Eternal Rains (IC) [M] - Closed

[SpottedKitty]

With hindsight, Fal'taq realised he'd miscalculated a little. In the last few minutes before the airship crashed, he'd reinforced the multiple layers of his shield as best he could, and put out bracing grab-hold spells to anchor the whole construction to as many of the ship's structural members running through the control room as he could find. He was so busy, he barely noticed Pettersohn teleport into the room and begin puttering about with something magical and probably futile. The mole's idea was actually quite a good one, and he would have been able to ride out the crash with only a minimum of discomfort. Except for one thing he'd overlooked. The anchoring, which could probably have held a small Dragon securely and comfortably, was only attached to the outermost layer of the shields...

The first shuddering impact was enough to throw Fal'taq hard against the padding on the innermost shield, and that tipped the balance that sent every layer of the mole's elegant construction whirling, rattling and sliding around inside all the others, like a badly fitting set of nesting dolls rolling down a hill. By the next bounce he wasn't sure any longer which way was up, and he wasn't sure he cared. Something black flew through the air and splatted against the front window: it took the mole a few seconds to recognise the Demon Aisha. He felt like dice in a cup as he lurched and twirled around in the shield. After another bounce he wondered if this could be the ancient, hideous torture device whispered of in a handful of ancient tomes; only mentioned, with a hackle-raising shudder, never described in enough detail to allow the mole to build one himself... the fiendish instrument known only in horrified whispers as the "hamster ball".

After what felt like an eternity of nausea-inducing acrobatics, the noise and shaking finally died away as the grounded airship crunched to a halt. The mole's tumbling motion immediately began to slow down, and before too long it was safe enough for Fal'taq to dispel the shielding and all its bracing, and settle lightly to the deck. It didn't matter that he landed on his head facing backwards, since he promptly toppled over and lay there with his senses whirling. He heard Pettersohn recover and go back down the stairs, then a little later Aisha. but it took him a few more minutes to gather his scattered wits enough to raise his head, then scramble to his feet. The Gryphon sprawled in the control chair seemed to be unconscious. Before following Pettersohn and Aisha, Fal'taq staggered across the sloping deck to the nearest window and looked out.

[Mel Dragonkitty]

Penny's debate over what to do at the spell-locked door was cut short as the ship began a series of shakes, shimmies, and swings worthy of an exotic dancer. Unfortunately the hallway was devoid of handles and rails to grab onto, sending the fisher tumbling down the hall. Only a quick grab onto the ladder at the end kept her from falling into the lower levels. With one final giant crunch the ship quieted. After a moment to collect herself and ascertain she had gathered nothing worse than bruises Penny made the decision to continue down the ladder she was clinging to in order to see how the ringleaders in the engine room had survived. Then she remembered she had a companion in the hallway. "Epyon? Are you okay?"

[Boog]

Ty braced his hands against the nearest engine components, apologizing quietly as his grip slightly bent the metal out of shape. He hung on as long as he could, still slipping to the ground and being jerked past Pandora before the airship finally came to a shuddering halt. He brought a hand to his brow and groaned, So, I think the world has stopped shaking. Most fortuitous.
"Are we all accounted fo- oh." The first thing the mythos' gaze fell upon when he got up and looked around was Arcwelder's corpse. What did one do in this situation? Technically an enemy, but an ally to some of those present, the lad had struck Ty as more... Isolated than cruel.
Eventually it was a tradition from his barbarian days that saw him through this one. Ty clasped one hand over his fist and gave a short bow to the corpse before turning back to Practical Matters.
"Right. Are we all accounted for?"

[Tapewolf]

"Keaton!" Cross yelped, his composure cracking - to him, she was the single most important person in the entire party, aside from himself.

Suddenly he spotted the jackal, and after a quick check for any spinal injuries, began to pat her gently in an effort to rouse her.

[e_voyager]

Epyon lay in a heap his arms and back in unnatural positions. he was grateful because his wings were spread and hiding his protruding bones from his arms and ribs. he has his back turned to the being. Penny? was Penny her name? he pull as much of his body together as he could make sure that nothing looked like a father injury.  "I'm hurt but alive Penny." he said in a pained voice like so many he'd heard. like so many he's rehearsed. it was a bit of a stretch but as he tried to put himself back together it would do.

" I've always hated flying." Epyon said  "I've always been to clumsy for it even with my wings. but forget about me. are you injured? can you reach the wolf Cogidubnus?"
As he spoke the light of his magic mending / healing  became visible against the walls and outlined his wings like they were the wings of some angel form old lore.

[Mel Dragonkitty]

"I'm only bruised," responded Penny. Her profession had it's acrobatic moments and she had trained to fall to her best advantage. She glanced at the door to the room where Cog was resting, it was still firmly locked. "I can't check on the wolf until the spells are taken off. I'll have to find the mole. You rest here and keep listening to see if he calls for help." With her hand still on the ladder she debated her choices. She knew the sorcerer wasn't with the others in the engine room so he was probably higher in the ship. She started up the ladder towards the control room.

[e_voyager]

"will do" said Epyon. " And if need bell i'll cut through the wall to get him after all " Epyon smiled  from what he saw the mole had only locked and if protected the door not the wall. "So long as they walls aren't magically protected then we can get through them in and emergency.

[Sunblink]

...Axiyne:

After everyone had left the cockpit, the formerly-unconscious Gryphon stirred and mumbled incoherently from where he was sprawled on the dashboard, blinking in the darkness. Reaching up with a taloned hand, Axiyne unconsciously started groping around his head, fumbling with the goggles strapped to his forehead as he searched for any injuries or abnormalities. He found no trace of blood and didn't feel anything more than disoriented, so he assumed this was a good sign. Plus the ship had stopped. He didn't remember how it halted.

I wonder where everyone's gone, he thought, then laid his head back down and decided to sleep for a little while.

---

...Keaton:

As she was jostled and inspected by Cross, Keaton started to shift in his arms, groaning, and automatically reached up to clutch at her head, as though instinctively expecting for her personal audience of mocking, distorted voices to start haunting her anew. Much to her surprise and relief, she wasn't immediately swarmed by unwelcome sounds, and instead focused on blinking away the bleariness fogging her vision. "Ngh..." Keaton groaned a little. She started to wonder if she got a concussion, but she was thinking too clearly, other than being labored by dizziness. "Wha' happened? Did we crash?"

---

...Pandora:

Pandora glanced out of the corner of her eyes at where she assumed Witt's voice had originated, looking quite bewildered in the darkness. Ah well, at least the hedgehog was alright. When a few other people announced that they were still in one piece, Pandora sighed in relief, only to realize that Arcwelder was unnervingly absent. Narrowing her eyes and squinting futilely through the darkness, Pandora groped around until her hand clasped around something cold, cylindrical, and metal – the mangled support beam to the banister by her side – and used it to maintain her balance. Still couldn't see a damn thing, and she was getting seriously concerned about Axiyne, knowing that he had probably endured the brunt of the collision.

"Mostly," Pandora murmured in response to Ty's voice. "I think m' arm's broken, tho'. Or a' th' very least, i' feels like shi'."

Paige's light spell was successful; its sun-glow illuminating the room. As the light expanded and filled the chamber, Pandora could see Arcwelder's decapitated corpse sprawled elsewhere, and let out a choking noise of bewilderment as she struggled to register this. Pandora was hardly unaccustomed to seeing dead bodies, seeing as she was responsible for the murders of several Mer in the junkyard, but it wasn't as though she enjoyed it. After restoring her composure (slightly; her visage was still quite pale), Pandora murmured something.

"Thanks," she muttered to Paige, then added, "I thin' we're missin' some people. We should probably grab 'em befo' we leave th' shi'."

Stumbling a little, Pandora started to make her way to the ladder to the door, managing to grasp the rungs to the ladder. With her injured arm, though, she probably couldn't manage the climb.

~Keaton the Black Jackal

[Paladin Sheppard]

"Here let me help you" Paige said stepping forward, her tentacles forming into a chair underneath the injured 'Were.

"I think you need to lose a few pounds." Paige spoke lightheartedly and obviously joking as she pushed Pandora to the top.

Next she climbed up herself and waited to see if any of the others would need a lift up.

[Cogidubnus]

 The sight that greeted Fal'Taq was perhaps a bit less majestic than he was hoping for. The windows looked as though they had been attacked by some demented gardener, rendered completely opaque by foliage and extremely large, very dark green leaves. Seeing outside looked to be nearly impossible - underneath his feet, however, the glass floor revealed the trunks of trees that the airship had plowed over during its impromptu landing, some bent and other simply shattered. Whatever else, however, ground was far preferable to an ocean landing. At least they had made it to land.

* * *

Making her way to the cockpit, Penny was somewhat relieved to find that the interior of the ship seemed to be mostly no worse for the wear. The path to the cockpit was clear, in any case, and there wasn't any obvious structural damage to the ship. As she entered the cockpit, she saw Fal'Taq staring quite hard at the tree-obscured windows.

* * *

As things began to settle, those gathered in the engine room noticed two things rather quickly.

It was very dark. The only light in the room seemed to be coming from up above, where emergency power seemed to be keeping the lights on. Whatever else seemed to have happened, getting out of the engine room and up into somewhere where they could see would be a good idea.
The second was that, as water was not beginning to pour into the ship, they'd managed to land themselves on ground somewhere. The ship didn't seem to have taken catastrophic damage, but it wasn't working now - depending on where they were, this might not be a terrible problem. Finding their location seeming to be the second priority.

Arcwelder's corpse lay there, unmoving. Likely, someone would need to remove it and bring it upstairs. Letting it rot, if not at least seemingly wrong, was liable to leave a terrible smell.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

Witt sighed, watching Pandora leave. The knives dematerialised again, and he settled his helmet on his head, firmly.

"I guess that means we're bloody walking it the fuck out of here. Shit." He looked around, then down at the corpse. "Hmm. Should probably move that, before it stains." He stepped over to it, bent down, and hooked his fingers under a couple of the plates, before glancing up at Paige. "Here. Make yourself bloody useful. Catch." With an almighty heave, and a forceful "hooah", he threw the headless corpse up at the entryway where the wolf was standing.

"Right. Now let's blow this fucking popsicle stand. Before some bastard comes looking for it." He stomped after the corpse, up the ladder, making a mental note to visit the kitchen on his way out and pocket some more bottles. Never know when they might come in handy.

[Sunblink]

...Pandora:

Pandora glanced down at her arm as she grasped the rung of the ladder in ostensible preparation. Fortunately, the limb wasn't mangled or extensively damaged, but she was bleeding from a sizable gash at the bicep. She could still move her arm, but it was quite painful. Pandora surmised she had been cut by a serrated piece of wreckage or by the haphazard machinery. Either way, the cut wasn't hurting so badly anymore. As Pandora rested her foot onto the first rung of the ladder, she suddenly felt something unexpectedly bump underneath her rear, lifting her into the air. Yelping, Pandora's hands immediately shot down and grasped the rim of something unusually shaped, realizing that the unknown entity was formed like a chair. Craning her head over her shoulder, Pandora watched Paige, one of her tentacles branching off into the chair, smirk at her until Pandora was safely deposited at the top of the ladder.

Pandora stumbled, resting her hands on her hips and cracking her back. "'Ey, thanks," Pandora said appreciatively, waving to Paige with her uninjured arm. Girl was pretty cute, too, but Zia would kill her for staring if she found out. The mental image of the usually-docile shopkeeper's face fixated in absolute rage, all while brandishing a hideously large sword, flashed through Pandora's mind, and she shuddered, averting her gaze almost guiltily.

Well, she's th' one who threw m' ou'. Pandora thought, So wha' th' fuck would she complaOH SHI' A FLYIN' CORPSE.

Arcwelder's corpse was catapulted onto the platform. Pandora yelped loudly, more out of surprise than revulsion, and took a few steps back. After a moment, she sighed and pressed her palm to her face. "Sorry I got ya inta this mess, Arc. I'll bury ya later," she mumbled, then yanked open the door out of the engine room, waiting at the threshold until everyone was at the top of the ladder. Once they were, she led everyone out, hoping that Paige would keep their way illuminated.

~Keaton the Black Jackal

[Tapewolf]

"Yes, we came down," Cross told Keaton, carrying her gently out to the others.  "I think we can probably get back in the air once the ship is repaired, but  it will take some effort."

Witt spoke.

"'Walk?'" Cross asked, staring at the hedgehog with an uncomprehending expression.  "Perhaps I've got my geography confused again, but isn't the Kamei'Sin capital at least a thousand miles inland?  I suppose you may walk if you wish, but frankly, with the forces that are or soon will be on our tail from the moment we reach civilisation, flying would seem to be the only safe option, assuming we can repair this vehicle."

"Now, I suppose we'd better verify our position.   Does anyone have a GPS device, location magic or a sextant or such thing?  Presumably there was some such instrument in the cockpit, unless our Gryphon friend was navigating by blind luck."

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

Witt shrugged, and waved a thumb at Pandora.

"Tell that to the bloody bird. She seemed to think we had to leave. Ergo, we pull stumps and get the fuck out of here. Who am I to argue with our 'Glorious Leaders'?" The sarcasm dripped audibly from his words.

He paused.

"What the fucking hell is a bloody GPS device? As for location magic, you'd want to ask bird-brain over there. Only I'd get someone to fix her arm, first, and calm her down; she seems shook the fuck up."

[Tapewolf]

"A GPS unit is an electronic device which allows you to pinpoint your precise location anywhere on the planet," Cross said with uncharacteristic patience, as he set Keaton down.  "Evidently I have been spending too much time in higher-tech worlds."

"In any case, you're right.  I'd best tend to Pandora."  He mentally went over a few healing spells and began to examine her arm.

"Have you tried shapeshifting?" he asked her.

[SpottedKitty]

Fal'taq turned away from his disgruntled survey of the very green view outside as Penny came up into the control room. "Ah, Miss Light," he said, "still in one piece: how convenient. The good news is, we appear to be on land, where at least the Mer may not be able to get at us right away. The not-so-good news is, we are on land. I wonder how much farther we have to travel? Our "dear leaders" have been rather less than forthcoming with certain details of this little venture, have they not?" He laughed briefly, and somewhat acidly, a wry smile on his muzzle.

"That 'Cubi, Pettersohn, and the Demon, were here only a few minutes ago, I think they went down to join the others in the engine room. We had better join them, I would not care to be left behind here, especially if the airship cannot take off again." The mole scrambled cautiously back up the sloping deck towards Penny and the top of the stairs. He didn't even glance at Aixyne, who he thought had roused briefly just before the fisher arrived. The Gryphon was lying still again, though; whether unconscious or dead was of little import to Fal'taq.

[Mel Dragonkitty]

Penny felt as if she was back in the old neighborhood when the mole began speaking. He had a definite resemblance to some of her old neighbors. The ones she avoided. "Actually I came looking for you, Mr. Fal'taq. We need you to remove your locks from the door so we can check on Cog. He might have been hurt in the crash." Before she could see the mole's reaction to her request she noticed the ruffled pile of feathers in the command seat. She crossed the room and checked the gryphon's pulse. "Are you okay?" She bent down trying to see what kind of damage he might have sustained.

[e_voyager]

mostly repairs and looking fully alive Epyon stands and  makes his way over the the door. he press his hear to it trying to listen and hear if the wolf is calling for help. he doesnt know they wolf well and save fore his natural transformation would have thought him a potential being. he could still be a being but cursed to become a feral were., ah well this was too much to think about. "where is penny with the mole" he wondered aloud.

[SpottedKitty]

Fal'taq's ears, small and inconspicuous though they might be, flicked down flat for a moment when Penny suggested removing the locks he'd put on the wolf's room. It took a visible effort for him to regain his composure, while the fisher knelt beside Aixyne and gave the Gryphon a quick examination.

"That would not be a good idea, Miss Light," the mole said as soon as he was sure his voice wouldn't squeak. "Cogidubnus himself may be insensible at present, but the monster inside him is somewhat more... frolicsome. I have examined him, and it would take very little in the way of magical disturbance to rouse the thing to full wakefulness... and probably hunger. Especially with the moon still in the sky. I have no desire to waken in the morning and discover I have been devoured in my sleep — a sentiment I am sure you share. No, unless you can present me with a convincing argument, those locks stay where they are."

The mole stopped when he realised he was almost babbling. Fal'taq did not babble. Fal'taq was the cause of babbling in other people, usually in abject tail-fluffing terror. But still, he couldn't get out of his mind the feeling of that feral thing, whether real or vision, lunging towards him and vanishing, leaving only a chill flowing through his body...

[Mel Dragonkitty]

Penny looked up from her efforts to rouse the gryphon at Fal'taq's comments. "I thought you would want to get there before the cubi. They seem to put a high value on him and if he is injured and no one can get to him they won't be amused."

[Aisha deCabre]

After taking a moment to count heads, Aisha was slightly surprised when a corpse flew past her as Pandora was heading up...nevertheless dodging it easily.  In the darkness, the demon's eyes made out a familiar shape, sans head.  The panthress grimaced.  The junk beast...por claro, normally I'd say "gods have mercy", but with all the bodies we saw I really doubt he deserves more than the mercy of hell.

Sighing, she waited until the others went up the ladder, and started to follow up into more darkness, with just a few hops to get her upward.  While Pandora's injuries were being tended to, Aisha stuck at the back of the group, craning her ears behind her to make sure that nothing was to spring out of the darkness.

Surely, a giant flying machine crashing into a bit of land would have to be noticed, and rather soon.  Aisha had her hand on the boomerang, which was glowing a slight red and illuminating the black void of her fur, like it too was ready for anything.

[SpottedKitty]

Fal'taq might have looked anxious for a moment at the idea of making several 'Cubi angry at him, but he snorted and waved his hand dismissively at Penny. "Those three?" he sneered. "The wolf-monster is indubitably the greater threat to m- us, he stays where he is for now!"

A low-powered incompetent, a silly little mad girl, and a blatant hoyden, he thought. They may be dangerous, and fight passably well, as I saw back in Holiday, but what real power can they have? It would be a nuisance and a waste of useful resources to destroy them, but no more than that. Besides, Keaton has still not revealed the rest of her plan — but when she has... The wintry smile that passed briefly over Fal'taq's face would not have looked out of place if he'd been of a species with bigger, sharper teeth.

[Mel Dragonkitty]

Penny gently touched the gryphon on the shoulder as she listened to the mole's pompous pronouncement. He was certainly full of himself. Her money would be on any of the cubi if he pissed them off. She shrugged, "Do as you wish." The fisher fully intended to point the finger of blame at the appropriate party if the were was injured and unable to get help.

When the gryphon didn't respond to her touch she gently probed with a touch of magic. She wasn't a magic user and didn't figure she had much strength left to do much healing after helping out Witt. But if Axiyne had been left in charge of the ship Pandora probably valued him and healing him would get Penny on the good side of the one person likely to be able to get them out of here.

[Sunblink]

...Axiyne:

In response to Penny's healing touch, Axiyne jerked almost compulsively and his eyes fluttered open, the pupils unfocused and dazed. The vestigial traces of his concussion floated away from his brain, yielding, but not entirely gone. Residually, some ache and disorientation clung incessantly to Axiyne's mind, but he was certainly coherent enough, and definitely roused out of unconsciousness. Gripping the sleek surface of the top of the dashboard with his talons, Axiyne lazily drifted his gaze toward Penny, groaning a little.

"Ugh." He pawed at his goggles, only for a few, grainy shards of red glass to fall from the shattered right lens and shower the dashboard as he bent his head, trying to avoid getting a few shards in his eyes. The opposite, blue lens was untouched. "Wha' happened?"

---

...Keaton and Pandora:

Keaton listened somewhat attentively to Cross, even nodding her head to assert once or twice that she was aware of what he was saying, but she didn't seem quite all-there as he carried her to their destination. Probably because of disorientation. Around the time they reached the engine room, Keaton felt confident enough to drop down onto her feet and stand upright, still looking a little on edge and disheveled. At any instant she expected for her to be assailed by those voices again, or even worse, her avian antagonist, but her mind remained eerily silent, save for her own thoughts.

It was very dark in the engine room, save for Paige's light spell, but Keaton, with some level of expertise in dark magic, could detect the presences of all who lingered in the darkness. Surprisingly, Arcwelder's presence was absent, for reasons she didn't quite comprehend until she spotted his corpse. Groaning a little, feeling inexplicably sick, Keaton averted her gaze, silencing any nausea with a few reminders of all she had witnessed throughout her life. In a few moments, she felt much better, and even started to feel a bit excited.

---

...Pandora:

Pandora nodded to Cross and Keaton as they entered the engine room, then decided to clarify, looking rather disgruntled at Witt's remark. For someone who was behaving so... pleasantly earlier, he certainly was being quite a bastard. "Th' shi' has a map built inta' it," Pandora explained. "I guess it's like a GPS. Right now, it'd b' impossible t' go t' Zaphyre fro' 'ere... not unless ya' wanna walk all th' way."

When Cross started to heal her arm, she sighed with relief, watching the gash close. She looked to Cross. "Thanks, wingie. Um..." Pandora scratched underneath her pilot's cap, jostling her goggles. "I don' think I did. Was kinda panicked an' all, couldn't think straight. But anyway, if ya' c'n find sommat to serve as a replacement for th' missin' parts o' the engine, I c'n go. O' course they don't sell exact parts ou' there, bu' ya c'n find decent substitutes which I c'n make into repairs. I' any o' ya c'n find me a piece o' paper an' a pen, I c'n draw i' up f'r ya."

~Keaton the Black Jackal

[Tapewolf]

"I am an incubus," Cross reminded Pandora politely.  "I can create base metals relatively easily.  I can even have them appear in simple shapes.   For repairing an engine, we would need to craft them, though.  Still, wing-tentacles and Demon claws are good at cutting so for the mechanical systems we can probably carve the metal to spec.
"However, if the engine is electronically-controlled, we could have a bit of a problem.  I can probably repair existing electronics, maybe even make an op-amp given a day or so..." And some good fear "...but constructing a microprocessor from scratch is out of the question."

[SpottedKitty]

Fal'taq watched for a moment with professional interest as Penny used her healing spell on Aixyne. He satisfied himself that it seemed to be only a low-level spell, and unless he was very much mistaken, tailored for use by someone with little or no actual magical talent. The fisher was probably performing it by rote, with little idea of what she was doing. Such information about allies was always useful. After all, they might not always be allies.

The mole nodded with satisfaction and quietly murmured, "As I always do, Miss Light... always," as he started down the stairs to the main deck of the airship. He'd actually said the truth a minute before: he really did want to catch up with the others to make sure he wouldn't run the risk of being left behind. Making sure no-one tried to unseal the door to Cogidubnus' room prematurely was also high on Fal'taq's to-do list.

[Tapewolf]

"Oh, I do apologise," Cross said.  "Pen and paper... of course."  From the depths of his trench-coat he pulled out a pen, a small notepad, and handed them both to Pandora.

[Mel Dragonkitty]

Penny was glad to see the little gryphon awake, if not exactly alert. "What happened was that our journey unexpectedly stopped." She looked around at the smashed cockpit in the soft green light filtering through the leaves now covering the windows. "If I help you do you think you can get up now?" Maybe she could get him to someone who could do a better job of healing.

[Tapewolf]

Elsewhere

Niall walked down the aisle, dressed in a laboratory smock.  He counted the rooms down until he reached 143B, and briefly double-checking the notes in his folder, ran a small plastic card through the door's reader slot.  It slid open.

"How are you today, Dominic?" he asked the occupant in a cheerful voice.  "Can I get you anything?  Books?  Pens?  Paper?"

"Let me go," the Jackal said.  "I don't belong here!"

"I'm sorry," Niall replied.  "You're not sane yet.  For your own safety, and for the safety of society as a whole, you must remain here until your delusions are fully cured.  But you are making excellent progress," he beamed.  "It shouldn't be very long now.  We'll have a group therapy session in the morning.  But right now I'm afraid I need to take a sample."

Dominic squealed in terror and backed into his cell.  The fox smiled back with a paternal expression and stroked his hair before reaching over and kissing him.
The jackal's scream faded abruptly as his body became taut.  His eyes widened, the pupils narrowing to two small points as the incubus sucked his soul out slowly and carefully, making sure he took only what the jackal himself wasn't using.

A moment later it was all over.  Dominic lay twitching as Niall slipped the glass cube into his pocket before gently tucking him back into bed.  He made a small note in his folder.  In another six months, the missing part of his soul should have fully regrown... ready to be milked again.

It was kind of mean, he reflected, but at the end of the day, they were only Beings.

[Sunblink]

...Axiyne:

Axiyne looked gratefully at Penny, and attempted to climb to his feet. Using his wings for balance, he hopped out of his chair, struggling to regain some sort of footing. "I – I think I'm okay," he reassured Penny, before adding thoughtfully, "T-Thank you."

At that moment, he heard a muffled thumping noise coming from the other side of the door. Tilting his head, Axiyne approached the door, and opened it.

---

...Pandora, Axiyne, and Keaton:

Pandora accepted the pen and paper somewhat gratefully from Cross, making a mental note of all he had said. One who could effortlessly conjure up large chunks of metal and freely manipulate them into whatever shape he desires was extraordinarily useful, or at least to Pandora it was. After going through the excruciatingly meticulous process of creating individual parts for her aircraft time and time again, finding someone who could outright eliminate the process entirely was practically a godsend. However, at Cross's afterthought regarding computer-parts, Pandora's formerly elated expression collapsed almost unceremoniously. She gnawed on the edge of her pen, her face marred by a troubled look.

After a moment, she sighed and opened the pen with a click, gesturing for Paige to bring her magical light closer. Once she obliged, Pandora started to sketch, at a breakneck, yet somehow methodically memorized pace, the rough drafts of some of the missing or damaged parts. She assumed the drawing would make a useful reference sheet for Cross. She tapped her finger against the first drawing; of a collection of bizarrely-shaped cogs. "Assumin' y' c'n make mosta these things 'ere, then we 'ave no problem." Pandora hesitated before she added, with obvious reluctance, "'Owever..."

Pandora climbed to her feet, stumbling gracelessly. Almost as an afterthought, she passed the pen and notepad back to Cross, and hooked her arms under Arcwelder's arms. Even if he had jeopardized everyone's lives, he was still a fellow mechanic, and Pandora felt a more respectful burial was in order. However, she wasn't going to force anyone else to attend her possibly-hideous attempt at a funeral, for obvious reasons. Since Arcwelder was considerably heavier than what Pandora could manage, she decided to drag him for the rest of the trip to the cockpit. Paige's magically-produced light provided plenty of illumination for the group, and they navigated themselves to the cockpit without incident.

Opening the door, however, was a little difficult, as it was apparently jammed. Pandora jiggled the handle impatiently, apparently in a state of anxiety, pushing against the door a few times with her heel. Suddenly, the barrier on the opposite side of the door seemed to disappear, and the door opened on its own, using a smaller handle located underneath the larger one structured to fit Pandora's disproportionately large hand. Axiyne was standing in the doorway, on his hind legs, both front paws grasping the handle.

"Ax!" Pandora exclaimed in proud relief, scooping up the diminutive Gryphon in her arms and hugging him like a teddy bear. "MAN, 'm I glad t' see ya! Y'alright, lil' buddy?"

Axiyne squeaked a little from the pressure of Pandora's hug, but smiled sheepishly. "I – I'm fine. I had a concussion, but Ms. Penny helped me," he answered. He gestured to his damaged goggles for indication.

Pandora looked to Penny gratefully. "Y' did tha'?" she asked, apparently in a greatly sentimental state. After a moment, she slapped her hand on Penny's shoulder, still looking appreciative. "Thanks, gal. Y'r no' so bad after all."

Just above the group, there was a slight fluctuation, briefly illuminating the interior of the ship before, in a pervading outburst of white light, the whole ship was bathed once more in light. Pandora looked up at the lights somewhat approvingly. "Well, tha' takes care o' one thing..." After a moment, she looked at Axiyne. "Any damage t' th' shi'?"

Axiyne fidgeted a little, hopping down from Pandora's arms. "Yes. The ballast has been damaged, and I think the computerized fuel system might need to be replaced."

Pandora cursed under her breath. After a moment, she gestured to Cross. "Well this guy 'ere c'n make metal, bu' I dunno 'bout computer parts," Pandora scowled. "An' I don' 'ave any replacements."

"You don't have any replacements?" Keaton echoed incredulously. "C'mon, wouldn't you be prepared for something like that?"

"I would've been, bu' y' guys showed u' befo' I could put them on th' shi'," Pandora retorted, and folded her arms miserably. She slouched against the wall.

There was a momentary pause, before Axiyne mumbled something uncertainly. "You know... when I looked at the map, they had a small dot indicating a civilization here. If we can go there, then maybe we can find something that will suffice as a replacement. Of course they wouldn't sell the precise instruments we need..." Axiyne scratched underneath his goggles' headband. "...But if they have anything that could be made into replacements, then I think we can make something..."

Pandora clapped her hands together. "Great, then!" she said cheerfully. "C'n y' show everyone where th' settlement is?"

Axiyne nodded his head affirmatively.

Now that the lights were back on, Keaton no longer felt dependent on the party's assistance. Speaking a little more quickly and less belligerently than normal, Keaton gesticulated wildly to the exit door and said, "I'm going to go find Cog, the mole, and the spider gal, okay?" she asked, almost as though she was seeking permission. For some reason she felt obligated, considering this was Pandora's ship. After receiving a single syllable which she somehow interpreted as confirmation from Pandora, Keaton interrupted by spinning away and bolting down the hallway, weaving her way to Cog's room.

---

...Keaton:

Keaton walked briskly down the illuminated hallway, searching for any sign of Fal'taq, Sal, or Cog. Assuming Cog was still unconscious, he was obviously still in the sleeping quarters, but Sal and Fal'taq...

~Keaton the Black Jackal