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Viatrix
Order Mauvian, Bonded to Encke

MOOD: Mournful
ACTION: Wondering if she can help

Looking at the ship that called itself the home of the robots hurt Viatrix's heart.

An actual spaceship. From space. That had traveled. Through space. And brought people to this place. In space. And the people were robots who had achieved something she had only dreamed was possible--

But the ship.

The ship had been through a lot.

She frowned as she approached slowly, afraid of too rapid of an approach simply offsetting its painfully delicate balance.

"Are you okay?" whispered she, as she inspected the technological carnage caused by no doubt attempts to fix it and attempts to repair themselves over the years. She was careful not to pick any of it up. She didn't know how this machine might have felt about that, even if it could notice her.

Viatrix couldn't help but to wonder if she could figure out a way to fix this marvel.

Maybe she could figure it out. If anyone could, certainly a Mauvian could...

Sessrumnir
Knight of Jupiter

MOOD: Has a bad feeling about this
ACTION: Inspecting the ship

He left the boys with Alastor and Lucasta. They weren’t so far away that he couldn’t turn around and help them if there was any danger, but at least this way he could try to figure out what was going on with these robots and this strange ship that seemed like it might be--

A horrible death trap that will pull them all into the vacuum of space as soon as it took off the ground (if it ever did).

"We're better off looking for some kind of escape pod," Sessrumnir offered. He could hear the Velencian talking to the Mauvian about the extensive damage and, well... it didn't look great. "If we can get to... anywhere else, we theoretically can use our magic to get us home. Mauvians should be able to enhance that ability, right?" he asked, looking from one and then to the other.

He scowled at the big heap of junk, and rubbed at his shoulder where his alliance starbird tattoo was hidden under his clothes. Sure, when he was younger he fantasized about what it would be like to pilot a spaceship.

Now…? He was happy on his boat. He crossed his arms as he stared up at the ship, but some of his thoughts were back with where he left the others.

Viatrix
Order Mauvian, Bonded to Encke

MOOD: Offended
ACTION: Chatting

The approach of someone else took her by surprise. She had walked over when she thought it was relatively quiet, and figured it would give her the maximum opportunity to observe the ship and see how she could help it. It didn't necessarily help that the person who approached her was a Velencian, and while she trusted Caedus just fine, all she could remember of the other Velencians was the pain their betrayal had caused Sailor Ran.

But Encke had spent many an hour assuring Viatrix that the other Velencians had seemed just as clueless as Caedus, and that she should give them a chance. Doubly so there was no point in fighting here, nor would she even want to, "To hear it may be permanently marooned here is upsetting. Considering we're stuck here anyway, I'd like to experiment with it if it will allow me. Maybe we can help them be spaceworthy again."

She mused, tapping her chin.

"I think restoring its communications though is a worthy goal. If we could get some messages out, maybe we can help ourselves and them too."

She stopped talking when they were approached by a knight, Jupitian by the look of his outfit. Her brows lifted in curiosity and then knit at the concept of simply taking from it and not helping it with an action that would help restore it.

And then a dark mirror court member showed up and suggested the same thing. She found herself looking up at all three of them, crossing her arms under her chest.

"So, both of you are suggesting stealing an escape pod from it and fleeing, if we can even find one, if it even has one. The ship is sentient. To steal from it without even attempting to restore it in return would be rude at best."

Vyn
Vanguard Corporal

MOOD: Patient-ish, for now, but confused, too.
ACTION: Responding to his companions. Examining the ship.

Vyn grew tense with every new approach. The Knight was unfamiliar to him, but did not appear hostile. The Senshi in black had been at the ship before, but she was not of the Negaverse and had given the Vanguard no trouble. Vyn forced himself to relax.

“I am Corporal Vyn,” he introduced himself after Sessrumnir. “My apologies. I do not understand your reference to… HAL.”

He assumed it must be an Earth thing, despite the Jovian symbols which adorned the Knight’s attire.

To the Mauvian (Viatrix), Vyn said, “Pardon my assumptions, but it seems to me that you must have led quite an idyllic life if you are more concerned with the perceived morality of what might be necessary for us to leave this planet than you are with leaving the planet itself. It is our survival that must take priority. Even if we had the means to repair the damage, we do not have the resources to survive here long enough to accomplish that.”

Privately, Vyn thought it was no wonder the White Moon had yet to win their war. They seemed too easily distracted from their goal.

“Neither the ship nor the robots have starseeds, thus they are not alive,” he continued. Nevermind that the man they saw when they arrived here was said to lack a starseed. Vyn did not know that he could trust the word of a Negaverse Senshi. “They operate in whatever ways their programming, or flaws in and damage to their programming, allows them to operate.”

Vyn paused to glance over the ship. The ramp was no longer extended to allow them inside. Perhaps it had degraded further in the hours since his last visit here.

He glanced toward the Senshi in black (Logos) and asked, “Did your explorations earlier yield any results?”

Viatrix
Order Mauvian, Bonded to Encke

MOOD: Still annoyed, but is feeling spoken over/overruled
ACTION: Chatting

This Sessrumnir tried to defend his statement, declaring that if there was an escape pod in the inside, that was likely a more feasible thing than trying to find a way to repair the entire hull. And she did understand that, especially because it was brought up that they didn't have necessarily have the resources for that. But his next point hit upon why she had a problem with it in the first place.

She held her tongue as much as she wanted to speak up right away, although to help clarify to Vyn, she noted, quietly, "An Earthan science fiction film about a space odyssey, HAL 9000 degrades and becomes a villain in the process."

Of course, then he accused her of being idyllic, and she held back a snarl. Nothing about this war they had been forced into was idyllic, but she knew what she was facing. She was facing something that was arguably unique in the universe. Living, mechanical, without starseed, and she didn't necessarily want to do anything to upset or offend that.

And then the dark mirror was backing them up, too, and she was feeling increasingly like it wouldn't matter what she said. What was going to be done was going to be done anyway.

But she would address the concept of mechanical sentience.

To Sessrumnir, she started, "Not very. Mechanical sentience is generally considered a dream even to Mauvians, not a reality, so the fact that these robots seem to have achieved that makes them a universal wonder. It's why I'm hesitant to do anything that may offend it. It's why I want to help it." And all of these robots, really...

And to Vyn, she added, "I'm not comfortable saying that these robots are not alive. They seem like they are functioning outside of their original programming, which implies that they've reached a level of consciousness that allows them to move to a point beyond it. And isn't being able to reason beyond our original instincts part of being alive?"

She shifted. "And I don't think putting rules of etiquette out of the window is to our benefit here when we are potentially being hosted by creatures we do not know the intentions of. Offending them may turn them to violence versus the parties they seem willing to hold now."

She bounced on her toes, an unconscious mimic of her bonded.

"All of this is to say that I do agree that we need a way out of here. Maybe there's something we can find that would not only benefit us, hopefully all of us, but also it as well. Before it degrades any further." She crossed her arms. "So where are you supposing we start?"

As an afterthought, she added, "Viatrix, by the way."

Vyn
Vanguard Corporal

MOOD: Nervous.
ACTION: Feeling a bit sick with dread again. Answering Logos. Attempting to speak with the Reasoner in order to gain entrance.

Quietly horrified, Vyn kept his mouth shut as Viatrix then Sessrumnir explained what the Knight meant by HAL.

The man who greeted them when they arrived implied this place was dangerous. Perhaps he meant their surroundings. So much rubble and debris was bound to pose problems for them as they explored. Buildings could cave in. Barricades could fall out of place. Any number of people could be harmed in the process.

But Vyn wasn’t willing to accept that was all there was to it. So far, they’d found no evidence of organic lifeforms, other than the buildings themselves, the ship, and their inorganic hosts, who couldn’t have sprung into existence on their own.

Which left some very nerve-wracking questions in need of answers.

Vyn swallowed down the sick feeling that rose into his throat. Viatrix did not make him feel as if he were being demeaned, not like his last encounter with a Mauvian, but he could not immediately warm up to her. Sessrumnir seemed… practical… but he was imposing even when his voice lacked an openly aggressive quality.

As before, Logos was an unknown — not a Senshi of the Negaverse, but not of the White Moon either. Chaos, of some sort. Vyn didn’t know what to make of her.

“The ship, the Reasoner,” he answered her, unsure which name or descriptor was more appropriate. “It wanted our help naming some sort of virtual creature. We tried to get more information out of it, but… it must have been malfunctioning.”

Even now, the disappointment ate at him.

Again, Vyn glanced over the ship. He searched for anything that might help them enter — some intact sensors or a manual release for the hatch.

“When we were here before, there was a ramp waiting for us, but… that appears to no longer be the case.”

Vyn made a cautious approach, inspecting the area where the ramp had been. He swallowed down his nerves and gazed upon the ship again. Its silhouette was no less haunting than before.

“Reasoner,” he tried, aware that he may be doing so in vain. “We’ve come to speak with you again. May we come in?”

Logos
Dark Mirror Super

MOOD: Determined
ACTION: Feeling more comfortable

So the ship had a name.

The Reasoner.

Names had meanings... what meaning did this name have? A puzzle within the larger puzzle of their purpose. Right alongside the question of the ship... The Reasoner... creating some kind of virtual creature. A companion? Like some kind of... extraterrestrial Tamagotchi? Why? What was the purpose?
The most simple was that it was simply lonely but... why then wait for them to show up? Was it all coincidence?

And then Vyn acted. Logos waited with her breath held for Vyn's simple question to be answered. Could it be? Could it really be as simple as that? Just as simple as asking and waiting for an answer? Logos hoped against hope that it was, but was not exactly surprised when they were all met with silence. She let out her held breath and turned back to the Valencian.

"I was worth a try," she offered in her best comforting voice.

It was, she knew, not very comforting.

"And you're right, Viatrix. These bots are a scientific wonder. I wish we had more time to spend studying and communicating with them. Maybe we can even convince a few to come with us." More vain hope, she knew, but she dared to hope all the same. "And Sessrumnir is also right. We don't have enough data to be making any assumptions about the bots. We don't have data period. they could simply be friendly bots who are incapable of violence. That being said I'm not suggestion that we be cruel. I'm merely stating that if it comes down to surviving and being polite, we should be choosing the former."

Even if Logos understood Viatrix unwillingness to suspect that the bots had not, in fact, achieve sentience. Sessrumnir was right. It did all seem so amazing and so impossible. Too much so to be true.

"There was a duct," Logos remembered suddenly. "In the bathroom. Air flow, I would suspect. It was too small for me to fit through, but there might be others? Larger ones? If we can find those and get in, then I'm studying to be a data security specialist in school. I can probably get around security walls and figure out at least where we are. Maybe get a little history."