A Totally Reputable Salvage Run [Private]

[elfgurl1234]

"Um... ra ra ra ra, ra ra ra ra ra ra?" he tried, before chuckling a bit. He totally would have sung it too if he actually knew the words. "I don't suppose that counts as close enough for you guys, eh? Alright, alright..." Surrendering, the cheetah Hyte padded over to join the Caramelldansen line. At least nobody was around to witness it.

[Hytech - Dacj]

"Yay!" Dacj said, clapping her hands together as the cheetah submitted to overwhelming peer pressure from both girls. "Caramelldansen~" She'd found Sorcha's teasing of Seth quite entertaining--though "kitty" (she'd have to remember to thank Esper one of these days for that) was a lot more of an apt nickname than "pretty bird"...

They Caramelldansen'd towards the center of the ballroom, Dacj still holding her flashlight in an auxiliary tentacle and lighting the way before them. She stopped rather abruptly, catching sight of something new within the mosaic floor. "Ouroborus," she said, tilting the flashlight to get a better look. The center of the floor depicted a serpentish dragon with round horns curled in a perfect circle, tail disappearing into its own mouth. Within the circled snake-dragon was what appeared to be Zephyrus itself, a planet of blue oceans and red-orange deserts.

[Lord of the Deep]

Grinning as she danced Sorcha made sure to catch both of the others doing their own dance with her headset's camera. at Dacj's surprised exclamation Sorcha picked her flash light back up and went to join her in examining the mosaic "Does Ouroborus have significance in imperial lore?" Sorcha asked as she worked her way around the center of the mosaic.

[Hytech - Dacj]

"It's shorthand for Ti'ama," Dacj said, crouching to eye the tiles closer. She ran her fingers over Imperial letters circling the space between planet and ouroborus. "This is Olwynn, I think. Zephyrus' Ti'ama." Come to think of it, she wasn't sure why the names were different. Did the planet's name predate worship of the Ti'ama, or was it a necessary distinction to make?

[Seth_Avi]

Seth was surprised by the sudden stop, but definitely glad for the dancing to be over. Stepping around to the side of the kraken, the cheetah Hyte took a good look at the details of the image within the mosaic. The first thing he noticed about the dragon was its circular horns, and his suspicion was confirmed before he could even pose the question himself. "I suppose Ti'ama images might be fairly common on a planet like this?" he asked, considering that it seemed almost like a sort of religion from what he had gleaned from Eli's information dumps.

[Hytech - Dacj]

"Yes. Every Imperial world venerated its own Ti'ama as a god," Dacj said, straightening again and, on a whim, looking up. A second ouroborus seemed to be painted on the ceiling--no, two ouroborus, one larger than the other. A planet and its moon? "Ah, Sovreem and Sovreen, I bet. Zephyrus was...ah, the fourth of the homeworlds, I think? The third portal built. The official pantheon recognized all Ti'ama as gods, but you only worshipped your own planet's--well, yours and whomever your Ti'ama happened to owe a really big debt to. Contractors were direct avatars of the god's will; Blossoms could speak for them as well. It was really quite institutionalized."

[Lord of the Deep]

Sorcha listened interested in Dacj information "It all kinda make's you wonder where the Ti'ama came from, the most similar beings I've come across in my readings are Devil Lords with the hoarding of souls and the contracts for power, plus the system of debts.... I bet the Ti'ama try really hard to discourage that comparison." Sorcha mused

[Seth_Avi]

"I would imagine so, yes," Seth remarked with a faint smile. Of course, from what he had heard of some Ti'ama and their Contractors that didn't sound like an entirely inappropriate comparison. Elti was nice at least. "So, shall we continue exploring a bit?"

[Hytech - Dacj]

"They call themselves the 'Firstborn', so..." Dacj shrugged. "Considering they're typically inside of planets, they could very well be right. I don't think they ever pretended to be particularly benevolent gods with the interests of humanity at heart. They're worlds. Even the most primitive civilizations tend to worship nature. It's a logical thought process, really..."

She nodded to Seth. "Yeah, might as well. Lead the way on, Sorcha."

[Lord of the Deep]

"Eh well given that the only real source of information on Ti'ama is the Ti'ama them selves I have to be a bit skeptical about them, they could just be like hermit crabs who find planets nice comfy shells, I mean the can leave the planets after all so their not the world itself~" Sorcha rambled as moved on again she peek in on what looked like it might be a sitting room but hastily backed out, a single step into what had been thick rugs sent up clouds of dust and a quick look revealed what looked to have been plush couches and chair strewn with pillows and blankets now half decomposed into a sea of dust. "Alright Lets just pass this dust trap by." Sorcha coughed as she moved to a door on the other side of the hall, it looked to be a kitchen this time not a jack pot but better then that dust trap.

[Seth_Avi]

"Doesn't leaving their shells bring death to both the planet and the Ti'ama itself?" the cheetah Hyte asked as they continued onward. "Even the First to Shine died in the process of leaving Phanes." Thus the reason that Sennith had to be formed. He couldn't help but idly wonder where in the universe that Ti'ama might be-- if her journey was even still continuing.

Dust trap seemed like an understatement from what Seth saw briefly in that room, and he had no issue with avoiding it. As they passed by the kitchen area, the cheetah Hyte peeked in briefly with his flashlight. Definitely nothing valuable in there, but interesting nonetheless.

[Hytech - Dacj]

"Their minds can be moved," Dacj confirmed as they continued on. "You know how magical girls usually have transformation objects--pens, brooches, pieces of jewelry, something vaguely shiny? Guess what's in 'em." It was perhaps a testament to the Ti'ama's fear of death that they preferred such vessels to oblivion. "All the Neo-Sovreem Contractors carry some piece of their Ti'ama on their person." She was glad it was Sorcha who'd discovered the dust trap--her tentacles were already going to be filthy enough from all the dust on the floors.

Kitchens were mildly interesting, though Dacj really didn't want to poke around. Surely any food would be years gone--but that didn't mean she wanted to be the one to run across it either. "Hmm, so what are you looking for, Sorcha?" she asked. Besides precious metals, she wasn't really sure what Sorcha's 'salvage' typically consisted of.

[Lord of the Deep]

"Well from a scientific stand point I can't really see any reason that the removal of a Ti'ama would stop a planet from supporting life, though a Ti'ama might form a connection with the life force of the planet and it's removal rips a big whole leading to mass extinctions. If these worlds really are barren it would be interesting to see if we could get new life not connected to a Ti'ama to take hold." As Sorcha walked she peeked into a couple more dust trap rooms though these looked like they might have been guest rooms. Sorcha nodded at Dacj's question "Well Na-kun normally focuses on the magical remnants and he should be able to get a decent price on even broken magic items from him. Aside from that well probably want things that collectors and museums will pick up it'd be best to get historical value in addition to the raw materials." As Sorcha was about to turn away from the second dust trap the black box let out a series of rapid clicks, Sorcha cursed softly well that was going to be fun to try and find.

[Seth_Avi]

The cheetah Hyte took an unconscious step back when the clicking began. Had he triggered that? No, he had been closer than that during the dancing (was it strange that it hadn't picked up on the pills yet?), so it was likely something else nearby that it was reacting to. "May need full masks and such to explore some of these rooms," he pointed out. "I'm sure these can't be the only material covered rooms that might have something worthwhile in them." Just in case he hung back a bit so as not to risk interrupting anything the box was picking up, but he kept on the lookout. "I wouldn't recommend touching anything magical that we come across though." That would be just asking for trouble.

[Lord of the Deep]

Sorcha nodded "Yeah I should have some gear in Machiavelli that would do the trick, though for now a bit of improvising should do the trick~" Sorcha pulled out a pair of plastic safety glasses from the inside of her cowboy hat and undid the laces on her left sleeve pulling it free to revel that she had had a small pistol holstered on her upper arm and a slim metal wand strapped to the lower arm. As she wrapped it around her mouth and nose "There that should keep out most of the dust out. And pretty bird I've done this before there's no telling what sort of magic is in there , I put a fee extra goodies in my bag to use for safe handling of black magic items, though I suppose I should call Eli first." Sorcha plucked her radio off her belt and and flicked it on "Hey Eli Found some magic in one of the rooms I'm gonna get a closer look."