybe both. The prospect of the knowledge she was going to gain on top of everything she and her team would be able to learn and do gave her a giddy glow.

The overall she wore was filled to the limit by the very...shapely and filled-out figure of the officer. This was even with advanced knowledge and the ability to order some to her size, but that is one thing that definitely draws the eyes to her, one might call her top-heavy only, if they could not see her bottom half, to complete the package. She was the most developed of the triplets, with her older sister coming second, and her youngest sister coming last, if you ignored her pronounced pearlike shape. Miu did miss her sisters, but they spoke often enough, when OPSEC wasn't a problem. She found it amusing that since her mother (the red one) was assigned to Command, that she had been able to talk to her much more frequently, though she could not get a read on how her recent retirement or semi-retirement went over with the veteran strategist. Going straight into the 'corp was probably what spared her a talking to, since it was a family company. The middle-triplet was more than happy to take a pay cut for the opportunity to go along on the mission, and get back into practical application and testing, no less!


As she began to clean her hands, Miu sent a message up to the bridge to route to the CO and the XO:


Shimizu reporting, I spent some time with the ship and everything is nominal right now. My initial inspection is complete. I have complied and attached a summary.

A wistful breath sighed out of her, and she reached to pick up a datapad from her desk, fanning herself with it. "At least the gravity isn't a problem. It's pretty interesting if anything." She thought while running through the readings, juuust one more time.

 

[SageShooter]

The one winged Lorath woman literally bounced on her toes as she watched her sister come closer. Like a big child, her wing twitched erratically as Melody closed the gap before she wrapped her younger sister up in a hug, the single wing joining the hug to wrap her sibling in a tight embrace. She went as far as to lift the girl from her feet, her arms flexing and squeezing a little tighter for a moment before she set her back down.

"Melody? What are you doing here? I thought you went with mom and dad why didn't you contact me..." For a moment there was a look of hurt on her face, before she shook the tangled mess of green hair that reached roughly below her shoulder blades, grown out in recent years with her new station and position within the matriarchy as it was. But for the moment, that didn't matter, what did was the fact that her family was here, and she hadn't been forgotten.

"After, after the interviews. That's a good idea actually, we should wait till after the meetings, so we don't need to worry about rushing... You get settled in, figure out your station or place or whatever, and we can go from there yeah?"

The girl was still giddy with excitement when the hug finally broke, and Harmony pulled back from her sister before she rested her hands on her shoulders with a wide grin. For the longest time, Harmony had been the eldest sister and the leader of the family at home as their parents had worked tirelessly as scrap haulers and scavengers for the Lorath Matriarchy, which kept them away from home for long periods of time. Once she had started, Harmony had basically become the protective, older sister that stepped in for their parents, and she knew a lot of her younger siblings had seen her as such, at least the ones with the larger age gape between them.

Another quick hug, Harmony spun her sister around and gave her a little push on the shoulders.

"Go on, we got a long time to catch up and talk right?" A few more bounces, and Harmony was already off to her station, the spot where she would be spending a majority of her time in the foreseeable future.

 

[SirSkully]

Bastion of Winter Workshop
"Of course, ma'am, already on it! Let me know if you need anything else," Rosi chirped back as they sent the update across, offering Mishitari a flexible little bow as she left, that blonde tail wagging noticeably faster as the technician went back to their duties. Then the ant-person in interesting clothing entered, and the technician's green eyes widened, there was so much stimulus for their busy mind to try and filter through.

It was getting a little overwhelming.

"I uh, hello Kwabba-an! It's wonderful to meet you too, I am X'Muyeia Rosi'ya Cherbanno... I've been onboarded as a Drone Specialist," came Rosi's velvety voice, another little bow following them up as the technician put their datapad away for the time being, deciding to mingle with some of the ship's more colourful characters. Though they noticed the gynoid's frown, and that reassuring hand moved to rub gentle circle's into the synthetic daur's lower back, a frown briefly crossing the technician's pale features before they continued observing Kwabba-an in all her alien glory.

"What were you onboarded for, if I may ask? I'm not exactly in uniform either, but I'm sure there were enough context clues for you to figure out I'm some kind of technician," Rosi'ya inquired with a charming little chuckle to make their prying hopefully seem a little less rude, it came more from a place of simple curiosity than anything too snooty.

 

[hyralt]

Kwabba-an reflected Kozakura's sad pout for a moment, before turning to listen to what Rosi had to tell her.

"It is very nice to meet you," Kwabba-an paused before trying to mimic the exact way Rosi said her name. Her training as a singer helped her learn pronunciation phonetically, even if the meaning of words often escaped her. "X'Muyeia Rosi'ya Cherbanno. You work with drones? I knew a journalist called Tatsugami Kozakura on the Resurgence who had a wonderful camera drone. I loved it very much.

"I was onboarded as a Steward, but I am not entirely certain what that means. But I hope to indulge in my true passion, music. I am a Musician in the Star Army of Yamatai reserves and I specialize in string instruments, but as I am without them for the moment, let me demonstrate with a song I wrote during the Battle of Glimmergold."

Kwabba-an then sang Through the Portal to Fight a capella.

https://soundcloud.com/hyralt%2Fon-through-the-portal-to-fight

"I hope that my music will please the crew and our guests."

Kwabba-an turned back to Kozakura and smiled, hoping to cheer her up. "And you? What is your name and how were you onboarded? Are you also a drone specialist?"

 

[Elissia]

Having intended to be the hugger, Melody let out a little surprised squeak when the tables were suddenly turned by her elder sibling. She wrapped her arms around Harmony and held on tightly as she was lifted off her feet, laughing as her tail swished back and forth happily. When she was set down again she looked up at her sister a bit sheepishly.

"I didn't exactly know where you were, I'm sorry..." came the reply as she fidgeted a little in place. It wasn't the entire truth, but there would be more time for honesty after they had settled in. "I'll probably be spending most of my time in the medical bay after my interview, so I should be pretty easy to track down!"

After the second hug was released and she was spun around, Melody waved back over her shoulder to Harmony as the other Lorath woman headed off. Once alone in the corridor Melody began heading for her initial destination of the lab, but was once again distracted, this time by singing? This is going to be an interesting job... she thought to herself as she once again poked her head into the workshop to listen in.

 

[Immortal Cyan]

Bastion of Winter Workshop

The gynoid’s frown slowly disappeared as Rosi gently rubbed along her lower back, drawing a soft, blissful purr from her lips as the Technician’s skillful fingers massaged her tail. Of course, it was made all the better when the newly-arrived semi-insectoid singer began to belt out a capella, shifting Kozakura’s frown to an awed O-shape, as her synthetic cyan gaze lit up with admiration at the music!

Maybe she could be a singer too?

Nevertheless, the impressionable gynoid resisted the urge to sing along, instead letting herself enjoy Kwabba-an’s capella for its duration. Had Kwabba-an been looking, she might have been able to make out a couple tears rolling down Kozakura’s pale cheeks. However, they hadn’t been shed in sadness but rather, adoration. Even so, it might have been easy to mistake her tears as stemming from despair.

"I hope that my music will please the crew and our guests."

“Your music pleased me!” Kozakura spoke up, fervently clapping her hands in applause as she did, before wiping the tears from her cheeks. All the while, she began to contemplate on what the song had made her feel. National pride, adoration, bravery, and yet more emotions surged through her synthetic heart, a strange, foreign sensation for the newly-activated gynoid!

No wonder she was crying.

 

[hyralt]

"I am glad my singing pleased you," Kwabba-an replied, beaming. It had been some time since anyone had cried at one of her performances. Unless one counted crying in pain in a mosh pit, which she did not.

"It pleases me to guide the emotions of others through music," Kwabba-an was proud that she remembered not to use the word control, since people tended to have a negative reaction to it. Why they were uncomfortable with her controlling them, but not guiding them, she was not sure, since the words were so similar in meaning.

"There is a vast space of emotions, any two of which could be separated by the subtlest distinction or an unfathomable expanse. For example, the love of your older sister is subtly distinct from the love of your younger sister. But a gaping chasm separates the bursting excitement of a new relationship from the slow realization of your own inevitable irrelevance," Kwabba-an explained. "It pleases me to...guide others in an exploration of this space."

Kwabba-an offered Kozakura a warm smile, full of hope for what was to come. "I can already tell that I will take great pleasure in guiding you."

 

[Immortal Cyan]

Bastion of Winter Workshop

One moment she was happy, then the next…

"There is a vast space of emotions, any two of which could be separated by the subtlest distinction or an unfathomable expanse. For example, the love of your older sister is subtly distinct from the love of your younger sister. But a gaping chasm separates the bursting excitement of a new relationship from the slow realization of your own inevitable irrelevance," Kwabba-an explained. "It pleases me to...guide others in an exploration of this space."

Kozakura blinked, confusion initially manifesting across her features, if a gynoid as advanced as she was could exhibit such a thing.

“My own inevitable…what?!” The Consort growled, her ears flattening in anger as her tail began to whip back and forth in a series of sharp, sudden motions. As angry as she was, Kozakura gave no signs that she would resort to violence, but her sudden shift in emotions threatened to suck the air out of the room!

“You won’t be guiding anything, you…ant!” The Consort pouted. Then, turning on her heels, she moved to storm out of the workshop, fresh lubricant streaming down on her cheeks as she did.