The only external mechanism I'm aware of was one to shut the whole thing off. That's lost along with my world, though.
[And lost along with Alexei. Good riddance to it.] Real maintenance needs a knowledge of formulas, which I can't give ya. The rest takes care of itself, unless it were to get damaged. Luckily it's seen it's fair share of battles without getting messed up.
[ thankfully a remote shutoff function is something rideaux has never had to worry about since he's the only one who knows all the codes, but if bisley had been the one to develop the technology like raven's boss had, he imagines he probably would have set up something similar to keep an even firmer handle on him. ]
There would have to be some way of inputting those formulas, though, correct?
Sure there is. But again, I can't show ya it, because that's kinda the only thing a blastia pro can do.
[And if Alexei had taught him about how to use formulas or maintain his own blastia in the first place, well, that would involve handing over too much power when he wanted to keep him on a leash. Not that Raven cared -- at least not until recently.]
So, unless CERES are nice enough ta bring along some blastia instruction manual from Terca Lumireis, that's about all I can tell ya.
[ ugh... he may be a genius with this kind of thing, but it's still annoying having to work backwards from a finished product without any reference documents and when he can't exactly take it out to look at it in its entirety. ]
How do blastia generally work, then? You said this one was an outlier, but it must share some commonalities with other forms.
They're all used for different things, like I said. Water, generatin' barriers, combat... I could list 'em all off the top of my head, but maybe it's easier ta write down?
[He rummages through his pockets and pulls out his Cerevice even before Rideaux answers. They're pretty handy, all things considered.]
I guess the commonalities are that they all convert one form of energy into magic, even if the energy sources are different. And regardless of its original function, a lotta blastia can even be adapted ta use that magical energy as a weapon -- includin' mine.
All right, so the simplest weapon types, then, let's say -- how would you activate them? [ or maybe this is worth a shot... ] You don't happen to have any of those more ordinary ones here in this world, do you? That would certainly make this all a lot easier.
Those are bodhi blastia, and they can help the user use and learn different artes. [And assuming he doesn't know what artes are...] Y'know, magic, special attacks, stuff like that.
I know a couple of kids who might be willing ta loan me one of theirs, if ya like.
I know what artes are. [ he's not some non-jrpg philistine. ] And those sound similar to our Allium Orbs in that case.
If they actually have them with them, then yes, that would be ideal. If I can get a look at its inner workings to better understand the concepts behind the technology I should be able to apply that knowledge to yours as well.
[ maybe that sounds overly sure of himself, but this is the kind of thing he's famous for in his world, after all. ]
With that said, I don't think you have too much to worry about in the meantime as long as nothing feels off to you. There's no inflammation or anything that would indicate that they actually detached it from your skin and got inside to make any adjustments.
[ of course there hadn't been any outward sign that they'd gotten inside to switch rideaux's out either, but that replacement had been carried out before he even remembered waking up here, so those were likely special circumstances. ]
Then I'll see what I can do. No promises they'll be willin' to part with them, but if I explain the situation they might.
[They'd been committed to giving up blastia back home, and so anything happening to their blastia here wouldn't exactly be much different... Handy as they are to have around. To Rideaux's assessment, he nods.]
Yeah. Nothing feels off, and if it wasn't working right I'd probably know about it long before now. But better safe than sorry. [He buttons up his shirt again. The less Raven has to worry about his dumb heart, the better.] Oh -- and I mentioned I had two favours to ask ya, right?
[He produces a vial, and holds it up for Rideaux to see.] This is the second. It's something me and my group swiped on our little misadventure, but it ain't labelled aside from some code number. Ya think you could identify it for us?
i'm glad i'm the kind of tales garbage that immediately knows whose doujin that icon is from
Possibly. I should be able to identify the chemicals in it, at least, if not its specific effects, though that will have to wait until the next time I'm back in my lab.
[ he takes it carefully to get a closer look, but it doesn't help much. he doesn't know what the hell he's looking at. ]
Where did this "little misadventure" take place, anyway?
i'm a filthy tales novice and actually have no idea, I didn't make the icon pfft
Sure. How long d'you think it'll take ta analyse? There's this kid that'll rag on me if it takes too long.
[Ah, forever living the glamorous life of an errand runner, no matter the world. He can always tell said kid to hold his horses if he gets too impatient, though.]
Beats me. Some guy kidnapped us and threw us inta some kinda garbage storin' facility. [Raven's native habitat, in other words.] When we looked around, we found out it was joined onto some kinda abandoned underground lab.
lmfao WELL it's by amarans who does some good stuff if you're into yaoi...
Well, unless he wants to do the analysis himself, that kid can just hold his horses. [ at least they're on the same wavelength in one regard. ] Even if I were to go and start looking at it right now, it would be at least a day or two before I would expect to be able to draw any kind of meaningful conclusion.
[ and he is not going anywhere today, thank you. an underground lab sounds a little intriguing, though -- more so than the subway station he'd been in, anyway. ]
Hm. What kind of lab did it look like? And was this the only thing you found there that was of note, or did you choose one thing to bring back as a sample?
ahh gotcha! I haven't found many good resources for translated doujins yet, tbh
[Togami gave him a week, so it sounds like he won't have any grumpy rich kids biting his head off any time soon. To the question, he hums thoughtfully, thinking back on it. Again he doesn't have any reason not to tell Rideaux, when everyone stands to benefit from this kind of information.]
Ah, well... It was pretty derelict. I snooped around an old office and found some old accounting stuff. The others in my group found another room with an empty cage, where it sounds like they were doin' experiments on monsters whenever the place was in use. There were other rooms, but I haven't been able to get outta the little scamp that made it there about what she saw.
[She's not the most eloquent, for one, and he's not about to press an eleven-year-old girl to relive what are likely traumatic memories. Maybe later down the line it'll happen, but not anytime soon.]
After that I was in a bad way, so I'm a little fuzzy on the details, but we found a room with lotsa screens and machines. That was when the others found a bunch of vials like the one I just gave you. We figured we'd just get the one tested for now.
[And if this one is damaged or mysteriously goes missing, at least they won't have given them all away at once.]
[ a week might be cutting it close, honestly, given how little desire he has to go out like this, but we'll see. ]
So biological experiments, then. In that case, we can at least expect that it's intended to have some effect on organic matter.
[ he is curious about those other rooms... as far as he's concerned if they can't get the information out of the kid they're just not trying hard enough. there are more important things here than some little girl's feelings. besides, children are resilient -- he's certainly living proof of that. ]
I say "for now" 'cause we're not about ta just hand out all the samples at once. Y'know what they say about eggs and baskets.
[He still doesn't know much about Rideaux, so even paying him off isn't guarantee a lot of valuable stuff would be safe in one pair of hands, especially after the risks they took to get it in the first place. And even if Rideaux proves trustworthy, CERES could always decide they wanted to reclaim any of what was stolen by force.]
Maybe some other time we could go back down there... But it ain't worth it unless we had antidotes or a skilled healer around.
[ so had they brought back more than one, then? the eggs and baskets remark isn't necessarily the greatest vote of confidence, but it's fair. he never trusts anyone else either. ]
Of course. So you still know how to find it?
[ the exit his group had escaped from had disappeared as soon as they'd made it out, so he doesn't know how he could find it again if he wanted to.
he's also tempted to point out that he's a skilled healer, but thinks better of it -- it would hardly look convincing right now when he can't even fix his own broken limb. which is exceedingly frustrating, because back in elympios, he'd been publicly known for his skill at saving lives and treating injuries. now that he's here in this world where spyrix is useless, though, after all his talk about the superiority of elympion medical technology, healing arte users like ludger's rieze maxian friends have him beat. it's humiliating, and it really pisses him off.
[Raven would offer to try and help heal Rideaux's leg a little, but he's no Estelle, so the most it'd do would alleviate a little of the discomfort. And Rideaux seems like the proud, stubborn kind of guy who would rather just get by on his own than accept Raven's sweet, sweet arrows filled with love.
Oh well.]
Sure, unless CERES decided to block it off since then. [It's a guess, considering he never actually made it out himself.] Then again, if they have more of their little test subjects in there, they might decide those are a better deterrent for anyone who wants ta snoop.
Interesting, the exit we took seemed to disappear as soon as we were out.
[ he'd imagined it would have been the same for everyone who'd been in a similar situation -- like CERES had just been waiting for them to leave so they could patch up the exits and pretend it had never happened. it's a little curious, though, that they hadn't just transported everyone back out immediately if they didn't want them there. were those underground areas somehow out of their reach? ]
But all right, then. I'll work on analyzing this, and you work on getting me your friend's blastia. Does that sound good?
Sure thing. You want part of the payment now for all the bother, or how about I pay it all off when we're done?
[Neither of them really know just how long either job will take, when both are big question marks, so Raven is wondering if maybe it's better to wait and pay according to that. The blastia in particular is likely to take some serious work, moreso than identifying the sample.
But then, Rideaux's payment preferences might be a little different to how guilds back home strike deals, so he's willing to go with whatever he's happy with.]
Afterward is fine, so we can more accurately calculate the true costs and the value of the results. With that said, though, you wouldn't object to signing a little something agreeing to pay when the research is completed, right?
[ this is his payment preference -- bleeding people dry once he's already performed his services for them so that they can't decide to take their business somewhere less expensive. though in this case, he doesn't have any intention of charging anything too exorbitant. bisley isn't directing him to intentionally trap anyone in debt this time, obviously, and studying the blastia aligns with his own interests enough that he doesn't want to drive away the person who can give him access to it.
anyway, who knows if a piece of paper like that would actually be considered legally binding here, but he can sure give it a try. ]
Ah, I already miss the days when a guild member could be taken at their word.
[He says it like it's been years already, when he's only been around these parts for a few weeks. But it's still a huge difference, when he's used to relying on the honour of the guilds and the Union in doing business. Especially right at the top in Altosk.
He expected something like this, though, so he won't be too offended. Raven shrugs.]
So long as ya put nothin' objectionable in the fine print, then sure. [He's not that desperate. If Rideaux is angling to bleed him dry, he'd sooner just take his chances with CERES or find someone else.]
[ for all the similarities in their technology, their worlds are very different when it comes to this sort of thing. he lives in a world of corporate lawyers and debt collectors. accepting a verbal contract on the basis of honor is something few people in elympios would be naive enough to do these days.
he takes a pen and prescription pad from the end table beside him and starts to write: With my signature I acknowledge that I have entered into a binding agreement with Rideaux Zek Rugievit. In exchange for professional analysis of a chemical sample I agree to reimburse his services at a reasonable and customary hourly rate, yet to be determined.
at some point before finishing though, there's a slight pause, and his pen briefly stops moving. ]
Out of curiosity, what side effects do blastia have on their users?
[Raven waits patiently while he writes, polishing off the last of his drink. It wasn't bad compensation, for having to air out all his dirty laundry to a stranger like this. He sets down the empty glass before responding.]
Normally they're harmless, so long as ya don't fool around with 'em. [Which goes without saying, like working with any kind of delicate equipment...] I guess the only thing I could think of is if ya used too many artes, then you'd get tired out real fast, even without a blastia like mine.
And with one like yours, there's no persistent pain associated with it, or anything like that?
[ the daily cocktail of drugs he's been taking to manage his own pain for more than a decade has done enough damage to his remaining organs by this point that he doesn't know how much good it would do him to consider the possibility of using a different technology now. but it's still tempting to try, if he can figure out how to do it. ]
Ah, well... [He hesitates. Even to Yuri he wouldn't talk about this kind of thing, at least to avoid causing more worry than he already does, so this is the first time he's ever been asked. Still--] It ain't comfortable at the best of times, but I'm used to that. It's only when I strain it too much that it hurts.
[In other words, it's nothing too debilitating that he can't go about his everyday life unaided, unlike Rideaux. He just has less by way of stamina.]
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[And lost along with Alexei. Good riddance to it.] Real maintenance needs a knowledge of formulas, which I can't give ya. The rest takes care of itself, unless it were to get damaged. Luckily it's seen it's fair share of battles without getting messed up.
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There would have to be some way of inputting those formulas, though, correct?
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[And if Alexei had taught him about how to use formulas or maintain his own blastia in the first place, well, that would involve handing over too much power when he wanted to keep him on a leash. Not that Raven cared -- at least not until recently.]
So, unless CERES are nice enough ta bring along some blastia instruction manual from Terca Lumireis, that's about all I can tell ya.
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How do blastia generally work, then? You said this one was an outlier, but it must share some commonalities with other forms.
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[He rummages through his pockets and pulls out his Cerevice even before Rideaux answers. They're pretty handy, all things considered.]
I guess the commonalities are that they all convert one form of energy into magic, even if the energy sources are different. And regardless of its original function, a lotta blastia can even be adapted ta use that magical energy as a weapon -- includin' mine.
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I know a couple of kids who might be willing ta loan me one of theirs, if ya like.
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If they actually have them with them, then yes, that would be ideal. If I can get a look at its inner workings to better understand the concepts behind the technology I should be able to apply that knowledge to yours as well.
[ maybe that sounds overly sure of himself, but this is the kind of thing he's famous for in his world, after all. ]
With that said, I don't think you have too much to worry about in the meantime as long as nothing feels off to you. There's no inflammation or anything that would indicate that they actually detached it from your skin and got inside to make any adjustments.
[ of course there hadn't been any outward sign that they'd gotten inside to switch rideaux's out either, but that replacement had been carried out before he even remembered waking up here, so those were likely special circumstances. ]
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[They'd been committed to giving up blastia back home, and so anything happening to their blastia here wouldn't exactly be much different... Handy as they are to have around. To Rideaux's assessment, he nods.]
Yeah. Nothing feels off, and if it wasn't working right I'd probably know about it long before now. But better safe than sorry. [He buttons up his shirt again. The less Raven has to worry about his dumb heart, the better.] Oh -- and I mentioned I had two favours to ask ya, right?
[He produces a vial, and holds it up for Rideaux to see.] This is the second. It's something me and my group swiped on our little misadventure, but it ain't labelled aside from some code number. Ya think you could identify it for us?
i'm glad i'm the kind of tales garbage that immediately knows whose doujin that icon is from
Possibly. I should be able to identify the chemicals in it, at least, if not its specific effects, though that will have to wait until the next time I'm back in my lab.
[ he takes it carefully to get a closer look, but it doesn't help much. he doesn't know what the hell he's looking at. ]
Where did this "little misadventure" take place, anyway?
i'm a filthy tales novice and actually have no idea, I didn't make the icon pfft
[Ah, forever living the glamorous life of an errand runner, no matter the world. He can always tell said kid to hold his horses if he gets too impatient, though.]
Beats me. Some guy kidnapped us and threw us inta some kinda garbage storin' facility. [Raven's native habitat, in other words.] When we looked around, we found out it was joined onto some kinda abandoned underground lab.
lmfao WELL it's by amarans who does some good stuff if you're into yaoi...
[ and he is not going anywhere today, thank you. an underground lab sounds a little intriguing, though -- more so than the subway station he'd been in, anyway. ]
Hm. What kind of lab did it look like? And was this the only thing you found there that was of note, or did you choose one thing to bring back as a sample?
ahh gotcha! I haven't found many good resources for translated doujins yet, tbh
[Togami gave him a week, so it sounds like he won't have any grumpy rich kids biting his head off any time soon. To the question, he hums thoughtfully, thinking back on it. Again he doesn't have any reason not to tell Rideaux, when everyone stands to benefit from this kind of information.]
Ah, well... It was pretty derelict. I snooped around an old office and found some old accounting stuff. The others in my group found another room with an empty cage, where it sounds like they were doin' experiments on monsters whenever the place was in use. There were other rooms, but I haven't been able to get outta the little scamp that made it there about what she saw.
[She's not the most eloquent, for one, and he's not about to press an eleven-year-old girl to relive what are likely traumatic memories. Maybe later down the line it'll happen, but not anytime soon.]
After that I was in a bad way, so I'm a little fuzzy on the details, but we found a room with lotsa screens and machines. That was when the others found a bunch of vials like the one I just gave you. We figured we'd just get the one tested for now.
[And if this one is damaged or mysteriously goes missing, at least they won't have given them all away at once.]
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So biological experiments, then. In that case, we can at least expect that it's intended to have some effect on organic matter.
[ he is curious about those other rooms... as far as he's concerned if they can't get the information out of the kid they're just not trying hard enough. there are more important things here than some little girl's feelings. besides, children are resilient -- he's certainly living proof of that. ]
You say "for now" like you have plans to go back.
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[He still doesn't know much about Rideaux, so even paying him off isn't guarantee a lot of valuable stuff would be safe in one pair of hands, especially after the risks they took to get it in the first place. And even if Rideaux proves trustworthy, CERES could always decide they wanted to reclaim any of what was stolen by force.]
Maybe some other time we could go back down there... But it ain't worth it unless we had antidotes or a skilled healer around.
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Of course. So you still know how to find it?
[ the exit his group had escaped from had disappeared as soon as they'd made it out, so he doesn't know how he could find it again if he wanted to.
he's also tempted to point out that he's a skilled healer, but thinks better of it -- it would hardly look convincing right now when he can't even fix his own broken limb. which is exceedingly frustrating, because back in elympios, he'd been publicly known for his skill at saving lives and treating injuries. now that he's here in this world where spyrix is useless, though, after all his talk about the superiority of elympion medical technology, healing arte users like ludger's rieze maxian friends have him beat. it's humiliating, and it really pisses him off.
he takes another drink. ]
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Oh well.]
Sure, unless CERES decided to block it off since then. [It's a guess, considering he never actually made it out himself.] Then again, if they have more of their little test subjects in there, they might decide those are a better deterrent for anyone who wants ta snoop.
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[ he'd imagined it would have been the same for everyone who'd been in a similar situation -- like CERES had just been waiting for them to leave so they could patch up the exits and pretend it had never happened. it's a little curious, though, that they hadn't just transported everyone back out immediately if they didn't want them there. were those underground areas somehow out of their reach? ]
But all right, then. I'll work on analyzing this, and you work on getting me your friend's blastia. Does that sound good?
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[Neither of them really know just how long either job will take, when both are big question marks, so Raven is wondering if maybe it's better to wait and pay according to that. The blastia in particular is likely to take some serious work, moreso than identifying the sample.
But then, Rideaux's payment preferences might be a little different to how guilds back home strike deals, so he's willing to go with whatever he's happy with.]
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[ this is his payment preference -- bleeding people dry once he's already performed his services for them so that they can't decide to take their business somewhere less expensive. though in this case, he doesn't have any intention of charging anything too exorbitant. bisley isn't directing him to intentionally trap anyone in debt this time, obviously, and studying the blastia aligns with his own interests enough that he doesn't want to drive away the person who can give him access to it.
anyway, who knows if a piece of paper like that would actually be considered legally binding here, but he can sure give it a try. ]
Nothing personal.
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[He says it like it's been years already, when he's only been around these parts for a few weeks. But it's still a huge difference, when he's used to relying on the honour of the guilds and the Union in doing business. Especially right at the top in Altosk.
He expected something like this, though, so he won't be too offended. Raven shrugs.]
So long as ya put nothin' objectionable in the fine print, then sure. [He's not that desperate. If Rideaux is angling to bleed him dry, he'd sooner just take his chances with CERES or find someone else.]
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[ for all the similarities in their technology, their worlds are very different when it comes to this sort of thing. he lives in a world of corporate lawyers and debt collectors. accepting a verbal contract on the basis of honor is something few people in elympios would be naive enough to do these days.
he takes a pen and prescription pad from the end table beside him and starts to write: With my signature I acknowledge that I have entered into a binding agreement with Rideaux Zek Rugievit. In exchange for professional analysis of a chemical sample I agree to reimburse his services at a reasonable and customary hourly rate, yet to be determined.
at some point before finishing though, there's a slight pause, and his pen briefly stops moving. ]
Out of curiosity, what side effects do blastia have on their users?
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Normally they're harmless, so long as ya don't fool around with 'em. [Which goes without saying, like working with any kind of delicate equipment...] I guess the only thing I could think of is if ya used too many artes, then you'd get tired out real fast, even without a blastia like mine.
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[ the daily cocktail of drugs he's been taking to manage his own pain for more than a decade has done enough damage to his remaining organs by this point that he doesn't know how much good it would do him to consider the possibility of using a different technology now. but it's still tempting to try, if he can figure out how to do it. ]
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[In other words, it's nothing too debilitating that he can't go about his everyday life unaided, unlike Rideaux. He just has less by way of stamina.]
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