Excerpt 003: Ship’s Cradle

[rekindledtitan]

TYPE: Personal log

LOCATION: Orbit, Earth

PARTIES: Three [3]. One [1] Ghost-type, [1] Guardian-type, designate Blaze-37, Class Titan [rekindledtitan], One [1] Unconfirmed, designate Hughes, Maes [bestdadinamestris]


ASSOCIATIONS: Multiversal Nexus; Maes Hughes; Earth; Multiversal Phenomena; Blaze-37; Amestris; Dr. Hill; Deep Stone Crypt; [REDACTED]




Blaze should have figured the warning signs for what they were. When the senses slow and the body insists on sinking into the nearest furniture, it ought to be a clue. But she has no memory of fatigue, no sense of whether her body is just complaining or injured or seriously needs to rest. So it’s not until their meeting at the Harp sees her stuffed with food and forced to actually sit down for a while that the torpor kicks in.

She’d like to shake it off, but the more level (and more inorganic) heads around her are able to point out that that’s not how human biology works.

She’s yawning uncontrollably when they materialize aboard her one-room jumpship. It wakes up for them with a soft hum, lights revealing a cabin just big enough for both she and Hughes to move around. Every inch of the clean metal plating looks like it’s part of some compartment or pull-out section, and that includes the floor. To sharp Exo senses it might look a bit patchwork, too: different panels have subtly different finishes; signs of repair are everywhere. There’s little sign of home comforts: just one cushy pilot’s chair, Blaze’s helmet clipped alongside it.

“I’m… going to power up the life-support systems,” the Ghost says, swooping over to the controls.

Blaze tries to talk through her next yawn. “Oh… yyyeah. Good thinking. Uh.” She looks up at Hughes and waves a hand toward the star-speckled view up front. “Welcome to Earth orbit.”

Comments

[bestdadinamestris]

Hughes is overcome with a very somber mood when Blaze and Katsuya talk about the relative difference in time between their worlds. Having been to both, if only briefly, makes him feel a bit more like an outsider than he would have expected. It also puts a lot more of what he's seen in perspective, and cements some of what's been said in the Nexus about time being relative as real.

"I am," he answers with a nod. "We have some technology that's considered old even by your world's standards, Katsuya, but even then we're missing a lot." He smiles sheepishly and rubs the back of his neck with one hand. "Different paths of development, I guess."

[rekindledtitan]

“It’s more complicated than that. We’ve got tech that’s more advanced than yours, sure. We’ve got tech seven or eight centuries old that’s still beyond us. Golden Age secrets.” She raps her chestplate for emphasis. “Technology leaps ahead, gets knocked back. It’s not linear. The people change, though. Not at the core, but they grow.”

She leans back against the couch, accidentally nudging it across the floor as she looks up at Hughes. Despite her little ramble, she’s curious. “What kind of tech do you have?”

[sumarusfinest]

"They use alchemy. It's a fascinating field of study, though I must admit I don't fully understand it. It sounds like magic, but Hughes has assured me in the past that it is most certainly a science."

He too is looking Hughes' way.

"Your world seems very interesting."

[bestdadinamestris]

"Some people use alchemy," Hughes corrects with a chuckle. "There are some of us who can't figure it out in the least, despite years of reading up on it. We also have basic things like cars, trains, and ships for transportation, and basic radios and telephones that still require wiring for communication." He chuckles softly. "A bit dated by Nexus standards, but it gets the job done."

He can't help but smile a bit, though. "Glad it's still interesting to someone besides me."

[rekindledtitan]

"Heh. You know the saying about sufficiently advanced science and magic, Suou?" Blaze pauses to wonder out loud, "Do you have that yet?"

"Alchemy as in transmutation?" The Ghost is certainly interested too.

[sumarusfinest]

"No, nothing like it." Katsuya shakes his head. "Up until a few years ago, I would have insisted there was no such thing as magic, but well." His hand strays to his chest and Katsuya breathes deep.

He's walking proof that it does, now.

"We have cellular phones, though nothing like the devices I"ve seen in the Nexus. Otherwise, the tech you see in my home is the level we've reached."

[bestdadinamestris]

"Exactly." Despite not knowing much about it, Hughes is all smiles that Blaze and Ghost seems to understand what he's talking about without having to explain it.

"It's not a bad haul," Hughes notes, motioning to the television. "We don't have anything like this on my world. It's fascinating." And if he isn't careful, he'll be drawn in by more of the colorful commercials coming on the screen...

[rekindledtitan]

“It’s a great thing, isn’t it?” Blaze looks between both of them, her gaze bright and joy in her voice. Being drunk and back in her own body has her downright bubbly. “Knowing there’s always another horizon. Always another space of possibilities you haven’t explored. You’ll do thousands of things we didn’t and we- we’ll do things you never need, I hope.

“I mean-“ she waves at Hughes, “alchemy never worked for us and magic is sorta recent. If it’s the same thing you call magic. Suppose your demons work in a similar way. Contracts and all. Haven’t had more trouble with those, have you?”

Drunken robot means talkative, thinking-out-loud robot.

[sumarusfinest]

"Fascinating is a good word for it." Katsuya agrees, smile on his face as he nods along to Hughes--not that the officer sees it if he's watching the television again.

"I have heard there are a few stragglers who stayed in the Nexus." Katsuya's expression stiffens slightly. "Though I haven't heard of them causing any trouble, but I've kept an ear to the ground for any signs. Here in Sumaru, that's another story." The officer shakes his head.

"I do patrols every other night, cycling through the wards and eliminating threats."

[bestdadinamestris]

Talk of patrols and dangers pulls Hughes away from the television instantly.

"Are you still having problems here?" He frowns. "You said you were going on patrols, but I don't recall you saying you were going out every other night." The thought that he might be forgetting because he's intoxicated doesn't even cross his mind. He doesn't forget things. Ever.

[rekindledtitan]

Ghost looks up and spins at the mention of stragglers. "You mean like Angel?"

"Angel doesn't count," Blaze insists. "She's a friendly. Absolutely confirmed." Ghost decides not to argue with this definition of 'demon'. Especially since Blaze's attention has already moved on to the 'actual' kind.

"We'll help you clean them out!" she volunteers happily. "About time I got some work done. Static's starting to make my sensors itch." After all, she's been out of combat for more than twenty-four hours now. It's unthinkable!