Science Lab
YSS Kaiyo II
It was a lazy midmorning as days went aboard the old Fuji-class, people milling around after breakfast before attending to their duties proper. Munching the last of his cereal, the ship's chief science officer Mochi-Man spun around casually on one of the lab's swivel chairs. Crunch crunch. As he kicked the ground lightly to keep up momentum, Sein let his head lull backwards, taking in the state of his little castle as he whirled.
Things had become exponentially tidier around here since he had Mushroom-hei, the Neo-Caelisolian thought, blazing wings pluming around him like a mini firestorm. While he was scatterbrained and frequently ended up with half-baked tasks and specimens scattered around, his colleage seemed to be much different.
Crunch crunch. Mochi didn't know her too well, given they had only been together for a couple of missions, yet the company was supremely welcome and he didn't know how much he was missing out on until they'd been introduced. Ah well, he had a few minutes to burn before the task of decompiling the next batch of data from this dimension was due. The stuff was gold dust as far as Yamatai was concerned and Mochi was only too happy to have an excuse to dive headfirst into such things.
Naturally, Walter Hyde was doing his rounds around and about the ship, and making a stop at the Science Lab to check the equipment. His Star Servantines hovered nearby, a pair of the gauntlets holding his lunch and another pair holding his toolkit, the rest floating idly. Walter considered those gauntlets to be very useful for their utilitarian role, as they have been handy all around the Kaiyo II in his technical endeavors. The technician opened the door, and walked inside the semi-tidy workplace that the psuedo-Elysian made for himself. "Hello, Seinosuke-juni. Any broken equipment as of yet?"
The sudden appearance caught Mochi off guard, the ex-SOFT flailing in his spinning seat at the surprise. Thankfully, he held onto the half-full bowl of his lovely breakfast yet sadly only managed to stop himself cascading to the floor by flaring his sunrise feather behind him as an airbrake.
"O-Oh! Walter-hei, good morning." The Elysian tried to regain his composure, clearing his throat as if that would make any sort of difference. Right now, it was a wonder he had lasted this long after what happened at the Havok Festival. "Just the man I needed." Mochi sprung up from his seat, popping the bowl down onto a counter with a small clatter of cutlery.
"I uh.. Sorta managed to smash up our accelerated growth chamber." He made it sound so casual, as if that wasn't a machine worth several tens of thousands of KS. Seinosuke gestured to an apparatus that hung open, its chamber door left ajar. The interior had traces of hastily mopped up pink goo where several test tubes had probably exploded and been hastily removed. Strangest of all, the bottom of the inside had a.. hole? It was as if something had eaten through it.
The technician raised an eyebrow, glancing between Seinosuke and the growth accelerator. "Yare yare daze... What did you do to this thing? Make something straight out of Ayenee?" He could recall about reading an article about the various breeds of slime monsters, one of them with a acidity so high it corrodes steel at an impressive thirty cubic centimeters per second. Scary stuff.
Walter dared to enter the expensive apparatus with his Stars close to his sides, and first gave the machine a good look-over. "Yeah, nothing I can't fix, you haven't broken any of the important components, but..." The Minkan put those words on hold, and opted to check the hole first before he continued.
"Ayenee?" Mochi blinked uncomprehendingly, not hearing of that anime before, giving Walter's hands an impressive look over instead. "Well, I was trying to synthesise a bacteria that secreted a substance that could be used to breach and clear bulkheads." The father-to-be explained, scooting closer to the device and perching on the edge of the desk beside it. "I uhh.. sorta forgot what exactly I was making before I hit 'start'." Sein added sheepisly, peering in over the top of the device himself, wincing at the damage.
"Yep." The gauntlets that Walter had been wearing slid off, and floated towards the hole. They scooped up a juicy glob of the congealed bacteria, about the size of a volleyball. They, thankfully, did not crumble away upon touching it. "Hey, you said they clear bulkheads, right? Mind getting me one of those plastic chemical waste buckets? I think we can get this goop cleared out before it goes straight into Engineering."
There were three other pairs of the gauntlets that Walter had worn, and one of them had been carrying a toolkit. The Star Army Blue gauntlets have only two comets in a helix pattern on the forearm as any extra decoration, as they otherwise looked like Zesuaium gauntlets, thematically designed like knights of fantasy. Walter eyed on the toolkit, and silently commanded that pair of Star Servantines to set the case on a table.
Sein's eyes widened a little at the size of the mass, it seemed he had outdone himself this time. "Sure, uhm.." The scientist turned in a quick circle on the spot, surveying the lab as a whole. 'Damnit', he thought, 'everything is in different places since the shroom-superb has tidied up'. Ironically, the scatterbrained Mochi's jade eyes swept right over the cupboard labelled "Containment" yet it took him a good second before realising and flicking back around to it. It seemed dubious this was the same man hailed on Elysia to have made a new subspecies.
Crouching and stepping over, the Juni swung open the whitewashed doors with a light "hiss", grabbing one such bucket as he stood, making sure not to tip over anything else in there as he did. "So, what are those things around you?" Mochi queried with more than a modicum of that famous scientific curiosity. Padding over, formal shoes clicking a tad on the smooth floor, popped the bucket on the floor so it was just under the candyfloss-toned ball, making sure to stand clear.
Walter raised an eyebrow again, looking over to the new gauntlets that the scientist was so curious about. "These? They're a 'custom weapon' I got from Origin Blade Works. Of course," the gauntlets let the ball of pink mess slide and plop into the bucket, "they're less of a weapon, and more like tool."
A pair of hands went over to the sink, a fresh pair of the gauntlets came in to put the bucket to a corner of the laboratory, and finally a third pair came to Walter himself. They idly flexed their fingers, clenched into a fist, relaxed, flipped over to the palm side to reveal rubber pads under the fingers and palm, and finally floated in a neutral position. "I call them Star Servatine. There isn't much to them, they're made of Zesuaium, use Gravitic Drives and Mind-Link to fly around quickly and be easily manipulated with thought, use a Concussion Engine to pack a bigger punch, and run off of aether energy so I could use them independently from my armor. I've been making use of them, usually to free my hands, get in small and dangerous spaces, but they can be used against power armors with fair effectiveness."
"Now if I get my hands on a FARS drone, then I could actually see where my hands are going, you know? These things can't be equipped with cameras and all." Using his actual hands for a change, Walter knocked on the back of a Star with a relaxed smile that contrasted with his stiff posture.
Mochi snapped his fingers with a smirk, that was what he had been trying to remember. "I actually have something a little like these somewhere.." The warrant officer fell to his knees and began to carefully dig around through the drawers under the desk he was sat on - worryingly close to the corrosive spill.
Finally, Sein slid backwards, clutching a strange-looking cylinder in his hands as he clambered to his feet. "Ah! There we go." He gazed down the strange tube's end, inspecting an amber lens for a moment. Tossing it in the air for a second, he flipped it over so that the orange glass was facing the opposite direction. Glancing around irratically, Mochi seemed to choose an item in the room at random - a cup filled with pens and stationary. Jabbing the device towards the simple white cup, the handheld item hummed, the cup gently being drawn closer until Sein reached out and grabbed its handle.
Walter can't help but chuckle as he watched the (worringly) clumsy scientist. "Yeah, that's the same idea; doesn't look very expensive, either. But if you had that with you, I bet you would've caught the dangerous bacteria. Seems a bit careless, don't you think?" One of his pairs of Stars started to make hand gestures as the technician talked, although Walter didn't notice their activity.
"Eh, maybe I broke it on purpose hmm?" Mochi winked at Walter jestingly, chuckling. "I didn't have it to hand because I didn't know it would uhh.. Be so potent." Sein set the cup he had pluched aside, noting that his junior had even rearranged the damn pens - she was thorough. "You know, you remind me of something." The Juni turned back to Walter, bringing his legs up to the desk, where he crossed them in a sitting position.
"A friend of mine back when I was doing my masters did classical mythology. There's a few old, forgotten gods that have, well, those." The blonde gestured to the Stars, "Hands in a ring, it's meant to signify godhood."
Walter thought on that, emphasized by him stroking his bare chin and looking at his hands, his multiple metal hands. "Yeah... Now that you mention it..." A cheeky grin grew on his face. Though stoic and neutral at first, the false birb had triggered a side of the technician that had seldom came out. Walter exhaled, and put himself in the shoes of a divine entity.
The Star Servantines rapidly spun in a circle behind Walter, as he began to cross his legs, hovering in the air through his natural Minkan abilities. He performed a hand gesture with his own strong hands, and all the Stars froze in a fixed circle behind the technician, each one doing a unique gesture. In his best divine voice, Walter spoke aloud, "Embrace tranquility."
The bewildering display cracked Mochi up, a beaming smile growing rapidly from both corners of his mouth as he chuckled; it prompted Walter to do the same, the two sharing a lighthearted moment and everything."Tranquility, huh?" The Juni mused, shaking his head in amazement. "Forgive me your holiness-" Seino began, executing an exaggerated bow, complete with the rolling of his wrist. "But I think you've come to the wrong place, nothing around here but Kuvvies and birdbrains." He straightened up, shooting Walter an amused look, "Perhaps I could interest you in some lovely pink goo? It tickles the throat."
"... Kuvvies?" Walter asked back, his amusing expression being exchanged for a curious one. Kuvvies...? That sounded kind of adorable, actually. "What're 'Kuvvies'? I never heard of them anywhere..." That, and Walter didn't even think to ask anyone about the specifics of the Kaiyo II's prior missions.
"Oh, uhh.." Mochi began, likely to have forgotten when exactly they had formally met. "Kuvvies are the nickname we use for the Kuvexians!" The scientist seemed rather enthused to pass this morsel of gossip to his comrade. "Y'know, the L'Kor and those guys. The nasties." The blonde ex-SOFT stepped closer to a specimen cabinet a few meters from the pair. Tapping it lightly, the doctor smirked - "I actually have some L'Kor pheromones in here, but I'm sure you've heard the tale about that?"
"... No? I never even heard of the... L'Kor? My people might have already eradicated them-" Walter, while confused at first, had gotten a general idea that these were most likely a race of aliens whom the Imperial Army alreayd wiped out. Which, also reminded him that Iemochi might have not been told about Walter's more colorful origins.
Which, of course, put a slight dampner on the Minkan's mood, but... You know, eventually he should just say it loud proud to heckin' everyone. Why even go through with doing it one person at a time? "That actually reminds me... Before I go on, what do you know about the IYS Kaiyo?"
Seinosuke's brows furrowed gently, his rhythmic tapping subsiding gradually so his fingers just rested against the glass container. "Your people..? The IYS?" The practiced cogs in his mind whirred, putting two and two together - but surely he was wrong. Hoshi would never allow a potenial enemy combatant into the heart of the ship, right? "Yes, I do.." The emerald-eyed Iemochi ventured cautiously, tilting his head a little to one side questioningly.
"I... Well, call me a misplaced combatant. Walter Joseph Hyde, former engineer and technician of the IYS 0071. I got wound up in a government project inspired by the YSS Kaiyo's escapades, and... Well, that project blew up upon entry in a different universe altogether. Lived on Ayenee for about a year before I got assigned here to fill the role of a technician," Walter said, confirming he was a part of that very same enemy.
The aforementioned technician paused, wondering how else he can just make the information simple and, hopefully, not burning whatever bridge Walter had just built. "I've been a difficult person at first, but... I think I've gotten better. I'm not proud of where I came from, either; my two parents were the worst I can ask for, for one. My mother, who... I guess you can say is supposed to be my paternal figure, and what you'd call a 'futa', was an abusive nationalist who wanted me to be a Neko instead of a Minkan. My second mother was... Unsupportive in that she had been absent as a motherly figure, only being a timid supporter of my paternal mother's antics. There were more problems aside from that, but... I don't want to be seen like 'that faceless cannonfodder' you see in space opera movies. I can still feel and think things beyond that!"
Then Walter realized... it really wasn't bite sized, and he sighed, disappointed in himself. It appeared this Minkan is actually more self-concious than the last."I'm sorry, I could have worded all this better, maybe say this at a better time..."
Mochi blinked a few times, so he came into their universe and was put aboard the Kaiyo? What he couldn't figure out was what the heck an Ayenee was - it sounded like some fantasy novel. Sein didn't get fantasy at all, it had to be said. The polite man let Walter finish, not quick to judge as he himself had done some things he was hated for - by most of the purists in the Elysian senate at that.
The Juni pressed his thumb to the cabinet, its hinges clicking free so that Mochi could swing open the light door, fumbling around inside for something - yet he definitely wasn't distracted from the topic at hand. "As much as I want to say I can trust you regardless, I'd be lying. We didn't have a great time in your home universe."
Seino stepped back from the slender case, holding in his hand an odd, birdlike skull which he held out, facing the un-Walter. "That being said, I didn't get the best luck with parents myself. I killed my mother and my father wants to murder me, has tried more than once." It was all said so matter-of-factly, it was as if there was nothing but indifference behind the words.
"Be who you want to be and damn anyone who thinks they know better," Mochi nodded finally, "even if they're your parents. She probably pressed that on you to mask her own failures." It was a brutally honest response, one that hinted he had put more than an afternoon of thought into the topic.
"This is an L'Kor. Birdbrains working for the Kuvvies which are attacking our native home right now." The father-to-be seemed to be silently fuming, yet left it open to Walter whether he wanted to change topics or not.
"... Bird brains?" Walter, taking that cue from the Juni, gently took the bird skull and practically analyzed it. He smiled, feeling that sensation of looking at something new, excitement at knowing just a little bit more about this universe. "Truth be told... I never seen anything like this before. What were they, exactly? Are they an advanced species? What is their way of life, the technology they do use? Why did they fight? How much did they weigh on average, this sample feels very light. Do these birds differ from sexes at all, like in colors? Do they do mating dances?"
That lightened the Elysian's mood by several shades, a slight smirk curling up at one corner of his lips. "Hey, are you sure you're meant to be in red panels and not green?" Mochi winked, patting the avian cranial a few times like it was an old friend, "Sentient, spacefaring. We don't know much about their culture, sadly. They're a vassal race - footsoldiers, I suppose - of the big bad guys." Sein leaned against the nearby countertop with a slight bump, "Most of what we manage to collect is from destroyed carcasses so weight estimation is pretty wishy-washy. That's the same reason we don't know too much about differing gender profiles." Sein rattled off each answer in as quick fire as Walter had asked, a bright spark in his eye as he did. This was his element as much as engines were Ana's, guns were Arbs' and commanding was Hoshi's. "Anything else
"Yes, actually! Who're the main bad guys?" Walter probably could have been a part of science for all he knew; even thoughhe pushed himself to be an technician with enough experience to be an engineer, sciences were cool as well. Probably more so, but circumstances just kept him wedged in this position.
Honestly the Minkan can't complain, anyway. "What're they like, too? Do they rival Yamatai in any way at all?"
"Well," Mochi replied with a tinge of remorse, "I haven't actually seen any of the 'main bad guys' as far as I know. Plus it seems like all that stuff is locked up inside SAINT right now." The Juni rubbed the L'Kor's cranium a few times as if clearing some smears off the stark white bone, "I believe we're considering them a rival but they aren't sharing anything with me at least, despite being the first to decypher the L'Kor language and study their remains. Talk about not returning favours."
Walter nodded, seemingly understanding how the military shorts out the people that serve it. Finding that the Minkan himself cannot think of what else to add or ask pertaining to the topic at hand, he chose something else to talk about right then and there. "Okay, breaking off from that now, you have... Any advice on starting an relationship with a birdfolk?"
Seinosuke blinked once or twice as he processed the question, chuckling. "Wow, what a change of pace. Why, do you have your eyes on someone, universal traveller?" Mochi tapped his chin a few times, pondering who it could be from those he knew aboad - a lot of people had transferred out since he was last on the ship. "There's one in purple panels and one of the redshirts that I've seen."
The Juni nudged Walter's arm gently, winking. "Well, ask away. I used to be a Minkan starry-eyed for a pretty Elysian girl. Now I'm married to her and we're expecting kids." He hummed, setting the L'Kor aside gently while turning away. "I'm sure you already know all about the wings?" As the father-to-be spoke, his own sunrise sails twitched at the mention subconciously.
"Heh, I try, I try... Well, I'm not very clear about that wing thing; did you need those to court someone... Elysian-like? She's very similar to an Elysian, but she happens to be also another person from another... Shit, this is actually a bit complicated," Walter mumbled. It's either that it is actually that complicated, or he is just overcomplicating it. Walter simply believed in the latter.
"Okay, so... Her name is Arete Surinus. She's a birdfolk, not specifically an Elysian, that I am tutoring. I'm not sure if I should, you know... Do I need the wings to be more attractive? Is there something I got to do or else she'll think I'm..." A handful of Stars, as well as Walter's own hands, were rubbing their fingers together nervously.
"You're tutoring?" Mochi cooed with intrigue, putting a fist under his chin and tilting his head to one side. "Elysian-like, huh? I'd love to get my hands on some DNA, as weird as that sounds." The blonde shook his head a few times as he got back to the topic at hand. "Wings be more attractive? Courting? You're talking as if you want to be an Elysian and we all act like birds." Mochi chuckled in amusement, but not in a way that seemed it was at Walter's expense.
"If you really don't know, Elysian's wings are very sensitive. Some are so sensitive the slightest touch is overpowering and some are less so. Think of it like a girl's chest or our trouser snakes if you get me." It was quite a full-frontal response but the scientist guessed not padding around the issue would help to reduce confusing the already confused situation further. "Keep a watch out for them. However, if you brush hers at the right time and feign ignorance.. Well.." Mochi shrugged with a smirk.
"O-oh... They... Oh..." Walter blushed at the tips of his pointy ears, and his Stars continued to telegraph his subconciousness as that supressed part of the technician practically floundered desperately. "I-Oh... I see... I suppose I sort of do, but I don't know how Arete would take that if I did change my form like that. Granted, I could use a change in form, anyway, but I don't know if I would look better in her eyes if I look like this," the towering, musclebound Minkan gestured to himself.
Walter's casual response regarding changing his body, his whole species made Mochi's eyebrows rocket upwards. The decision had taken him months and it wasn't one to be taken lightly in his opinion. "My friend, I would think long and hard about taking the leap. You'll be restructuring yourself from the very base and it will take weeks or months to just get used to your body and not constantly trip up."
A little sigh escaped his lips as Seinosuke seemed to mull things over. "That being said, you couldn't have asked someone better if you really wanted to do that. As I mentioned, I used to be a Minkan, obviously not anymore." The Neo-Caelisolian jostled his wings up and down a few times to punctuate the sentence. "In fact, I developed the process to do so. Developing the body will take a lot of time of us together, tuning it for the best and easiest transition from your current body. It's also not cheap and you normally need special permission from the Elysian Senate. However, you could think of me as being a VIP of sorts, I'm technically a diplomat so.."
Mochi crossed his arms, giving Walter a few awkward moments of silence as he looked the strong man up and down. "I'd have to be convinced. As it stands I barely know you - no offense - and you're not a universal native."
"That much is true, in fact it's what I had expected ever since I came here, yet I found it... I don't know, haunting that I haven't been met with as much distrust when I have admitted my origins to a few people around me," Walter admitted as he put his arms behind his back. "It's made me wonder how much my history actually matters to my life going forward, but I am getting ahead of myself. Truth be told, I may have of given it as much thought as you have, but in my position it's a no-brainer for practical and personal reasons."
"As I have told Eden-shosa, as well as a handful of other authority figures, about a certain chink in my design that my Yamatai, the Imperial Army, have used to great benefit. I so much as get an organ wounded while within my power armor, I will become more primal than I would want to imagine, and inevitably die due to a total system failure after my power armor cannot function. Despite that, I have not made any effort to change into anything else, so right now you can shoot me in my gut, and I'd die right in front of you. It is not a gift, it is a punishment for letting us get shot in the first place. I have grown up with the notion that our bodies mean nothing, and I am pretty sure that same motiff has permeated this Yamatai since you have the same ST tech we do."
After that monologue, Walter figured to break that with a small bit of humor. "Besides, I heard ladies wouldn't like someone who looks like me; if they slept on me it would be like sleeping on a brick. If I had any choice, I'd not be as... Toned. It makes me feel awkward around everyone..."
The blue-panelled man before him seemed unusually stony-faced, those emerald eyes filled with rapidly progressing thought processes. Silence descended once more, Mochi seeming to do nothing from his unchanging position but pierce into Walter's eyes with his own. It was quite off-putting, like he was under a microscope, to in which Walter felt increasingly more awkward; the Minkan felt maybe he said too much.
"The form you take is how your soul is seen by the world." The Itto Juni spoke slowly, deliberately, as if each word had been chosen after much thought. "It is not something to be bound by or something that should torture that soul." Another short pause, "The body itself might be thrown away again and again but the message it sends about you when people gaze upon it never will. It fundementally defines our interactions and our being."
They were genuine, soul-filled words of someone who had been through the dark tunnel and came out the other side, to another wishing to undertake the long night. "This isn't something I can decide here and now. I'll need time to think.. You need to be sure as well, beyond any shadow of doubt. Once we take the first step there is no going back. We will be restructuring everything that makes Walter Walter."
The younger Hyde nodded, Iemochi's words settling in his skull like sand in a lake. "That is fair," he said. "I will give it the thinking that it deserves."
"... And, one more thing, about what I actually wanted to talk about; how can I coax a girl into a romantic relationship?" Walter had meant to ask Iemochi for that, since he's one of the few people Walter knew who got into a successful, loving relationship. As far as the technician knew, anyway.
Having nodded once, decisively as his comrade assured there would be no doubt when this was decided, Mochi visibly loosened up again and lowered his hand from this chin. "Coax makes it sound like you're trapping an animal." The scientist chuckled, having apparently done a 180 from serious to joking in the space of one sentence.
"Well, I would say something profound but honestly, it happened by me being a goof. Most of the relationships this ship has seen happened from dropping one vial on the floor on Love Day. From there, Arbs and I realised how connected we actually were." Mochi seemed wistful as he remembered the event, casting his mind back. "I'd say do things you both like and make things more intimate as you go? From there it falls into place."
"Alright... That can be something within my abilities," Walter nodded. "That sounds like a disaster though, that 'Love Day' incident."
"Disaster implies it didn't end well." A knowing glint passed through Mochi's eye, "Though I wouldn't go gassing the poor girl. Probably not a good way to be keeping your position here." The scientist actually pushed himself up from the table, taking the white-bleached skull with him, stepping over to the nearby cabinet again and stowing it like a pet into a cage. "I actually.." Seinosuke added, fumbling around inside the case, retrieving a half-full vial from inside. "Have the same pheromones I spilled that day. Potent stuff, I only managed to rescue half of what I once had."
Surprising to himself, Walter had to sit on the idea of using it, before he concluded that winning her heart fair and square is a better idea than misusing chemicals that probably surpass Walter's phermone production. "Maybe when I reach second base, or probably some other... Festive love day." His jovial demeanor implied Walter was joking.
"Anything else that needs repair, maybe a check-up?"
The scientist gave a knowing look to his new acquaintance, tapping his nose a few times. "Good lad, don't go breaking in here if you change your mind; you might end up turning the poor girl into a Mishhu." Mochi grinned in a jesting manner, shaking the clear vial this way and that before leaning over his shoulder and stowing it away.
Seinosuke's warm disposition had returned fully and we'll, seeming rather happy to be away from more serious topics. "Well, I can't think of much. Maybe the gene splicer? It's a bit inaccurate right now but that can probably wait."
"I am NOT fixing that thing if it's only off by half a millimeter, Iemochi! That thing should be fine for a few months, give or take two weeks. I need to start doing more check-ups before I get harped on for not doing my job faster. 'llbee back from my software check routine to fix the growth chamber." Walter's Stars followed behind him as he walked to the exitway, talking as he went.
"Just take care of yourself... But mostly the lab, alright? Equipment doesn't grow on trees, we do!"
"You say that but in a few days I'll have blow it up with some magic mushrooms or something!" Mochi cracked up at that last quip from the engineer, allowing himself a couple of hearty chuckles as Walter waltzed towards the door. "Alright mate, will do! Don't go convincing anyone you're some divine spirit, you hear!"
YSS Kaiyo II
It was a lazy midmorning as days went aboard the old Fuji-class, people milling around after breakfast before attending to their duties proper. Munching the last of his cereal, the ship's chief science officer Mochi-Man spun around casually on one of the lab's swivel chairs. Crunch crunch. As he kicked the ground lightly to keep up momentum, Sein let his head lull backwards, taking in the state of his little castle as he whirled.
Things had become exponentially tidier around here since he had Mushroom-hei, the Neo-Caelisolian thought, blazing wings pluming around him like a mini firestorm. While he was scatterbrained and frequently ended up with half-baked tasks and specimens scattered around, his colleage seemed to be much different.
Crunch crunch. Mochi didn't know her too well, given they had only been together for a couple of missions, yet the company was supremely welcome and he didn't know how much he was missing out on until they'd been introduced. Ah well, he had a few minutes to burn before the task of decompiling the next batch of data from this dimension was due. The stuff was gold dust as far as Yamatai was concerned and Mochi was only too happy to have an excuse to dive headfirst into such things.
Naturally, Walter Hyde was doing his rounds around and about the ship, and making a stop at the Science Lab to check the equipment. His Star Servantines hovered nearby, a pair of the gauntlets holding his lunch and another pair holding his toolkit, the rest floating idly. Walter considered those gauntlets to be very useful for their utilitarian role, as they have been handy all around the Kaiyo II in his technical endeavors. The technician opened the door, and walked inside the semi-tidy workplace that the psuedo-Elysian made for himself. "Hello, Seinosuke-juni. Any broken equipment as of yet?"
The sudden appearance caught Mochi off guard, the ex-SOFT flailing in his spinning seat at the surprise. Thankfully, he held onto the half-full bowl of his lovely breakfast yet sadly only managed to stop himself cascading to the floor by flaring his sunrise feather behind him as an airbrake.
"O-Oh! Walter-hei, good morning." The Elysian tried to regain his composure, clearing his throat as if that would make any sort of difference. Right now, it was a wonder he had lasted this long after what happened at the Havok Festival. "Just the man I needed." Mochi sprung up from his seat, popping the bowl down onto a counter with a small clatter of cutlery.
"I uh.. Sorta managed to smash up our accelerated growth chamber." He made it sound so casual, as if that wasn't a machine worth several tens of thousands of KS. Seinosuke gestured to an apparatus that hung open, its chamber door left ajar. The interior had traces of hastily mopped up pink goo where several test tubes had probably exploded and been hastily removed. Strangest of all, the bottom of the inside had a.. hole? It was as if something had eaten through it.
The technician raised an eyebrow, glancing between Seinosuke and the growth accelerator. "Yare yare daze... What did you do to this thing? Make something straight out of Ayenee?" He could recall about reading an article about the various breeds of slime monsters, one of them with a acidity so high it corrodes steel at an impressive thirty cubic centimeters per second. Scary stuff.
Walter dared to enter the expensive apparatus with his Stars close to his sides, and first gave the machine a good look-over. "Yeah, nothing I can't fix, you haven't broken any of the important components, but..." The Minkan put those words on hold, and opted to check the hole first before he continued.
"Ayenee?" Mochi blinked uncomprehendingly, not hearing of that anime before, giving Walter's hands an impressive look over instead. "Well, I was trying to synthesise a bacteria that secreted a substance that could be used to breach and clear bulkheads." The father-to-be explained, scooting closer to the device and perching on the edge of the desk beside it. "I uhh.. sorta forgot what exactly I was making before I hit 'start'." Sein added sheepisly, peering in over the top of the device himself, wincing at the damage.
"Yep." The gauntlets that Walter had been wearing slid off, and floated towards the hole. They scooped up a juicy glob of the congealed bacteria, about the size of a volleyball. They, thankfully, did not crumble away upon touching it. "Hey, you said they clear bulkheads, right? Mind getting me one of those plastic chemical waste buckets? I think we can get this goop cleared out before it goes straight into Engineering."
There were three other pairs of the gauntlets that Walter had worn, and one of them had been carrying a toolkit. The Star Army Blue gauntlets have only two comets in a helix pattern on the forearm as any extra decoration, as they otherwise looked like Zesuaium gauntlets, thematically designed like knights of fantasy. Walter eyed on the toolkit, and silently commanded that pair of Star Servantines to set the case on a table.
Sein's eyes widened a little at the size of the mass, it seemed he had outdone himself this time. "Sure, uhm.." The scientist turned in a quick circle on the spot, surveying the lab as a whole. 'Damnit', he thought, 'everything is in different places since the shroom-superb has tidied up'. Ironically, the scatterbrained Mochi's jade eyes swept right over the cupboard labelled "Containment" yet it took him a good second before realising and flicking back around to it. It seemed dubious this was the same man hailed on Elysia to have made a new subspecies.
Crouching and stepping over, the Juni swung open the whitewashed doors with a light "hiss", grabbing one such bucket as he stood, making sure not to tip over anything else in there as he did. "So, what are those things around you?" Mochi queried with more than a modicum of that famous scientific curiosity. Padding over, formal shoes clicking a tad on the smooth floor, popped the bucket on the floor so it was just under the candyfloss-toned ball, making sure to stand clear.
Walter raised an eyebrow again, looking over to the new gauntlets that the scientist was so curious about. "These? They're a 'custom weapon' I got from Origin Blade Works. Of course," the gauntlets let the ball of pink mess slide and plop into the bucket, "they're less of a weapon, and more like tool."
A pair of hands went over to the sink, a fresh pair of the gauntlets came in to put the bucket to a corner of the laboratory, and finally a third pair came to Walter himself. They idly flexed their fingers, clenched into a fist, relaxed, flipped over to the palm side to reveal rubber pads under the fingers and palm, and finally floated in a neutral position. "I call them Star Servatine. There isn't much to them, they're made of Zesuaium, use Gravitic Drives and Mind-Link to fly around quickly and be easily manipulated with thought, use a Concussion Engine to pack a bigger punch, and run off of aether energy so I could use them independently from my armor. I've been making use of them, usually to free my hands, get in small and dangerous spaces, but they can be used against power armors with fair effectiveness."
"Now if I get my hands on a FARS drone, then I could actually see where my hands are going, you know? These things can't be equipped with cameras and all." Using his actual hands for a change, Walter knocked on the back of a Star with a relaxed smile that contrasted with his stiff posture.
Mochi snapped his fingers with a smirk, that was what he had been trying to remember. "I actually have something a little like these somewhere.." The warrant officer fell to his knees and began to carefully dig around through the drawers under the desk he was sat on - worryingly close to the corrosive spill.
Finally, Sein slid backwards, clutching a strange-looking cylinder in his hands as he clambered to his feet. "Ah! There we go." He gazed down the strange tube's end, inspecting an amber lens for a moment. Tossing it in the air for a second, he flipped it over so that the orange glass was facing the opposite direction. Glancing around irratically, Mochi seemed to choose an item in the room at random - a cup filled with pens and stationary. Jabbing the device towards the simple white cup, the handheld item hummed, the cup gently being drawn closer until Sein reached out and grabbed its handle.
Walter can't help but chuckle as he watched the (worringly) clumsy scientist. "Yeah, that's the same idea; doesn't look very expensive, either. But if you had that with you, I bet you would've caught the dangerous bacteria. Seems a bit careless, don't you think?" One of his pairs of Stars started to make hand gestures as the technician talked, although Walter didn't notice their activity.
"Eh, maybe I broke it on purpose hmm?" Mochi winked at Walter jestingly, chuckling. "I didn't have it to hand because I didn't know it would uhh.. Be so potent." Sein set the cup he had pluched aside, noting that his junior had even rearranged the damn pens - she was thorough. "You know, you remind me of something." The Juni turned back to Walter, bringing his legs up to the desk, where he crossed them in a sitting position.
"A friend of mine back when I was doing my masters did classical mythology. There's a few old, forgotten gods that have, well, those." The blonde gestured to the Stars, "Hands in a ring, it's meant to signify godhood."
Walter thought on that, emphasized by him stroking his bare chin and looking at his hands, his multiple metal hands. "Yeah... Now that you mention it..." A cheeky grin grew on his face. Though stoic and neutral at first, the false birb had triggered a side of the technician that had seldom came out. Walter exhaled, and put himself in the shoes of a divine entity.
The Star Servantines rapidly spun in a circle behind Walter, as he began to cross his legs, hovering in the air through his natural Minkan abilities. He performed a hand gesture with his own strong hands, and all the Stars froze in a fixed circle behind the technician, each one doing a unique gesture. In his best divine voice, Walter spoke aloud, "Embrace tranquility."
The bewildering display cracked Mochi up, a beaming smile growing rapidly from both corners of his mouth as he chuckled; it prompted Walter to do the same, the two sharing a lighthearted moment and everything."Tranquility, huh?" The Juni mused, shaking his head in amazement. "Forgive me your holiness-" Seino began, executing an exaggerated bow, complete with the rolling of his wrist. "But I think you've come to the wrong place, nothing around here but Kuvvies and birdbrains." He straightened up, shooting Walter an amused look, "Perhaps I could interest you in some lovely pink goo? It tickles the throat."
"... Kuvvies?" Walter asked back, his amusing expression being exchanged for a curious one. Kuvvies...? That sounded kind of adorable, actually. "What're 'Kuvvies'? I never heard of them anywhere..." That, and Walter didn't even think to ask anyone about the specifics of the Kaiyo II's prior missions.
"Oh, uhh.." Mochi began, likely to have forgotten when exactly they had formally met. "Kuvvies are the nickname we use for the Kuvexians!" The scientist seemed rather enthused to pass this morsel of gossip to his comrade. "Y'know, the L'Kor and those guys. The nasties." The blonde ex-SOFT stepped closer to a specimen cabinet a few meters from the pair. Tapping it lightly, the doctor smirked - "I actually have some L'Kor pheromones in here, but I'm sure you've heard the tale about that?"
"... No? I never even heard of the... L'Kor? My people might have already eradicated them-" Walter, while confused at first, had gotten a general idea that these were most likely a race of aliens whom the Imperial Army alreayd wiped out. Which, also reminded him that Iemochi might have not been told about Walter's more colorful origins.
Which, of course, put a slight dampner on the Minkan's mood, but... You know, eventually he should just say it loud proud to heckin' everyone. Why even go through with doing it one person at a time? "That actually reminds me... Before I go on, what do you know about the IYS Kaiyo?"
Seinosuke's brows furrowed gently, his rhythmic tapping subsiding gradually so his fingers just rested against the glass container. "Your people..? The IYS?" The practiced cogs in his mind whirred, putting two and two together - but surely he was wrong. Hoshi would never allow a potenial enemy combatant into the heart of the ship, right? "Yes, I do.." The emerald-eyed Iemochi ventured cautiously, tilting his head a little to one side questioningly.
"I... Well, call me a misplaced combatant. Walter Joseph Hyde, former engineer and technician of the IYS 0071. I got wound up in a government project inspired by the YSS Kaiyo's escapades, and... Well, that project blew up upon entry in a different universe altogether. Lived on Ayenee for about a year before I got assigned here to fill the role of a technician," Walter said, confirming he was a part of that very same enemy.
The aforementioned technician paused, wondering how else he can just make the information simple and, hopefully, not burning whatever bridge Walter had just built. "I've been a difficult person at first, but... I think I've gotten better. I'm not proud of where I came from, either; my two parents were the worst I can ask for, for one. My mother, who... I guess you can say is supposed to be my paternal figure, and what you'd call a 'futa', was an abusive nationalist who wanted me to be a Neko instead of a Minkan. My second mother was... Unsupportive in that she had been absent as a motherly figure, only being a timid supporter of my paternal mother's antics. There were more problems aside from that, but... I don't want to be seen like 'that faceless cannonfodder' you see in space opera movies. I can still feel and think things beyond that!"
Then Walter realized... it really wasn't bite sized, and he sighed, disappointed in himself. It appeared this Minkan is actually more self-concious than the last."I'm sorry, I could have worded all this better, maybe say this at a better time..."
Mochi blinked a few times, so he came into their universe and was put aboard the Kaiyo? What he couldn't figure out was what the heck an Ayenee was - it sounded like some fantasy novel. Sein didn't get fantasy at all, it had to be said. The polite man let Walter finish, not quick to judge as he himself had done some things he was hated for - by most of the purists in the Elysian senate at that.
The Juni pressed his thumb to the cabinet, its hinges clicking free so that Mochi could swing open the light door, fumbling around inside for something - yet he definitely wasn't distracted from the topic at hand. "As much as I want to say I can trust you regardless, I'd be lying. We didn't have a great time in your home universe."
Seino stepped back from the slender case, holding in his hand an odd, birdlike skull which he held out, facing the un-Walter. "That being said, I didn't get the best luck with parents myself. I killed my mother and my father wants to murder me, has tried more than once." It was all said so matter-of-factly, it was as if there was nothing but indifference behind the words.
"Be who you want to be and damn anyone who thinks they know better," Mochi nodded finally, "even if they're your parents. She probably pressed that on you to mask her own failures." It was a brutally honest response, one that hinted he had put more than an afternoon of thought into the topic.
"This is an L'Kor. Birdbrains working for the Kuvvies which are attacking our native home right now." The father-to-be seemed to be silently fuming, yet left it open to Walter whether he wanted to change topics or not.
"... Bird brains?" Walter, taking that cue from the Juni, gently took the bird skull and practically analyzed it. He smiled, feeling that sensation of looking at something new, excitement at knowing just a little bit more about this universe. "Truth be told... I never seen anything like this before. What were they, exactly? Are they an advanced species? What is their way of life, the technology they do use? Why did they fight? How much did they weigh on average, this sample feels very light. Do these birds differ from sexes at all, like in colors? Do they do mating dances?"
That lightened the Elysian's mood by several shades, a slight smirk curling up at one corner of his lips. "Hey, are you sure you're meant to be in red panels and not green?" Mochi winked, patting the avian cranial a few times like it was an old friend, "Sentient, spacefaring. We don't know much about their culture, sadly. They're a vassal race - footsoldiers, I suppose - of the big bad guys." Sein leaned against the nearby countertop with a slight bump, "Most of what we manage to collect is from destroyed carcasses so weight estimation is pretty wishy-washy. That's the same reason we don't know too much about differing gender profiles." Sein rattled off each answer in as quick fire as Walter had asked, a bright spark in his eye as he did. This was his element as much as engines were Ana's, guns were Arbs' and commanding was Hoshi's. "Anything else
"Yes, actually! Who're the main bad guys?" Walter probably could have been a part of science for all he knew; even thoughhe pushed himself to be an technician with enough experience to be an engineer, sciences were cool as well. Probably more so, but circumstances just kept him wedged in this position.
Honestly the Minkan can't complain, anyway. "What're they like, too? Do they rival Yamatai in any way at all?"
"Well," Mochi replied with a tinge of remorse, "I haven't actually seen any of the 'main bad guys' as far as I know. Plus it seems like all that stuff is locked up inside SAINT right now." The Juni rubbed the L'Kor's cranium a few times as if clearing some smears off the stark white bone, "I believe we're considering them a rival but they aren't sharing anything with me at least, despite being the first to decypher the L'Kor language and study their remains. Talk about not returning favours."
Walter nodded, seemingly understanding how the military shorts out the people that serve it. Finding that the Minkan himself cannot think of what else to add or ask pertaining to the topic at hand, he chose something else to talk about right then and there. "Okay, breaking off from that now, you have... Any advice on starting an relationship with a birdfolk?"
Seinosuke blinked once or twice as he processed the question, chuckling. "Wow, what a change of pace. Why, do you have your eyes on someone, universal traveller?" Mochi tapped his chin a few times, pondering who it could be from those he knew aboad - a lot of people had transferred out since he was last on the ship. "There's one in purple panels and one of the redshirts that I've seen."
The Juni nudged Walter's arm gently, winking. "Well, ask away. I used to be a Minkan starry-eyed for a pretty Elysian girl. Now I'm married to her and we're expecting kids." He hummed, setting the L'Kor aside gently while turning away. "I'm sure you already know all about the wings?" As the father-to-be spoke, his own sunrise sails twitched at the mention subconciously.
"Heh, I try, I try... Well, I'm not very clear about that wing thing; did you need those to court someone... Elysian-like? She's very similar to an Elysian, but she happens to be also another person from another... Shit, this is actually a bit complicated," Walter mumbled. It's either that it is actually that complicated, or he is just overcomplicating it. Walter simply believed in the latter.
"Okay, so... Her name is Arete Surinus. She's a birdfolk, not specifically an Elysian, that I am tutoring. I'm not sure if I should, you know... Do I need the wings to be more attractive? Is there something I got to do or else she'll think I'm..." A handful of Stars, as well as Walter's own hands, were rubbing their fingers together nervously.
"You're tutoring?" Mochi cooed with intrigue, putting a fist under his chin and tilting his head to one side. "Elysian-like, huh? I'd love to get my hands on some DNA, as weird as that sounds." The blonde shook his head a few times as he got back to the topic at hand. "Wings be more attractive? Courting? You're talking as if you want to be an Elysian and we all act like birds." Mochi chuckled in amusement, but not in a way that seemed it was at Walter's expense.
"If you really don't know, Elysian's wings are very sensitive. Some are so sensitive the slightest touch is overpowering and some are less so. Think of it like a girl's chest or our trouser snakes if you get me." It was quite a full-frontal response but the scientist guessed not padding around the issue would help to reduce confusing the already confused situation further. "Keep a watch out for them. However, if you brush hers at the right time and feign ignorance.. Well.." Mochi shrugged with a smirk.
"O-oh... They... Oh..." Walter blushed at the tips of his pointy ears, and his Stars continued to telegraph his subconciousness as that supressed part of the technician practically floundered desperately. "I-Oh... I see... I suppose I sort of do, but I don't know how Arete would take that if I did change my form like that. Granted, I could use a change in form, anyway, but I don't know if I would look better in her eyes if I look like this," the towering, musclebound Minkan gestured to himself.
Walter's casual response regarding changing his body, his whole species made Mochi's eyebrows rocket upwards. The decision had taken him months and it wasn't one to be taken lightly in his opinion. "My friend, I would think long and hard about taking the leap. You'll be restructuring yourself from the very base and it will take weeks or months to just get used to your body and not constantly trip up."
A little sigh escaped his lips as Seinosuke seemed to mull things over. "That being said, you couldn't have asked someone better if you really wanted to do that. As I mentioned, I used to be a Minkan, obviously not anymore." The Neo-Caelisolian jostled his wings up and down a few times to punctuate the sentence. "In fact, I developed the process to do so. Developing the body will take a lot of time of us together, tuning it for the best and easiest transition from your current body. It's also not cheap and you normally need special permission from the Elysian Senate. However, you could think of me as being a VIP of sorts, I'm technically a diplomat so.."
Mochi crossed his arms, giving Walter a few awkward moments of silence as he looked the strong man up and down. "I'd have to be convinced. As it stands I barely know you - no offense - and you're not a universal native."
"That much is true, in fact it's what I had expected ever since I came here, yet I found it... I don't know, haunting that I haven't been met with as much distrust when I have admitted my origins to a few people around me," Walter admitted as he put his arms behind his back. "It's made me wonder how much my history actually matters to my life going forward, but I am getting ahead of myself. Truth be told, I may have of given it as much thought as you have, but in my position it's a no-brainer for practical and personal reasons."
"As I have told Eden-shosa, as well as a handful of other authority figures, about a certain chink in my design that my Yamatai, the Imperial Army, have used to great benefit. I so much as get an organ wounded while within my power armor, I will become more primal than I would want to imagine, and inevitably die due to a total system failure after my power armor cannot function. Despite that, I have not made any effort to change into anything else, so right now you can shoot me in my gut, and I'd die right in front of you. It is not a gift, it is a punishment for letting us get shot in the first place. I have grown up with the notion that our bodies mean nothing, and I am pretty sure that same motiff has permeated this Yamatai since you have the same ST tech we do."
After that monologue, Walter figured to break that with a small bit of humor. "Besides, I heard ladies wouldn't like someone who looks like me; if they slept on me it would be like sleeping on a brick. If I had any choice, I'd not be as... Toned. It makes me feel awkward around everyone..."
The blue-panelled man before him seemed unusually stony-faced, those emerald eyes filled with rapidly progressing thought processes. Silence descended once more, Mochi seeming to do nothing from his unchanging position but pierce into Walter's eyes with his own. It was quite off-putting, like he was under a microscope, to in which Walter felt increasingly more awkward; the Minkan felt maybe he said too much.
"The form you take is how your soul is seen by the world." The Itto Juni spoke slowly, deliberately, as if each word had been chosen after much thought. "It is not something to be bound by or something that should torture that soul." Another short pause, "The body itself might be thrown away again and again but the message it sends about you when people gaze upon it never will. It fundementally defines our interactions and our being."
They were genuine, soul-filled words of someone who had been through the dark tunnel and came out the other side, to another wishing to undertake the long night. "This isn't something I can decide here and now. I'll need time to think.. You need to be sure as well, beyond any shadow of doubt. Once we take the first step there is no going back. We will be restructuring everything that makes Walter Walter."
The younger Hyde nodded, Iemochi's words settling in his skull like sand in a lake. "That is fair," he said. "I will give it the thinking that it deserves."
"... And, one more thing, about what I actually wanted to talk about; how can I coax a girl into a romantic relationship?" Walter had meant to ask Iemochi for that, since he's one of the few people Walter knew who got into a successful, loving relationship. As far as the technician knew, anyway.
Having nodded once, decisively as his comrade assured there would be no doubt when this was decided, Mochi visibly loosened up again and lowered his hand from this chin. "Coax makes it sound like you're trapping an animal." The scientist chuckled, having apparently done a 180 from serious to joking in the space of one sentence.
"Well, I would say something profound but honestly, it happened by me being a goof. Most of the relationships this ship has seen happened from dropping one vial on the floor on Love Day. From there, Arbs and I realised how connected we actually were." Mochi seemed wistful as he remembered the event, casting his mind back. "I'd say do things you both like and make things more intimate as you go? From there it falls into place."
"Alright... That can be something within my abilities," Walter nodded. "That sounds like a disaster though, that 'Love Day' incident."
"Disaster implies it didn't end well." A knowing glint passed through Mochi's eye, "Though I wouldn't go gassing the poor girl. Probably not a good way to be keeping your position here." The scientist actually pushed himself up from the table, taking the white-bleached skull with him, stepping over to the nearby cabinet again and stowing it like a pet into a cage. "I actually.." Seinosuke added, fumbling around inside the case, retrieving a half-full vial from inside. "Have the same pheromones I spilled that day. Potent stuff, I only managed to rescue half of what I once had."
Surprising to himself, Walter had to sit on the idea of using it, before he concluded that winning her heart fair and square is a better idea than misusing chemicals that probably surpass Walter's phermone production. "Maybe when I reach second base, or probably some other... Festive love day." His jovial demeanor implied Walter was joking.
"Anything else that needs repair, maybe a check-up?"
The scientist gave a knowing look to his new acquaintance, tapping his nose a few times. "Good lad, don't go breaking in here if you change your mind; you might end up turning the poor girl into a Mishhu." Mochi grinned in a jesting manner, shaking the clear vial this way and that before leaning over his shoulder and stowing it away.
Seinosuke's warm disposition had returned fully and we'll, seeming rather happy to be away from more serious topics. "Well, I can't think of much. Maybe the gene splicer? It's a bit inaccurate right now but that can probably wait."
"I am NOT fixing that thing if it's only off by half a millimeter, Iemochi! That thing should be fine for a few months, give or take two weeks. I need to start doing more check-ups before I get harped on for not doing my job faster. 'llbee back from my software check routine to fix the growth chamber." Walter's Stars followed behind him as he walked to the exitway, talking as he went.
"Just take care of yourself... But mostly the lab, alright? Equipment doesn't grow on trees, we do!"
"You say that but in a few days I'll have blow it up with some magic mushrooms or something!" Mochi cracked up at that last quip from the engineer, allowing himself a couple of hearty chuckles as Walter waltzed towards the door. "Alright mate, will do! Don't go convincing anyone you're some divine spirit, you hear!"
@Burgmond45[/SPOILER]
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