8. [Video/action]

[brodakota]

[Of all the Freelancers here, North is probably the happiest to see the Mother of Invention. For all intents and purposes, it's home for him, and after a few months of technicolour monsters and other weird goings-on, it's nice to see something familiar, dream world or not. He spends some time on the bridge, before heading out into the ship, seeing all the familiar places. Mess hall's still intact, and it looks like the common room is as well, with it's lousy selection of books. The training floor hasn't changed, and it's nice to see that his name is still where it should be on the Leaderboard. As troublesome as it is, he is number five and takes a decent amount of pride in that. They don't spend a lot of time there, taking out the nightmares quickly before moving on. It still brings back a few unpleasant memories.

Theta's been pretty quiet throughout the whole journey, but he skates alongside North's head, equally glad for the familiarity. The last time either of them saw this place had been in a dream, so the, somewhat real thing is good to have, and North lets his hand trace the wall. He rounds a familiar corner, and heads to a familiar room.

His barrack is pretty much how he left it. Bed, table, locker, all the comforts of home. He sits down on the bed. Home sweet home. After a few moments, he turns on the communicator.]

I was just thinking that anyone exploring this place might want to avoid the barracks, or at least rooms 1115 and 1116. 1115's mine, and 1116 is my sister's. If she shows up here, I don't think she'd approve of anyone going through her stuff, dream world or not.

[Private text to Xion]

I guess I can actually give you a tour of my world now, if you want it? Unfortunately there's not a lot of places for ice cream.

Comments

[Video]

[guerriera]

Be sure to let me know if you see anything interesting while you're over there.

[Don't worry, Carolina.

There's an odd pause, before her chin tilts.]

Don't give me reason to and I won't.

[Video]

[brodakota]

I will, on both counts.

Believe me. I've learned my lesson on that second one.

[brodakota]

If you want. As you've seen, this is the bridge. It's where most of the ship is controlled from, at least in terms of weapons systems and actual piloting.

[skysmirror]

[Xion nods and follows.]

So you and York and Washington all lived here? Were you the only ones?

[shadearchivist]

[Ienzo looked around. Five to ten people to operate here? Unless they had a program running it, which would cut down on the need for live personnel.]

There must be a shield to protect it, then.

[Unless the viewscreen was much stronger than it looked, which was possible.]

[brodakota]

If by shield you mean reinforced glass and metal, sure. It's built to withstand heavy combat.

[North moves to leave the bridge. There's only so much useful information he can provide here.]

[brodakota]

[North laughs.]

No way. Three guys on a ship this big? That'd be crazy.

There were a whole bunch of us Agents, along with other staff and personal, like medics and engineers and people like that.

[skysmirror]

[Hey, for most of Xion's existance it was her and seven others sharing a big castle, okay? She does smile sheepishly at the correction.]

I guess so. How many people were there?

[shadearchivist]

[Ienzo heads after him into the hallway. The design seems fairly compartmentalized; probably there were the same dangers in their space, so the ship had to be able to function in parts.]

[brodakota]

[North has think on that for a while.]

I'd say well over a hundred, counting all of the staff. There's forty-nine agents though, if you include Wash, York, and I.

[brodakota]

It's like I told Xion, there's not a lot to see, but I can show you some of the rooms we used. The briefing room's over here.

[revenancenpcs]

[Neither of you sees anything, but Ienzo hears a strange snarling and growling. In the same moment, North and any dream eaters he has with him are assaulted and knocked out cold, badly injured.]

[shadearchivist]

What was - North!

[Ienzo bends over North and casts curaga on North and the dream eaters. Hopefully that will be enough to bring him around, though esuna might be necessary. He keeps a wary eye on the hallway; he had heard something but seen nothing. Shields? Illusions? Either was possible.]

[brodakota]

[It takes North a few minutes to regain consciousness. He's a little rattled, but tries to sit up anyway.]

What the hell just happened?

[shadearchivist]

I heard a growling sound and then you were quite suddenly battered and unconscious. Whatever it was had to have been invisible or using an illusion given that neither of us noticed anything.

[skysmirror]

[So more people than Xion had met in her life had lived on this ship.]

That many? And it was big enough for everyone? How did you get food up here?

[So many questions.]

[brodakota]

It also hits pretty hard to.

Are you alright?

[brodakota]

We've barely seen any of the ship. Trust me, this thing is huge.

As for food, we mostly had MREs and pre-packaged stuff. Occasionally you got shipments of fresh fruit and stuff like that to break up the monotony.

[skysmirror]

I guess so.

[From what Xion has seen, it looks huge.]

MREs? Were those any good?

[They don't sound like it.]

[shadearchivist]

[Ienzo nods, breathing a sigh of relief that North seems to be well and lucid.]

Apparently it bypassed me in favor of doing serious damage to you. Perhaps we should leave.

[brodakota]

I guess I must have made it mad somehow then.

[He tries to stand, still a little shakey.]

Do you think it will come back? Seems a bit of a shame to cut the tour short.

[shadearchivist]

If you're content to move ahead with the tour, by all means, we can continue. I will monitor for activity, though if it's something originating in this world, I might not be able to sense anything.

[That was the trouble with non-magical technology. Clearly it was time to speak to Even about that. North would have been in serious danger if Ienzo hadn't been here.]

[brodakota]

Let's keep going and hope that it doesn't come back. I'll set my motion trackers as well.

If it attacks again, we'll turn back.

[Thankfully he is not without Theta.]

[shadearchivist]

[Ienzo nods. If North feels confident to continue, he won't gainsay him, despite his worries.]

You were speaking about the briefing room.

[brodakota]

[That curaga really helped. North's definitely going to have to ask about that one.

He manages to stand, glad that Theta's already set the motion trackers.]

Right, it's just over here.

[He leads Ienzo to a smaller room, with computers and a table inside. The leaderboard is also present as usual.]