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

[brodakota]

No problem, although you don't really need an invitation I guess. It's an open world.

[shadearchivist]

Still, it's your home.

[Ienzo looks out the window.]

It's strange to think of those stars as something other than worlds.

[brodakota]

[North can't disagree with that statement.]

Yeah, those are just regular stars as far as I know. They're a long way away.

[shadearchivist]

That's vaguely unsettling.

[Ienzo turns away from the window. It doesn't seem right that the stars should be so alien.]

[brodakota]

I guess if you're used to them being worlds. There aren't a lot of windows in the rest of the ship, so I guess I can start showing you around.

[It's the best he can think of to avoid any more unsettling.]

[shadearchivist]

I'm sorry, I'm being troublesome and this is your home. It must be a comfort to see a familiar sky.

[How terrible it must be to look up at the stars in Twilight Town, for North.]

[brodakota]

Don't worry about it. I know it's a bit different from what you're used to.

But it is nice to be home. I did kind of miss looking out into space, sometimes. We weren't up here all that often.

[shadearchivist]

How extensive is this world - ship - compared to what exists in the waking world?

[brodakota]

It's pretty much the same compared to what it was in waking world, and it's obviously only a very small part of what I'd consider my whole world.

[If he were to include planets and colonies and all of that.]

I'd rattle off the specs, but that might not mean much.

[shadearchivist]

If there is no exterior to the ship, I suppose not.

[Ienzo notes the leaderboard; that was an interesting innovation.]

[brodakota]

From what I can gather, we're just floating in space. There doesn't seem to be any planets around or anything.

[shadearchivist]

Should there be?

[He'd be quite interested to see what planets look like here, actually, but it seems as if that isn't meant to be. And really, he's holding up their progress with his questions, isn't he?]

[brodakota]

Yes and no? There's a lot of space between planets, so we'd really only see one if we were close to it.

[North doesn't mind, although he's not sure he's smart enough to provide decent answers.]

[shadearchivist]

Well, if it's alright, shall we begin the tour?

[Maybe North will explain the leaderboard. Clearly it's a ranking system, but North doesn't seem to be particularly high on it; surprising, given his competence and friendly manner. It might be worth finding out what metric they used.]

[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.

[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.]

[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]

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.

[brodakota]

It also hits pretty hard to.

Are you alright?

[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.