DeviousMe

"Actually, I only met him a short time ago." Akat shrugged to the colorful android in a helpless manner, "And then he was like you. Now he's like this. Maybe that makes you tired? I don't know. I haven't done anything with macromatter conversion. It's not something a lot of people go into. We'd have to ask an elder..."

"Uh...what?" the Khelari gave Toy a confused blink as she 'lowered' Jade again, the context of the question lost upon her. Still, she replied, "Um, no...but...why would he? He wasn't easting people earlier..."

"Well, maybe together we can." the Khelari replied rapidly, growing more worried as things looked to be escalating, "And I mean all together, c'mon."

She meant the water spirits and other folk gathered about with that - excluding those occupied with surrounding Tafari, of course - and it didn't take said beings long to realize this, coming out of hiding again to gather about the sleeping Drokar, adding their efforts to those of Akat and the young Peacebringer.

It still wasn't enough, the golems of stone that would likely have had the strength for it not available to the endeavor, but at least they tried - and those attempts, specifically those of the aqueous fey, gave the Khelari an idea.

"Water." she stated with an expression of realization, dropping Jade's tail at the same time, "Duh. Liquid. Loose liquid, but still. You guys - over there. You - there. Okay, I'm going to need all your help now. I'm still learning liquids."

Akat didn't explain what she meant by that, but the waterborne folk seemed to understand, the fey she'd called to attention taking up the positions around the Dragon that she'd indicated by pointing. Meanwhile, the Khelari herself took a few steps back, then placed both her hands flat into the shallow water at the spring's edge a few meters behind the Drokar's tail tip. Then she closed her eyes.

"Just treat it like lava. It's just liquid. Feel it. Be it." she muttered quickly and quietly, repeating the mantra to herself for a few seconds, followed by raising her hands again. Contrary to what might've been expected, the water around her fingers wasn't left behind, instead rising with them up and above the surface gravity and the shape of the pool had formerly ordained. Now, however, there was a new force at work (or rather, several), lifting the liquid with the same speed that Akat lifted her hands, and extending that influence over the entire pool around the Dragon.

The fey acted quickly, waterfolk lending their own power over the fluid medium to the Khelari's effort, and it took but a few short seconds for the whole pool to rise up like some enormous, animated blob, its buoyancy taking Jade along with it. True, there was a little more at work than just his displacement, especially where keeping his head above water was concerned, but in relativity it wasn't much at all, the bulk of the animators' work going toward raising the watery blob high enough to get the Drokar's legs clear of the ground, followed by propelling him in the direction in which Toy had departed.

The phenomenon was of course not dangerous, gently slicking over even the smallest blade of grass without harm, but due to moving at the 'pushing' Khelari's rather speedy walking stride, anyone who just saw it coming toward them without knowing the details likely would've been duly freaked out by the appearance of what looked very much like a sleeping Dragon riding a tidal wave...

What is this I hear about an all-pink Synapse on Virtue? This would be Friday at what time? And is this a regular crew thing or can anybody join? >_>

Unfortunately, common sense was a very relative term, entirely not as common as the term implied. Akat had no idea what to do, even after Toy's prompting. The whole situation was as foreign as could be to her, the Khelari having no grasp of someone stealing or actually fighting over...well, just about anything. Yes, her people were a predatory, violent species that would scrap over food, mates, and any number of other things, but the concept of doing so with true ill intent was something she just didn't understand.

Granted, she'd heard of it, but taken it with a the attitude that it's what happened 'in other places', not really believing she'd ever run into it. Not to say that she'd believed she never would - it was just something she'd not prepared for due to not giving it much thought.

Okay, fine. People fighting like this she may not have understood, but people fighting as a case, that she did. The mechanoid was right: give them room. She wasn't really sure why he regarded Jade as 'nasty' (he smelled okay to her), but his idea to give berth was logical. So that's what she did. Or tried, at least. Grabbing the Drokar's tail, she put all her strength into pulling the Dragon with her as far and as fast as she could.

In other words, not at all.

"Uh...help?" she looked to Kethara with concern, not wanting to leave the still-sleeping Jade behind for fear he might be hurt if the expected battle closed the distance between where Tafari had wandered and the hot springs by spilling over in this direction...

Okay then, let me rephrase that, haha: it's not an enemy selection almost all players can just walk over while yawning, like so many other arcs have.

"Akat-Ietan Ariam'n." the Khelari answered Toy casually as she headed back over to Trisys, picking the 'robot' up and laying her against the side of Jade's right foreleg, almost creating the appearance of a dragon and the little doll he might cuddle as he slept. Said Dragon was of course both Drokar and unmoving, so the idea was out of the question on either count, but something about the placement just felt right to the scaleless reptilian.

"Feel free to just call me Akat, however." she added whilst she rose again, looking after the most recently arrived metallic man with the organic-looking head, and as a result briefly wondering if Jade's former mechanical nature was common around here. She resisted the urge to walk over and ask for now though, more interested in what was being said around her now.

A battlefield? Much fighting for food and resources? That would certainly explain a few things. She'd never really given it much thought, mostly because the people she'd run into so far avoided her peoples' area like the plague. It was kind of understandable though, what with the (for others) hostile and often-lethal conditions beyond the transition zone.

Unfortunately, before she could inquire about this matter in return, Tafari started doing...something...and the elves became greatly upset. Akat just stood there, unsure of what was happening (or rather, what the social implications thereof were), looking from one person to another with questioning eyes. This in turn caused her to not carry Jade in her field of vision as the Dragon drew a breath, his body responding to the leeching of magic in the general area by slowly coming out of the form of hibernation...

If Toy's scan went below the skin of the Khelari as well, he'd most likely note her right eye to be artificial. It probably couldn't be called 'enhanced' so to speak, being merely a replacement for the one she'd lost a fair while back, but it did have a few qualities that her organic one did not. The most notable of these was of course that its material content carried a large percentage of some kind of metalplastic.

In fact, right now that eye was somewhat of a disadvantage. It was the reason the surrounding creatures kept messing with her depth perception, what with showing up in one eye, but not the other, which was in turn the cause for her thinking of it as having broken at the most inopportune time.

"Oh. Well then," she didn't seem to let it bother her too much though, smiling to the newly arrived mechanoid, "since you're not disintegrating, welcome to the 4th. We have matter, energy, space, and time. What do you have in yours? Is your name really Toy Dispenser...?"

((Duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuude! ))

The Khelari answered Trisys' questions dutifully, yet with concern, running her fingers along and over the spots of request and describing what she felt there. In a human context, the scene may have looked quite awkward, but that didn't really reach the reptilian female - not only due to cultural difference, but also stemming from her concern for Trisys. She wanted to help...but with even the satyr-like being not knowing what should be how, even the most expert roboticist would've been dumbfounded, and it certainly didn't help that her hobby was total energy, not robotics.

Still, she had a few ideas.

"Maybe we're looking at this the wrong way." she suggested, still guiding her palms and fingers over Trisys, "You got turned into a machine, right? So do you come with an instruction manual? I know we put those into ours. Maybe you can access it?"

Of course, that's when a strange day opted to get stranger, and a talking rainbow meteor came to a stop not a dozen meters away, spraying the area with dirt, muck, and a rather...attracting heat. Apparently unconcerned about having been showered in soil and mud, the kneeling Khelari gave her head a curious tilt as she rose, approaching the...well, whatever it was supposed to be.

"What's a hijink?" she wanted to know, standing over the new arrival with inquisitive eyes...

"Your ears." the Khelari repeated with greater volume than before, not yet certain if Trisys' sense of hearing had actually failed or merely been dulled by the excitement. She continued to run her fingers along the new 'robot's' ears, "Those are your ears. Can you hear anything I'm saying?"

It was then she got the idea to remove her claws from Trisys and try to be heard again, but before this could be implemented, the 'static' ran over and between her fingers. Twitching back in reflex, the scaleless reptilian looked at her hands with curiosity, remarking upon the phenomenon with a curt, "Mh. Okay. That's new."

She continued to put things together in her head, even as Lady Aineruda stood again and declared herself to be important in some way the Khelari didn't quite understand - so she just dropped it for now. She'd ask after Trisys was well again. For now, the transformed being was her chief concern...

The Khelari bobbed her head in a nod when Trisys speculated about the nature of what was normal for her now, and again when asked in regard to the sight issue. She'd been about to say something, but caught herself in having applied the parameters of the robots she knew, which probably weren't too relevant with this completely different design here.

Thus she instead simply echoed Kethara for now, "Certainly. What did you have in mind...?"

"Um...okay." the Khelari gave a nod, kneeling over Trisys with concern. Her eyes wandered up and down her new body, "I'm not going to pretend I understood all that, so I'll just move on to the important stuff right now: do you need medical...or mechanical assistance, or will you be well? How can we help...?"

"I think they switched bodies...kinda." the Khelari remarked at Ildela's question as she assisted Kethara, clearly trying to puzzle this together herself. She wasn't exactly a stranger to sending a mind into another form, but she didn't have any actual experience either, "Parts, at the least. Don't ask me why he's suddenly huge, though. That's...no idea."

Jade meanwhile had nothing to offer. Even with the gnome poking him, the Drokar remained in his deep slumber. It would take much more to rouse him - and whether or not that was even a good idea was quite the decent question...

Cerelassion was quite right. Jade lived, but he slept the deepest slumber a Dragon could sleep. That wasn't a bad thing, though. In fact, he needed it, though not in a physiological sense. Trisys' magic had crafted his body fresh and strong, and her tears spread pure life and vitality into every last cell. No, it wasn't hid body that needed sleep. Rather, his mind did. He'd been awake for over 400 years now, never sleeping a single night - not even a single second - always awake, even in the endless darkness that had been his prison when his body had shut down from one cause or another.

No sleep. No dreams. No escape. It had driven him to the brink of madness more than once. Perhaps even over. But right now, that didn't matter. For he slept. And he dreamed. Deep, serene, and releasing dreams. He'd awake soon enough. But for now, he needed sleep.

Trisys would probably be able to discern this state of his body by now. Her new sensors were quite capable of that. For herself, on the other hand, they were sorely lacking. Not completely, however. She was able to feel something, even without the sensations of her horns. Unfortunately, it wasn't something people tended to like feeling.

Cold.

She was cold. Even lying there in the hot water, she felt cold, all over and throughout. Cold, heavy, and slow, as if it took ages to make even the lightest of movements. Lifting Jade off herself would've been the easiest thing in the world now. She had enough raw strength to raise a mountain. But lifting her own fingers, her own arm, this was what now felt almost too heavy do bring up the strength. It was almost an exact repeat of what Jade had felt when he'd first awoken as a machine.

"Um...how?" the Khelari meanwhile questioned nervously upon joining Kethara at the brown-scaled Dragon's side, the direction of her head darting about as she looked for somewhere to gain leverage, grabbing here, there, and generally everywhere in an effort to get hold, "I mean, I'm strong, but I'm not that strong. Ohhh, if only I'd taken a runner. Ummmuhh...maybe if you lift here and...I go here...urr...hate math..."

Jade felt like he'd been smacked in the face by a wet, windswept flier - that sort of sticky paper that takes one completely by surprise and seems to take ages to get off and actually read, despite being right there in front of one, clearly written and in presence.

By about now, said 'ages' had passed. The metal Dragon had gotten the 'flier's' message. Live and die or don't live. Great. What a choice. And yet...it was tempting, to be a alive again. To breathe, to feel...to die. How long had he been wanting to die now? He couldn't even remember. He remembered each and every one of the suicide attempts, but not actually when they'd started. Had it really been that long? Had he really suffered all this time just to stumble across such a simple answer to his desperation? To his end?

And yet...he was scared. Not just of death itself, but of the questions that had been nagging at him since the first day he'd found himself in this body. Was he even Jade Blackwind? Or had the real one died on that operating table and he was just a machine running around with a programmed copy inside? He'd been told he had a soul...but was there a difference between the soul of a machine and that of an actually living being? If so, what would happen to it? What happened to machines after they...died?

No. He didn't want to chance it. His fear of the unknown was too great.

"I..."

It was also what made it too late.

The wish was granted.

Jade's words jammed in his throat, and he felt like his whole body had just seized up. It felt almost like the virus he'd caught way back when, and yet different at the same time. His vision blurred and went from red to black, and a loss of balance overcame him. He barely had the time to wonder just how that was possible with a computer controlling said balance, and then it was already over. His world had gone dark.

From the outside, it all looked completely different. Almost harmless, in fact. It began with Jade freezing in place mid-sentence. Something in his eyes seemed to dim. Then he started to grow. The silver-gray plates of his armor came apart at the seams, the steamy water rushing into the gaps where wires and circuitry now came to light. Surprisinly enough, the underlying machinery transmitted not a single spark into the water, perhaps from the magic, perhaps because it simply didn't stick around long enough. Metal vanished bit by bit as it was replaced by flesh, still machine transmuted to pulsing organs, cold composites by warm, living tissue.

All the while through the transformation, Jade kept growing, changing, becoming more and more like humans imagined what a dragon should look like. Hands became more pawlike, the S-curve of the spine more arched, and his velvet-brown scales larger and thicker, assuming the look of the traditional armored hide. His long black hair became a thick, full mane that hung loosely from his (relatively short) neck, and a pair of majestic, leathery wings sprang from his shoulders and back even as the rigid airfoils of silver-gray metal crumbled away, like the rest of his armor simply falling off the growing Dragon as if he'd been wearing nothing more than an armored suit this entire time.

In the end, Jade stood on four legs and at least six, if not seven meters off the ground at the shoulder, the rest of his proportions having changed in an equal manner, dominating the scene in a manner comparable to a Boeing 737 - large and in charge.

And then he collapsed.

Water splashed in all directions as the Dragon fell over sideways, the legs on his right side giving way first and followed by the rest of his body, the tip of his left wing hitting the surface last, but still with due report. Then things got quiet, and he lay there motionless, eyes closed and breath stilled.

"Uhmp." the Khelari remarked with an undefined expression, a hand cupped over her right eye as before as she stood there by the tail-smashed palisade that had formerly divided the male and female regions of the hot springs, "I...assume that wasn't supposed to happen..."

"Yeah, I'm fine." the Khelari retorted casually, only her snout and mouth sticking out of the water, and in an almost vertical fashion. Her eyes were closed in the visible relaxation of the liquid's refuge, "I got used to water a while ago. It still feels strange, but not in a creepy way anymore. I think I'll need some clothes when I get out, though. I may be Polar, but even I'm not built for a climate this cold."

With the bulk of her senses thus obscured, the reptilian female didn't even notice her answer didn't reach the ears she intended it to, remaining at ease and unaffected by Trisys' departure. Jade, on the other hand, took due note, eyes widening in surprise as the satyr-like being was suddenly there, standing over him and pleading...something.

"Huhwhat?" was the only word his thoughts managed to congeal into at that point, the great degree of just how taken aback he was written all over his open-mouthed face. Eventually, he gained the presence of mind to add, "Wish? Want? Where...?"

"Enjoying yourself?" the Khelari inquired casually of Trisys, sliding up out of the hot water just enough to speak and hear clearly. While the steam in the air made the atmosphere not exactly cold anymore, the medium still wasn't what she'd consider exactly warm, so she kept as much body as she could in the water.

"Sorry again about the deal with the blood earlier." she added, "I didn't even think about it. To my people, it's completely normal. We're still the same hunters that our planet made way long ago...and we probably will be right up until we vanish. I know a lot of other species don't agree with that, but that's just the place our world's nature gave us."

On the other side of the division, Jade meanwhile made his way into the water, feeling rather awkward and uneasy. He knew he didn't have to worry about any of it getting into his body - the seals were all waterproof - but it was still a weird sensation to suddenly be in a medium that didn't respond at all like a gas anymore. It threw off his entire system's balance and orientation parameters, and the fact that he couldn't really tell where he'd gotten blood splashed against him didn't much help things. That's why he preferred showers.

Worst of all, however, was the feeling of it. Or rather, the lack of the feeling of it. He knew the water was hot. His internal and external thermometers told him so. He knew it was wet. His mass tracker reported stuff sticking to him. And he knew it was dense and viscous from the parameter calibrations.

But that was it.

As the water began to come up to his chest, he lifted the metal palms of his hands from the liquid and watched it run off his palms. Nothing. No tickle, no touch, no warmth. He felt as cold as ever. He knew that if he stuck his head in it right now, he could remain that way until his power ran out. He didn't breathe. He couldn't. No lungs. Even if he could've, he wouldn't have felt it. No nerves. No touch. Just pressure reports. For all he could tell, the warm, smoothing flows weren't even there.

Jade's eyes closed and his head drooped. He missed it all so much. He missed them all so much. Why the hell him?! It wasn't fair! He wanted it back! He wanted to have a body that could feel again! To be alive again!

Oh, how he wished he was normal again...

Heh, I got a good one - in an arc of mine, the first mission attempts to fool the player about the boss by stating that Requiem should be defeated, However, 'Requiem' is actually a computer virus without the defeat of which the first mission cannot be completed. At the end of the last mission, the player must defeat an elite boss/archvillain. So one day I get this here comment:

"Av too hard, died a lot. never found requiem."

I thought that was funny.

The blast door gave a dull, semi-hollow ring at the insectoid's impact, almost like some massive bell. In addition, whatever cause produced this effect protected said door from bursting, or even denting for that matter, bouncing the charger back with nearly all the force normal available.

The personnel about didn't really pay attention to this of course, more concerned that ammunition generally effective against even small armored vehicles didn't so much as scratch the 'Demon'. Well, those that realized it, at least. With all the light, noise, and rapid motion, it was difficult to tell what was going on, even in the shielded masks. The few that managed to retain detailed oversight, however, did indeed do something about it.

They grabbed more weapons.

'Weapons' was of course a very subjective term there, running the gamut from thrown wrenches to some manner of improvised chemsprayer chiefly consisting of the large-bore nozzle of a hose that roared forth a stream of blue goop crackling with what looked to be small arcs of electricity. Though not an exact match thereof, contact with this stuff would indeed impart a nasty shock - and that wasn't the half of it.

With one tank spinning transversely and the other horizontally, more of the combat vehicles about came into motion as they were crewed, their riot guns engaging the enemy...
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"Well hello there." Jade smiled softly at the little dragon he perceived as a hatchling, feeling a little awkward, but still wanting to connect with the supposed child. Unfortunately, the group moved along quickly, and he didn't want to be left behind, so he made swift effort to follow.

The Khelai likewise seemed interested at stopping a few times (though whether it was to talk to or 'try' something was a good question, judging by the periodic twitches of her tail), and she still looked to be cold, but again didn't remark upon it. When she head the word 'hot', however, she was instantly all ears, looking about excitedly before darting to the right, hurriedly telling the attendants, "No clothes, going in, thank you."

Jade couldn't help but snicker at that, as well as the splash heard mere moments later, guiding his steps to the right. He may no longer have had a physiological gender, but he still thought of himself as male, giving the elder elf a bow before he headed in and disrobed so he could hand over his sleeveless jacket, pants, and boots. He kept on the necklace of four large fangs he wore about his neck, and everything else he carried was in the armored robotic body's internal storage anyway. Thus 'naked', he proceeded cautiously toward the indicated hot spring, not entirely sure how to behave here.

The Khelari seemed to have no such inhibitions, in and mostly under the water in the manner of a crocodile as the other women entered the bathing area, looking relaxed and content with her half-closed eyes...

Still not sure why you call that a litany of sins. Personally I still think that arc's the best you've made thus far (well, except for the monotony on the last mission; that could go). Sure it's Just A Bunch of Stuff That Happened (and a collection of cliches), but it's an entertaining Bunch of Stuff that actually has some fun and challenging gameplay to go along with the story.

If you'd like a suggestion on spicing it up, switch out the custom EBs in the last mission with reskinned unique bosses and EBs from standard factions. You can probably drop a custom minion or such to get the space without significantly affecting the gameplay, and suddenly running into maybe a Man-O'-War or a Super Devoured amid a bunch of aliens would be maybe not unexpected, but certainly entertaining.

"This guy right here." answered the Khelari to Jade, still keeping her right eye covered with a hand even as the other pointed to the gnome, eliciting a confused blink at the 'blank spot' from the metal Dragon.

Well, until the token had its say.

Jade's balance system hiccuped for a moment as conflicting data streams came together on his HUD, and he took an uneasy step back, hands held out before him and tail outstretched in the instinctual reaction aimed at not falling over. Fortunately, the situation didn't last long enough for him to do so, and he remained upright until his system restabilized the robotic body, merging the incoming information into a composite overlay.

"Oh!" he let out in surprise as a result, only now realizing how close he'd come to stepping on the little man with the thick sole of his heavy leather boot, and quickly took two steps back as a result before bowing curtly, "Um...sorry. Didn't see you there. Uh...hi."

The Khelari only gave a brief chuckle at this, looking around in the meantime...and then wrapping her other arm about her torso as she shivered a moment. She didn't say anything though, like the metal Dragon ready to follow the group to the mentioned destination...

The tank easily flipped onto its side, then its back, then its other side, and would continue this rotation a few more times before the now very disoriented crew inside managed to stabilize the vehicle. The second armored craft, however, had no such inhibitions, aiming one of its riot guns at the insectoid and proceeding to open fire. The shells were relatively harmless to the heavy plating of the first tank, but unprotected and lightly armored targets tended to be cut to ribbons if they so much as directly caught the trajectory vortex.

Said firing naturally produced a lot of noise, which sounded even above that of the rifles of the coat-donning gunmen, turning their attention behind them. Seeing the sinister spawn of all things evil and corrupt in said location, they in turn redirected their aim and opened fire again as well. Finally, this was about the time when the rest of the depot got wind something had gone terribly wrong - mostly induced by the right of the rotating hovertank - resulting in several more vehicles mobilizing and personnel arming up to engage...
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"Gyeh!" the Khelari recoiled with a swat of her palm against her right eye, holding the hand over the spot as she regained her balance, having taken a stumbling step back. Jade only looked on in confusion as she blinked at the gnome he couldn't see and remarked, "Ur. Great. Now of all times it chooses to break. That figures. Hello."

"Huh?" was all the metal Dragon could utter to that this moment, looking back and forth between the spot she was talking to and the scaleless reptilian herself, "Say wha...who are you talking to...?"

"Anytime." Jade retorted, stepping over to Paxtera, as he suspected that proximity or physical contact would be needed for the remote relocation and wanted to make the conditions to this end easier. The Khelari likewise gave confirmation, hers coming with a nod before she too stepped closer, waving temporary goodbye to Scar and the other Gre'shil...

"Can't hurt to try." Jade gave a shrug of palms and a mixture of sideways tilt and nod of his head to the suggestion of traveling in two groups, "Well....least I hope so. Let's try."

His expression was uncertain, but his manner certainly conveyed that he thought it was a good idea. There was still concern in his eyes, but as far as Trisys was concerned, Master had approved - even though didn't feel much achuckle right now.

The Khelari on the other hand laughed light-heartedly, telling Scar with a smile, "Until I'm satisfied? We'd be here all day. I may not look it, but I can eat that whole thing. No, you guys go ahead and eat. My treat to you."

"But thank you for this." she did accept the offered cuts however, beginning to snack on them like a human might large strips of beef jerky. It wasn't her preferred style - she liked to gnaw it off the bone, or other hard surfaces, such as the outer plating - but she didn't want to offend anyone by turning down the offer, "I appreciate it."

Thus munching, she didn't repeat it aloud, but she was ready to go with the second group once Paxtera returned, just like Jade...
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The gunmen didn't reply. They didn't even hear the chittering above the report of their weapons, firing at where the creature had been the instant before it had vanished. The heavy hovertank meanwhile performed a sensor sweep...

"Uh...yeah...kind of." the Khelari replied with trepidation, giving her hand a little pull in an offered attempt to assist Trisys off the ground. She glanced at the gathered group from the corners of her eyes as she told the satyr-like being, "I'm not sure it'd be good for you guys, though. It's a lava stream. You guys have a water place scent, and people from water places tend to burn in those."

"Except you." she eyed Jade curiously, the metal Dragon raising a brow in response, "Where are you from? That armor of yours is...weird. It blocks all the smell of your body. How's that work?"

Jade couldn't help but smirk at that, retorting with, "I'm a machine. Don't worry about it."

"I agree that water would be a better idea, though." he said, looking toward the family trio again, "Hey, you girls still with us? Don't go spacing out please. I'm not good at fixing that..."
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"Demon!" shouted one of the soldiers (he couldn't tell which one), and as the initial shock wore off, rifles and pistols flew into hands and fingers and were whipped into firing position. If something didn't happen to change the situation quickly, they'd attempt to gun down the insectoid in their panic attack...