Patches (Open RP)

"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...

Toy Dispenser's volley of stunning bolts all impacted Tafari, or rather the energy field that was protecting him. The three "non-lethal as annoying as stun taser" bolts were vastly negated by the aura of power surrounding Tafari. But maintaining a power sink, something that was usually only utilized for a split second, was delicate work. Though the bolts only did a small amount of overall damage, the simple fact that their energy signatures conflicted with Tafari's own was enough to disrupt his concentration. The power sink faded. The lightning-like field of energy remained, still absorbing ambient energy, but at a vastly reduced rate then when the power sink had been working.

"Very cute." Tafari turned toward Toy Dispenser with an annoyed look on his face. "Unless you jokers plan to throw anything ASIDE from energy at me, piss off. It's not like this place NEEDS all of that power anyway. It would all be wasted on grass growing a few more centimeters. I, on the other hand..." He raised his hands to the sky again, splaying them. They started to glow with brilliant golden-orange energy once more as Tafari began to conjure another power sink. "Can think of a few uses for it..."

"Half of the life in this forest is compose of mostly of magical forces. What you are doing is taking that life! perhaps the grass don't need the magic to grow higher but the trees do." Lady Aineruda then smiled in a wicked way "Besides it's not us you need worry about. Do you really think we protect this place with bows and arrows? It's those magical beings the Fey you need worry about."

Oddly it would seem the area was now clear of those fey until the ground started shaking and rock armored forms rose out of the ground some holding stone swords and shields as well as rock golems with gnomes riding the shoulders. The sky was growing dark with growing storm clouds swarming with the sky spirits.

Cackling, Toy flashed Tafari the peace sign and folded his rifle back up, attatching it to some magnetic clamps at the small of his back, under his cape.

"Dude, if I wanted to hurt you, I would have used something bigger," he said disparagingly. "As it is, I think you need to go back to Supervillains 101. You're supposed to kill the guards or other inhabitants before you start stealing their ****. Good luck, big guy."

Not sparing a moment to watch Ildela's throw (well, technically he watched it too, but wasn't looking at it), Toy shifted position. He patted Kethara on the shoulder as he passed her with a muttered "Good idea" until he reached the Khelari and the shifting dragon.

"Let's give the angry elves, general forest creatures, and the big nasty dragon a wide berth, yeah?" he said as he tugged Akat's shoulder and directed her toward Kethara. Guessing that the lizard-woman had some common sense, Toy trusted she'd get moving and instead turned to regard Trisys for a moment.

Looks like a bot, glows like an elemental, gives off more 'Unknowns' than a dimensional vortex. Five gets you one she'll be important.

With that minor internal dialogue out of the way, Toy bent down to scoop the comatose robot up into his arms and started moving away from the waking dragon and the suicidal metahuman.

"All aboard who's getting aboard!" he shouted as he jogged away, hopping over the occasional tree root in his way.

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...

Tafari shook his head in response to everybody. "HELLO? This is FOREIGN and ALIEN energy I'm draining, completely SEPARATE from that of this place! Are you all id - whoa sword." Ildela's sword impacted Tafari's aura of golden-orange energy, made a fine sound akin to a tuning fork, and then bounced off. Tafari had three different channels of energy operating: The energy that composed his corporeal form, a portion of which had just entered an entrophic state to chaotic to be maintained thanks to Ildela's trick with the sword. Presumably hitting him enough would make him fade away. The second was an energy reserve that Tafari tapped in order to fuel everything else: His aura and various powers. And finally, there was a conduit - The more he used his powers, and the more his powers were interacted with, the stronger they became. For a limited time, that was.

'Who throws a SWORD?' Tafari thought incredulously. 'That's just...Swords aren't made...Waste of...WHY?'

"Ok. Lemme try this ONE last time. This energy does not BELONG here. I laid claim to it first since YOU did nothing about it. Draining it away will not impact this fantasy realm in ANY discernable way." Tafari said flatly. He then cracked his knuckles, a savage grin spreading across his face. "But if y'all wanna scrap over it..."

Unfortunately Tafari was not completely correct. The energy Trisys had used to grant Jade's wish had been amplified and meshed with that of the local land and denizens. Otherwise having the leftover energy siphoned away probably would have been a gift, a cleansing of spell residue. However there was no clear separation at present.

Like a tangled mass of yarn, pulling one string dragged the rest with it. Instead of separating the foreign energy out, Tafari was tying it closer together. Thus why anyone with magical inclinations who was nearby when the feat was performed felt the unpleasant drain.

It was a blessing in disguise that Trisys was currently nothing more than a decorative lump of metal, her energy and presence apparently "off-line". The static-looking lightening that had flickered over her new form just previous to her shutdown was raw spirit magic and exactly the foreign type of magic Tarafi had been targeting. If Trisys had been in full command of her resources (well, as fully as she was capable) the drain would have been immediate and devastating.

"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...

Toy quit running after he had gotten about fifty meters from the brewing fight, long experience letting him judge that this was far enough to stay out of the fight. Either that or no amount of running would get him out of range, so he decided to err on the side of still being able to monitor events.

"I am so glad I'm not an overly arrogant villain," muttered the android as he set Trysis down under a particularly large tree, several roots having formed a natural chair. "Now let's see what we have here..."

Tilting the transformed genie's head around, Toy performed a series of perfunctory checks, scanning for any damage of irregularities. With his experience in robotic matters and lack of distractions, he'd probably find out why the woman was unconscious in a fairly short amount of time. Then there'd be nothing to do except try to wake her up. Or interface directly with her mind, whichever.

"I think he needs a surfboard," Toy would call out once Akat and her elemental entourage got close enough for a normal conversation. "You sure he isn't going to wake up and try to eat people?"

Toy's examination would likely be perplexing. It was as if the robot had been designed by a mecha fan. That the mechanical form was resulted from clash of magic and technology and not by design still made it completely unrealistic.

It was more armor than robot. Organic in appearance, yet seamless metal with no opening. A shell only an inch at its thickest. Revealed to be hollow by the most mild of prodding. Knocking on various points would give different tones like musical drums.

As for the robotic part, it was there. It seemed to require only a like mechanical touch, such as from Toy, for access instead of the normal port interface required by most computers. Reading the programming, however, was like trying to read the mind of a rabbit. Not much there.

What were in the programming, if it could be called such, were instructions for automatic functions. It amounted to holding its own weight, self-repair, and maintaining integrity. Not bad for armor, not much for a robot.

It clearly required power to function even that much. Yet it was drawing energy from Toy just for this most basic of access. Probably if Toy wanted he could instruct movement while in physical contact. An example being if Toy needed to run in a hurry, he could grab an arm and through that connection command it to run with him. Otherwise there was resistance to movement like trying to drive with the parking break on.

Toy's interface did get a brief reaction. There was a sound very much like a squeak. The telltale red static barely flickered before it faded. There had been something, a definite presence, but it was gone as quickly as it came.

Basically it was the lamp of the genie, except the genie was MIA.

"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..."

Toy snickered a bit at Cerelassion's comment, especially because it seemed the elf has missed the fact that he had actually pulled the interface cable from a port on the back of his neck. He did hold the plug-in really close to protect it and the guy probably used to such technology, so no biggie.

"I'm sure several artists would disagree with you, buddy, but we're not all perfect," he replied as he withdrew the plug, snapping it back behind its armor covering and turning to glace at the pair who had followed. "And nevermind that then, I'll assume you know him better. Any clue why he's comatose despite Happy McBlow Things Up back there?"

While he waited for Akat's response and watched the brewing fight, his fingers idley tapped against Trysis' hull. The flickering red lightning that crackled over his form, almost a perfect mirror of what the genie had had a moment before, started to creep off his fingers and onto her body. While not very noticeable to those watching from outside, anyone with supernatural vision (or indeed Trysis herself) would notice that he was probing at the other android with what was quite literally the physical manifistation of his soul.

Good question how he got that, but weirder things have happened.

Let's see where you ran off too, eh?, he thought as he tried to extend his perception after her. He had never tried this before, but figured it wouldn't hurt given the similarity of their auras. If worse came to worse he could survive losing a bit of his soul, the thing grew back.

"Looks like the rumble is starting," he added off-handidly.

"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..."

Like to like. Even as Toy's mechanical nature had given access to the outside, his soul fragment found her 'other half'.

Normally in a dreamscape or mindscape there are environments, avatars, and other images. These things being a reflection of how the senses interpret the outer world and thus attempt to interpret the inner world.

Not so here. Here there was neither sense of direction nor anything pseudo visual to orient against. There was cold. Endless, oppressive cold.

And a voice. Or a chorus of voices. Overlapping in pitch and volume as a stream-of-conscious. Like green leaves rustling in a fierce spring wind. If during his chaotic entrance to Patches Toy had managed to hear Trisys's voice he could recognize it as the same, minus the echo which had been a result of her new shell.

"... lost it all it's all gone now even the Voices even the Dead only me never thought it would be so lonely for a second a second there was something sight and sound and sensation was there? a memory nothing more illusion all illusion just an illusion oh EarthMother! I have lost you it has been forever all for a wish a wish Jade's wish is Jade well? Jade lived lived and died by now was it worth it forever alone forever alone yes really? yes really? yes really? yes? oh EarthMother! I am lost I have lost it all it's all gone..."

Out in the real world, Toy suddenly went silent and still, hand resting lightly on Trysis' chest as he focused his attention inwardly.

"Well you see, that's the problem when you run into your own head. There ends up being nobody around except yourself. Name's Toy Dispenser, kid, you look like you could use a hand."

Tafari apparently didn't catch sight of Idlela at that moment, which was odd because his focused senses and accuracy applied to all of his senses, not just vision - So he should have been able to detect her, regardless of whether she was in front of, above, or behind him. Not that he considered this a problem. She would have to come out of hiding eventually.

The lightning bolt fired by one of the sky sprites literally fizzled into nothingness the moment it reached the edge of Tafari's aura, having been almost entirely negated - It was apparent the brute had resistance to energy-based assaults borderlining immunity.

The Stone Golems just stopped a bit stunned that their target wasn't where they were going. Then the yellow shirt gnome appeared and pointed at Tafari the Golems turned and started the slow run at him.

Aineruda's mental shields lasted only a short time from the attack. Then they dropped and she took the full force of his attack "Aghhhhh". This however was all it took for Lazardarus to snap out of the daze. "Lady Aineruda" He didn't physically attack instead he started singing one of his song spells. Just like all the times before anyone he wasn't focused on heard the singing but couldn't make out the words nor are effected by them.

Tafari on the other hand was who Lazardarus was focused on. The song spell threatened to entrap his mind Dominate his will to the point nothing else mattered. This of course depended on Tafari resistance to having his mind held in such a way. This might have given Paxtera the opening she needed to get Aineruda out of harms way.

Then there was the Freezing rain that seemed to only be falling on Tafari. Indeed he was standing in the very center of the rainfall the Sky sprites were causing.

Akat gave a nervous, helpless shrug, truly not knowing. Heck, she'd not even known the name of Jade's people until a little while ago, let alone anything even remotely regarding their sleeping habits. She didn't know whether robots slept or not either, leaving her at somewhat of a loss with the whole situation.

"Your guess is as good as mine." was therefore her response, though her attention didn't linger on it long, the Khelari's head snapping back toward the battle in response to Lady Aineruda's scream.

"Um..." she glanced to Kethara and Toy anxiously, "Should we be doing something? I think that was bad..."