Patches (Open RP)

The Commander grumbled "new comers" then louder. "Open the gates!" Then he looked down at Tafari and Paxtera "Because you don't have an escort you need to wait in a cabin till one of the elven council members come to greet you."

The gates opened to allow passage the rest of the guards went back to their training sparing in a sand covered lot. Guard Commander himself came down and to Tafari "I can list three groups who would kill anything in this valley. One has attacked this gate with rams with out warning. If you seen your family killed by a sneak attack that came out of the blue. Well lets just say I have my reasons for being defensive. Now if you please follow me so we can close these gates before the Gre'shil get the idea to rush?" Then he turned and headed to a building set just to the right inside side of the Gate.

Cerelassion rubbed his chin "No need to thank us you were in need and it's just right to react. Giving life to the lifeless isn't easy and has a very high price I'm surprised you even exist still."

Lady Aineruda collapsed into the arms of a quick acting guard and was aided to a bench. "Someone fetch a healer!" Lazardarus ran over "It's alright she just over taxed herself lifting the ... dragon. Just give her a moment to recover."

"Or be only a statue," her conclusion echoed Cerelassion's. "But it wasn't to something lifeless, it was to Jade." As if that made things any clearer.

She hesitated over the Khelari's offer. Should she wait until Jade could decide what parameters she functioned in? No. Part of her choice had been to act as more than a mindless tool. She had a voice, and she would use it. "At all times, and in all things, and in all places," Prosopopoeiasys affirmed aloud to herself.

In a more speculative tone, she replied, "I do not think I sick. Broken? I have never been a... robot? before. I don't know what terms to use. I don't know what is normal for me now.

"I don't see much. Just what is directly in front of me. When you need my attention will you please be in front of my face, or else turn my head to face you?

"So much has changed. It is... difficult to know where to begin. Or what to do!" She paused a moment to reduce her rising pitch. Being able to take a steadying breath was deeply missed. "Is someone available for a while? There are a few spots left that feel something. I think. It is hard to know where. I could use help figuring it out.

"If that is too much to ask, will someone instead please lay me against Jade? I can wait with him until he wakes."

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...?"

"Thank you," Trisys repeated to the females, more humbled than ever. So much open willingness to help. It was a complete 180 from her life's experiences and expectations. Who would have thought on a world that takes pieces of planets without so much as a by-your-leave that there would be wealth of charity. Trisys doubted she would ever get used to it. She hoped she never would take it for granted.

There wasn't really anything she could take for granted now. How to start? Well, there wasn't much more she could think to do to test sight at the moment. Having an narrow, unblinking, fixed view point was unnerving enough. Should she ask one to turn her head while the other one touched her limbs? No, seeing what she should be able to sense might trick her into feeling phantom touch or make her second-guess.

"Uhm, how about starting on my head." That seemed the most likely place to be normal. Wouldn't it? "Try gently touching the cheeks. Gently. You are? Oh, how about firmly. More firmly? No, nothing.

"How about hair? It is? Oh." Learning her hair was an intractable solid was saddening. It has been a point of pride to have a full mane that streaked in the wind.

"I don't know... Try the rest of my head. Mind the horns!" Trisys cautioned. As they were the only part that still felt her, it was likely their properties were intact. Besides, they were a very private part, like the inner mind of a human, and even now casual touch of them would not be welcomed.

It was really weird to be directing touch as if examining someone else. Doubly so since the whole experience was impalpable to her.

Nothing triggered one of the pressure points she knew were there, somewhere. Even her eyes being touched were as personal as someone covering the far end of binoculars, ie not at all. Until someone touched the ears. "Wait! I think there is something. There! And there! Can you cover those two spots more? Yes, that definitely is! Where is it?

"Where? Are you saying something? I can't hear anymore." The blatant connection between hearing and finally finding a couple pressure points was missed by Trisys in her excitement compounded by the newness of it all.

The static-looking red discharge would randomly pass over the hands touching the mechanical satyr. They appeared illusionary, or at least likely had the same effect as such: Harmless. Rather than electronic, it was minor spurts of spirit magic. Though if she came in contact with a major arcane artifact it might react like a magnet stuck on the side of a computer.

The commander cursed "Never trust outsiders damn Lady Aineruda." He turned to a group of guards "Don't just stand there go after him." The guards started off running after Tafari.

Cerelassion looked at the spiritual magic residue and then to the others near Trisys. "Excuse me a moment." He went off a distance and removed his outer coat and a few rings and pendants. In other words he was removing Arcane artifacts Cerelassion was more of an alchemist then a Mage but still used the devices and spells. Then he returned to Trisys "Tell me do you feel .. er Well function better now?"

Meanwhile Lady Aineruda stood back up. "I'm alright now seems things are settling down finaly I'm Lady Aineruda high elf and head of the Elven council here at Riverbrook. I take it you are an envoy from the new city that appeared."

"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's confirmation could not be discerned, though the curt remark was heard. "What? What is new?" Then the connection clicked and Trisys rambled. "Oh, I can hear again. Then those were my ears! That must be why I can hear. Except I did not loose sight when my eyes were covered. It was dark but not absent. Nor does covering my mouth prevent talking. I wonder what the difference was?"

"Tell me do you feel .. er Well function better now?" Cerelassion inquired.

Trisys instinctively tried to shake her head. Nothing happened. That type of movement normally happened in the neck, which she no longer had control over. "No," was her quiet replied, subdued by yet another reminder of loss. "No, I don't function at all. Everything happened so fast. This is new to me. All of it. At best if I can figure out what of me remains and what is currently... available, then maybe I can recognize if more is still changing. I feel... I feel so little yet so much. Trapped and disconnected at the same time. Best guesses are all can offer on my own."

She didn't mention that if Jade was awake, he as Master could have made a wish for the knowledge to be known and understood. If deep sleep was his reaction to the transformation exchange, even as eternal wakefulness was hers, then it was best to be left until Jade woke on his own.

Lady Aineruda's misconception was being addressed by Ildela, and Trisys was glad to let her do it. It was more than she could handle to figure out herself.

Maybe there was a twinge in the words that echoed hollowly, maybe it was the way she quickly re-engaged Kethara and the Khelari's services, but it was fairly clear Trisys was trying to keep too busy to let the situation really sink in. "Maybe try shoulders next? I have wings again, right? Please tell me. Please let them be there. What do they look like? Do they feel any different than my head?"

The answer was much like her ears: They were the same organic-looking, metallic-feel red material except at the tips, which were amber in color.

Warning! Local space/time anomaly detected!

"Say what!? Aw hell, grab the last of the loot and book it!"

Unknown energy signature closing. Anomaly stabilizing. Local dimensional flow de-synced.

"****! No time! Emergency teleport, now!"

Error. Destination cannot be found.

"...****."

*******************************

It was a very annoyed little dot in the sky that suddenly appeared about a mile above the giant forest the elves called home. A very annoyed little dot that was not only falling, but being bombarded by error messages and pleas of non-functionality.

"Anti-grav not working my shiny metal ***!"

Unable to do anything to halt its fall, the dot couldn't do much more than orient itself and try to find a soft spot to land. Thankfully trees could do a lot to slow its velocity without taking too much damage from the collision. Unfortunately, surviving a fall from terminal velocity was always a *****.

"This is one of those times I wish I had old fashioned rocket boots. That kind of primitive junk wouldn't be messed up by a freaking dimensional yank."

Oh well. Full power to the force fields, overcharge the buffer. Can deal with overloads and fried circuits after I'm down safely. Heh. 'Safely'.

The black dot suddenly burst into a pearlescent dot as it neared the tree tops. Like a meteor, it blew through the upper canopy, shattering branches and scattering indigenous animals. A tree got in the way, but it all it got was a man-sized hole blown clear through the trunk as the falling person barreled right through it. Then another, and another, not to mention the progressively larger branches that were sheered through.

Eventually the shielded ball hit the ground, bounced once, went through another tree (a really ancient one this time), and finally came to a stop at the end up a fifty meter trench that it had dug in its last few seconds of flight. The shield flickered once, then collapsed with an almost pathetic fizzle and crack.

Systems at 25% and holding steady. Repair protocols initiated.

"I hate dimensional hijinks," groaned the recumbent multi-colored android to nothing in particular.

((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...

Lady Aineruda reached up and brushed a blob of mud off her cheek and faced Ildela "You weren't kidding about chaos following you. So your not an envoy well I would have to speak to these powers that be another time. It seems I have a dragon asleep in the middle of my city, and some answers could be given if we can wake the dragon. However I'm not foolish enough to do such a thing. So if you may excuse me the sky just happen to be falling and I have another mess to tend to."

She saw Tafari, Paxtera, and the charging guards she shook her head and lifted her skirt and ignoring the fact she was now splattered with dirt still moved with a regal grace. "Guards all of you get moving what ever crashed just now might start a fire! MOVE IT PEOPLE!"

The guards that were going for Tafari looked at each other then went over to the impact site of the android. Each moving to clear the area and make sure any ash wouldn't start a blaze. It seems that the guards thought following the orders of the High lady Aineruda was more important then figuring out a way to stop Tafari. With a look between Tafari and Paxtera, Aineruda sighed "Let me guess the only official at the gates was Commander Bregolien? He has a shoot first ask questions next week personality and sadly got that post only due to politics and not wit. Normally there be a council member at the gate however we were having a meeting a few minutes ago so all members were at the council chamber."

Lazardarus shook his head "Those isolationist going to kill us all with there stupidity." Laz went over to Jade rubbing his chin trying to think of how to wake him with out causing an instinctive reaction. "Hmm I think I can use a few song spells to wake him and calm him enough that he won't lash out at anyone when he wakens."

Cerelassion looked over Trisys "It seems your ears and finger tips are slightly different shade then the rest of you. Hmm can you feel this?" He reached down and took her hand poking at the finger tips.

((http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y18...spensernew.jpg Damned if I can remember how to embed this in text.))

Thankfully for all involved the android's only similarity to a meteor was the speed of its landing and swath of devastation left behind in its wake. There might have been a few small fires started among the branches it shot through, but nothing as major as a giant fireball. Well, not yet anyway, considering that this was a forest and all and still highly flammable.

Servos audibly whining, the android gripped a chunk of rock that had been holding it in a more or less sitting position and levered itself to its feet. The blank, reflective faceplate simply stared at the Khelari for several moments before a different, more automated voice crackled out from its hidden speakers.

"Please hold, all operators are busy at this time. Every call is important to us here at LMOUSVEV and we apoligize for any inconvenience. An operator will see to you as soon as a line is cleared. Thank you, and have a pleasant wait."

Corny, mildly irritating elevator music then started playing, but the android had not been sitting still while its apparently automated message went off, hands reaching down to its belt to click open a small compartment filled with a dozen glowing vials of liquid. Removing a green and a blue and shutting the compartment, the android transferred one vial to its free hand and then squeezed, shattering them both. Curiously, not a single drop of the liquid fell free, instead the entirety of the contents seemed to seep into its armor.

The android stood still for several moments, then adruptly flicked both hands in a movement a lot more graceful its earlier jerkiness would not have foretold, brushing remnants of glass off its hands.

"A hijink is exactly what just happened to me," it finally said in a fairly pleasant, yet slightly synthesized masculine voice. "Namely popping up a mile in the air above a super-sized forest and plummeting almost to my death with only enough time to discover that I'm in a completely different dimension. Again."

*************************************

Of course, what everyone saw wasn't exactly everything that was going on.

Primary systems at 26% functionality. Secondary systems at 45%. Tertiary at 74%.
Anti-grav, offline.
Force field generators, offline.
Quantum communications, jammed.
Electro-static field, unknown.
Senso-

Yeah yeah, I get it. I'm broken as all ****. Well, at least I'm not getting shot at yet. Enough time to break out the nanites.

Scanning targets.
Species: Khelari(?), female(?)
Enhancements: None.
Weapons: Natural.
Hostility: Nil.
Threat: Suspected low.

And that's not even mentioning the crowd of elves, supers, and... a dragon? Well melt me down and turn me into a toaster, at least it isn't one of the brothers.

Nanites integrated.
Primary systems: 40%
Secondary sytems: 82%
Tertiary systems: 99%
Anti-grav, offline.

...well, no running even if I wanted too. Let's hope none of those supers recognize me.

"A hijink is exactly what just happened to me. Namely popping up a mile in the air above a super-sized forest and plummeting almost to my death with only enough time to discover that I'm in a completely different dimension. Again."

The Khelari's willingness encouraged in the face of such slow progress. Then came the new idea. "Maybe we're looking at this the wrong way. 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?"

"Oh! I, I don't know." Trisys mused it over. "At first it was as expected for a robot: Digital readouts, environmental sensors, super strength. And cold. So very, very cold. Then it sort of, well, turned sideways. Or inside out. Uhm, like a movie crew went home but the camera continued filming. Still..."

Ildela and Kethara's deadpan, "Incoming," gave a short warning. Then a rainbow fell, or that's what it seemed in the corner of her limited vision. Dirt kicked up by the 'meteor' showered Trisys. With a whinnied, "Meep!" Trisys instinctively ducked. Meaning she moved not at all due to her lack of physical control.

A few particles landed on her eyes, which thankfully did not obscure enough to be a concern. Plus more on the spots that could feel pressure as well as all the rest. Since it happened everywhere it was too intense and brief use identify with, like the white noise of a spring rain storm.

As the Khelari was attracted away by the landscape redecorator, she left the food for thought. Humans liked to talk aloud. Maybe it would help Trisys, too. And keep her too busy to wonder on things out of her range.

"Okay, user manual. Right. As when asking the stars for guidance, except the stars are depots of programming rather than nodes of life-force. Right? If there is one to find it would be built in, so it should be easier. Just need a password or key phrase. Something to get it started.

"Computer. Computer? Ah. Hello, computer?" Random keystrokes would have been more useful. Too bad a keyboard was not an available option.

Cerelassion helped distract from further futile vocal interface attempts with a discovery. "Yes!" Trisys eagerly exclaimed, "Yes, I can feel that pressure distinctly. Which hand is that? You say there are different shades? What color? Can you please hold up my hand so I may see?"

Before Cerelassion could react, Kethara's caution caused the earlier comment by Lazardarus to be processed. "Oh, no!" Trisys panicked. "Please, no! Let Jade rest. Please. Please do not disturb his fulfilled wish. Can he just sleep unless he is harming someone? Please, until..."

The emphatic pleading cut short. The amber colorations turned crimson. White horns disappeared. The red static flared then faded away. The mechanical satyr seized up as her weight increased many fold.

Attempts to rouse the incommunicado creature such as poking, shaking, and calling would be met with a universal lack of results. Knocking or pounding would only cause a hollow echo, like the deep gong of a cathedral tower bell.

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...?"

...well, anonymity didn't last long.

The android slumped in an almost perfect rendition of an anime 'sweatdrop' maneuver when Idella called out his name. A bit of red electricity flickered across his faceplate as he warily looked over at the girl.

"That would be me, yes," he said slowly, taking the time to scan Idella more in-depth. Without access to Earth's metahuman databases he couldn't find out exactly who she was, but he had enough experience and scanning power to at least guess at her powers.

He shrugged one shoulder at the Khelari, "Toy Dispenser isn't that odd a name. Well, it is, but for it to make sense I'd have to explain the joke and that's never any fun.

"But I seem to be at something of a disadvantage now. You ladies would be called...?" he continued, looking from one woman to the other. "Oh, and my dimension is normal. Same as hers, to be exact."

He indicated Idella while seemingly looking over her shoulder at Trysis, Kethara, and the dragon.

"Less elves, though. Smaller trees. And no bored higher dimensional beings as I'm sure this place has in abundance. At least we're not being told to fight to the death, that's a nice change of pace."

Tafari shrugged as everybody started talking again. The odd-looking robot didn't look like he was in any danger of being lynched by overzealous elves, so he wandered off a ways.

After all, he had originally come here for a single reason: The MASSIVE amount of magic that Trisys had used, which was still amassed in the air like a mountain. And Tafari wanted it.

The air around the brute darkened, and a brilliant golden-orange aura of power began to radiate from his figure. Eyes aglow, he raised his splayed hands to the sky. A field of lightning-like energy began to course the air immediately around him, the lines of power sucking away the surpluss of magical energy. Tafari's hands burst with light, and a massive power sink formed. The air immediately around Tafari was immediately drained of all it's ambient energy, and the rest of Trysys' magic naturally flowed from areas of high concentration to low concentration, right into the energy-siphoning field Tafari had just conjured. Unless interupted, he would remain like that for up to a minute while he siphoned it all away.

"I'm afraid that Patches in itself is chaos. So you leaving or not wouldn't change matters." Lady Aineruda said as she looked at the android. "Seems we are having a lot of guests in our home. I'm Lady Aineruda a pleasure meeting you Toy dispenser. As for the higher being seeing us as toys I'm afraid many people believe that exactly what Patches is. Or more to the point was."

"Some being or beings long ago created Patches for their own reasons. For reasons unknown they left but the forces they put in place continue to rip places and people from their native realms and bring them here. Like I said some believe it so those beings could toy with lesser life forms. However I and some others believe it was for peaceful reasons. Hence why everyone can communicate to each other. What ever the reason was it now a battle field fighting for resources and food in most areas."

Cerelassion rubbed his chin "Hmm it seems she was fighting the change and when she lost her focus it took over fully." He took out a magnifying glass and looked over Trisys.

"If I gained a body again the first thing I do is eat something... Perhaps your right I don't want to be in his way when he wakes up ravaging hungry." Lazardarus said as he rubbed his chin.

Then all the elves turned at once to stare at Tafari. Lady Aineruda spoke up "STOP WHAT YOU ARE DOING RIGHT THIS MOMENT!"

"A pleasure," Toy said rather gravely as he half-bowed at Lady Aineruda, taking the chance to give her a more thorough look. "So, Patches, huh?"

Warning: Local magic flux detected.

The android suddenly lurched in Tafari's direction, the lightning crackling over his form distending and flickering wildly in the metahuman's direction. Sensors temporarily a-whirl he stumbled a step before recovering and turning in the direction of the magical drain. Twitching a glance at Ildela and Kethara, Toy held up a placating hand while his left dropped down to flip open a pocket-like slot on his outer left thigh. Sticking his hand in, he pulled out a blue and red pulse rifle which technically should not have been able to fit inside the pocket.

"Hold on a second," he explained, unfolding the stock and popping up a scope on the rifle. "The guy the elf lady's yelling at isn't going to stop with just words. And whatever he's doing stings."

Flipping a small switch from 'lethal' to 'non-lethal', Toy sidestepped to get a clearer view of Tafari (or his side, at any rate) through the trees and took quick aim before blasting out a trio of stun rounds at the man. Each was about as powerful and annoying as a taser, so hopefully they would phase him enough to break his concentration.