Gizmo
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No sooner had the text been sent than Ryder approached again with the shark tattooed man in tow, along with a half dozen other people. "Hey, so I'm Soup," the bald roadie introduced himself, walking right up to Eira with a nod. "My man here says you know your way around custom work sound equipment?" "The Blood Tribute's second bassist's amp got dropped on the way onto the stage," Ryder explained, gesturing emphatically with his hands to indicate that they should all be taken aback by the news. One of the other roadies, a lantern jawed man about the same height as Pan but nearly as wide as that again covered his face in massive hands covered in spiderweb tattoos while the wiry redheaded woman in the glossy purple corset beside him patted his shoulder comfortingly. "But Soup and I talked to Kel--" The redhead raised her other hand in greeting. "And she said Pyroclasm brought almost the same model. But their frontman usually won't let anybody touch their stuff except Antoine here, right?" A roadie with huge spacers in his ears and straight black bangs covering both his eyes slumped his shoulders. "And I would but I just ended this thing with Liam - he plays in Necropotence and Bog Wraith, obviously - and... ugh, it's stupid, we said it was just going to be a casual thing right off the bat and--" "Antoine, bud, we just went over this. Having feelings does not make you stupid." The circle of roadies all nodded and murmured in agreement. Ryder turned back to his friends, hands still animated. "Liam is hooking up with Sepulchre from Blood Tribute - that's his sister Luanne with the drumsticks on stage, she's their drummer - so clearly that's a non-starter." "I need somebody to be @#$%in' Switzerland and just get stuff set up so everybody can deal with their feelings in a healthy way," explained Soup. "At the top of their lungs in front of a screaming audience, yeah?"
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"Oh wow, he just fully melted," Ryder observed from atop Super-Bee, watching Davyd's liquid descent. "Good for him!" He didn't know Corrine well enough even after spending time working together on Sanctuary to really know what was going on with her but he did make a couple mental notes about how her molecular structure seemed to be rearranging on the fly. "Man, that's neat stuff. Uprooting the conservation of mass and the second law of thermodynamics is like painting, y'know? Everybody's working with the same colours but it's always like, woah, what are they going to do with them? You know what I'm talking about!" he laughed, taking in Melissa and the great fuzzy being beneath him in a sweeping gesture. Moving forward enough that he could get a good look at the other giant bee he waved to get his attention. "Hey man! Brobee, yeah? I'm Ryder, super cool to meet you." He cupped his hands around his mouth to make sure his voice carried and nudged a reticent Yellow out from behind him to buzz about his shoulder. She seemed deeply unsure about how to interact with the titanic insects. "And this is Yellow! She's a little shy, don't take is personally, ha! Sounds like you've had a wild time, bud. Think you could zero in on where you saw that other guy show up?"
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Chitin Search check: 1d20+6 23 Ryder will also attempt to talk to the worker bee, himbo to himbo, to try to get some actually useful information about where they should be looking. Diplomacy check: 1d20+15 20
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Shawn had taken a few bites of his first burger, seemed to consider for a moment then removed the top bun and smeared some dark mustard across it with the back of a spoon. He guffawed at Natalia's question while reassembling it. "I think you're thinking of cops, kiddo. Do we seem like cops to you?" The notion seemed to amuse him greatly as he set back into his food. "It's not a superpower. Mostly we're all just very cute," Jenny offered with a wink so precisely calibrated it called her first assertion into immediate question. "Really, though, I guess the thing you're actually talking about, like talking people down or convincing them to go along with an idea? That's a skill, something you can practice." "I keep telling you, people are actually mostly okay!" Ryder told her with a shrug. "But they're used to thinking things are a zero-sum game, yeah? And that's not actually true at all. The only time things actually get significantly better for anybody is when people cooperate." "Not including the one percent, obviously," Shawn clarified as he nodded along to what his son was saying. "Parasites benefit by tricking people into forgetting about their collective strength." "Oh, sure. Eat the rich, no question. But still, mostly okay!"
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Notice check: 1d20+5 6 Ryder is distracted!
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"You might still be right!" Ryder called to Melissa, the Robug's gathered about him atop Super-Bee. "None of our textbooks at school seem to really agree on the difference between an alternate dimension and an alternate timeline, y'know? I guess it's kinda academic!" Encouraged by the giant bee's leisurely pace he clamoured to his feet and braced himself like he was riding a skateboard, arms outstretched on either side. "This is the best! We're going to get to see the hive and an analogue time machine! It sounded like he was talking about daka crystals for the power source, right? I've never gotten to play around with any of those before, this is going to be so freaking educational!"
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Ryder froze at the sound of Natalia's laugh, one thumb on the edge of his lower lip in the middle of wiping away a bit of berry sauce, eyes wide with a sort of surprise. There was a beat of silence broken by rattling cutlery as Jenny not-so-subtly kicked her brother's shin under the table. "'Horrifying glimpse' is a new one but I kinda like it." She proved to be a tidier eater than Ryder even with a burger in one hand and her can of iced coffee in the other but it was clear their family didn't stand on ceremony around the dinner table. "Yeah, no, you're right," Ryder hurriedly admitted after clearing his throat. "We've got pretty strong, uh, opinions. Principles? I dunno, it just feels weird to be too pretentious about it?" He bounced back quickly with a short laugh of his own. "And hey, my 'approach' hasn't let you down yet, right?"
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Ryder gave Natalia his most infuriatingly genuine grin. "That thing you're feeling right now? That sort of fluttery unsureness? That's optimism and a little bit of trust in your friends." He gave the group a thumbs up as he jogged backwards in the direction the roadie he'd bumped into had gone. "The vote of confidence seriously means a lot, won't let you down!" By contrast, Pan effectively vanished, blending into the crowd and flitting from one brief interaction to another so that at any given moment he seemed engaged and in his element. In truth he kept one eye on the individual Eira had pointed out. The Forever Boy recognized the layers of hard, lithe muscle that spoke to experience rather than aesthetics and the slightly sunken definition of survival rather than comfort. Likely in their early twenties, they kept one hand gripped securely around the strap of their backpack at all times. For a brief instant Pan made eye contact, casually as if in passing but deep enough to read a simmering intensity. Whoever they were they were at the festival on a mission and prepared to do violence.
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I'll assume that Eira in particular would have researched the festival ahead of time with Gather Information so she'd know that there are six bands playing tonight, each doing about a twenty minute set with ten minutes in-between, starting at 6:00 PM: Blood Tribute Mind Shatter Necropotence Bog Wraith Drown in the Loch Pyroclasm Knowledge [Pop Culture] tells Eira and Nat that all six of these bands are local to Freedom City. Drown in the Loch (DitL) is like the one Eira is most interested in since it's an all-female band, fronted by twin sisters with Atlantean heritage who go by Scylla and Charybdis on-stage, real names Sally and Charlotte MacInally. She can probably make the nautical leap that the big guy Ryder befriended was affiliated with them. Nat would note that Mind Shatter has the most notable social media presence with an aesthetic that's something like if four close-up magic performers formed a boy band. Notice tells Nat that although the show is meant to start any minute there are several roadies and festival organizers on stage inside the bandshell right now, with a mix of impatient and anxious expressions. Knowledge [Technology] tells Eira that there's nothing that looks too impressive or complicated about the setup for the show apart from a couple of higher end camera setups for live streaming the show. There is a real mix of audio equipment on stage of different qualities and ages which might be what's giving the roadies trouble. The drummer for Blood Tribue, a girl in her late teens with a strong nose and a sort of torn-up gothic lolita look is trying to thread the line between being helpful and not getting in the way, nervously twisting her drumsticks between her hands. Neither of them spot anyone who matches the description Ryder gave them of the person summoning the Ragin but it's not like she'd stand out in this crowd. With her Quickness I'll say Eira does notice someone else scanning the crowd as though looking for someone: they're androgynous, dark skinned, buzzed hair and have a distinctive X shaped scar on their jawline. Her Sense Motive tells her that this person is focused on their task and has no interest in the festival itself. Otherwise the crowd seems genuinely excited and friendly, with a couple older metalheads going around making sure the first timers are stay hydrated and one of the organizers, a tall blonde stone butch woman in a STAFF shirt making sure the mosh pit area is clearly defined.
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"I mean technically there's gyroscopes and magnets involved--" Ryder began, always happy to discuss engineering with anyone showing interest. He stopped short as Davyd launched into a bit of character acting. He'd gotten relatively accustomed to that sort of thing from the shapeshifter from working on school projects together but typically everyone at the table knew that he was doing a bit. Always one for theatrics Magenta hopped down from her perch and skittered over to the feet of the 'minotaur' and began mimicking his gestured with her curved forelimbs. "Hah, okay Dav that's pretty good but seriously--" He was interrupted again as Leon smirked his way through his disinterested cool guy routine. Ryder frowned slightly and Black chawed up the back of his overalls to peer over his shoulder, slowly shaking his horned beetle head in disapproval. "C'mon man, it's for sure brave! Professor Wainwright's obviously going through it right now, we can--" Melissa cheerfully related a bit of future-history about the university while Yellow buzzed about her with trepidatious curiosity, probably raising even more questions considering their guest had seen for a fact that his old institution was very much closed. "Oof, that is going to be kinda tough to explain, huh? Okay, right, uh..." Turning his head back and forth trying to decide where to start he followed Cyan's hopping trajectory over to Fleur. The Robug stopped near her feet and turned back to Ryder, bobbing up and down and waving his antennae back and forth with cheerful chirps. "Right! Good call, bud! Ms. Fluer, you've probably got like an orientation video or a brochure or something for this kind of thing, right? Maybe? I feel like we're maybe not helping as much as we'd like. Or at all. It's a lot."
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There were few Claremont students as well suited to the rough and tumble engineering of building computer infrastructure with whatever was conveniently on hand as Ryder Fujioka. The teenager’s seemingly bottomless well of energy and good cheer carried him through farm work and story time with children equally well and his experience with cooking and baking turned out to be an added bonus. The real reason he’d wanted to see Sanctuary for himself however brought him running out of the barn at the sound of massive wings, followed by his little swarm of Robugs. “Yes!” he cheered, pumping both fists in the air and taking off again at sprint after the giant bee. He was wearing a set of worn denim overalls and sensible work boots with a neon orange mesh shirt underneath and a spool of insulated cable wrapped around one shoulder. Yellow buzzed nervously around his head while Cyan kept pace with huge leaps, Magenta perched on his free shoulder and Black hung unconcernedly from his back. Ryder caught up to the group just in time for the moustachioed man to start crying out, distressed enough to pull the young inventor’s focus from Beeanca. “Well, ‘man-honey’ definitely isn’t a thing so you don’t have to worry about that, right?” He gave the panicking man a reassuring thumbs up before frowning slightly in thought. “Obviously you could try milking humans but it’d just be wildly inefficient. And what would the bees even do with the milk? I’m not trying to shoot you down or anything but I feel like you haven’t really thought this through.” Looking back at the man’s expression he winced. “Can we get you like a glass of water or...?”
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Let me get whatever rolls you each think are relevant to look for anything out of place, investigate for clues, etc.
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"But it's a public park...?" Ryder questioned Natalia's advice hesitantly. He turned at the sound of Pan's approaching voice while still stepping forward and immediately collided with another festival-goer. "Oof! Sorry, I--" He turned back around to apologize and had to crane his neck upward to find a face. The man had nearly two heads of height on Ryder with the difference occupied with a massive tawny beard. His shaved head had been almost completely covered in tattoos of stylized sharks and waves, giving the impression that the viewer was looking through a submarine porthole. A thematic fishhook hung from one earlobe while a weathered black tank top had been charged with covering his broad torso and been found sorely lacking. For a beat Ryder and the tattooed man made tense, silent eye contact. The teenager remembered his friends' advice and genuinely intended to act upon it. What came out instead was an enthusiastic, "Holy smokes, that is a great blue ink! Ultramarine?" The towering man blinked before responding to the dimpled grin with a big smile of his own, revealing teeth that had been filed slightly to sharper angles. "Nah man, Egyptian copper salts. Supposed to be healthier in the long run, yeah?" His voice was a bass rumble with a ragged edge but his body language softened as he took a half step back to make room for the small group. "Nice stud work on the jacket." "Thanks! My friend Nat did it! She's super good at crafts." The big man nodded sagely and gave Natalia a relaxed thumbs up with a fist roughly the size of her head. "Wicked. There's a pin and patch show set up over by the water tent, you should check it."
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Friday, June 4, 2021 5:56 PM Ryder would have been the first to admit that Shredded Beat, which billed itself as hopefully the first annual festival for local independent and amateur metal bands looking to break out, was a little outside his comfort zone. But Eira had insisted that this was the perfect place to stakeout the mysterious guitarist he and Danica had run into in later February and after a goat-like Ragin had wreaked havoc in the West End the month prior until a few of the Interceptors made short work of it she wanted to be there the next time one of the strange, musical demon constructs appeared. The upperclassman had told him to come dress appropriately but in typical fashion had considered the specifics of those instructions to be self-evident. Ryder had turned to the only fashion expert he knew who specialized in monochrome: Natalia. Which brought him to a milling crowd around the Liberty Park bandshell in a pair of black pants that hugged his legs like a second skin, a sleeveless t-shirt featuring a band name with lettering he couldn't begin to parse and a pre-owned leather jacket Natalia had studded across the shoulders with an insect wing design. He tugged one more time on his leather choker, fastened in front with a small padlock, before forcing his hands back down to his sides. He'd painted his nails an uncharacteristically sombre black and hoped that the sparkly top coat wasn't going to be an issue. He caught one of the other attendees giving him a side eye as they walked by and gave them a terse nod, trying to lower his register for a brusque, "Hey, how you doin'."
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"'Audience' implies I'd be performing for family! Now that sounds exhausting!" Shawn replied with a belly laugh, topping his own burgers with a mix of mushroom, zucchini and bell pepper he'd had simmering in a pan on the stove then sprinkling them with crushed nuts. "Different families have different dynamics, though," Ryder interjected quickly. He let slices of swiss cheese sit atop the patties on his plate long enough to begin to soften before covering them with slices of pineapple and some sort of stone fruit, followed by a deep violet drizzle that smelled of berries. "Do we have any green stuff left?" Jenny placed the requested glass of water down next to Natalia then rummaged around in the fridge, producing a pitcher with a thick, verdant smoothie. "Yeah, just remember to blend some more this time if you want it for the morning." She poured her brother a glass the set about layering pickles and jalapeño slices on her own burgers. "You get it, though," she told Natalia. "It's about the creating, not producing a product." "You're making us sound a lot more, like, philosophical than I think we actually are," Ryder snorted with a grin. He took a massive bite of his burger and gave their guest a sheepish shrug.
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Kimber had been floating a few centimetres above the surface of the pool in a reclined position and keeping half an eye on Avro as he tried to slowly, stealthily creep up on Baxter. As soon as Jessie burst out of the water she hurried over to her, keeping a little less than an arm length's alway and pointedly waiting for a sign that it would be acceptable to touch the startled woman. "Most folks dive into the pool, eh? That was a heckuva jump! Everything alright, hun?" She'd always gone out of her way not to pry too much into Jessie's past but like most of the castle's residents she had plenty of experience recognizing triggered trauma by now and there was a sort of unspoken agreement that the one who could be incorporeal should be the first to check on her in such a situation.
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"Eira," Ryder interrupted, his tone serious as he looked up from playing with Magenta. "I promise you - and I mean really, genuinely guarantee - that if you decide you seriously want to be a giant mechanical spider I will one hundred percent have your back both because I have strong beliefs about bodily autonomy and also because that sounds unspeakably friggin' rad." Standing back up he arched his back in a stretch. "I've got a couple bike designs on my phone, I'll send them to you! I want to run a simulation on how fast it could go before literally falling apart!"
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Ryder returned the smile with a broader one the crinkled the corners of his eyes. "I said what I said. But maybe that's just problems with the language again, huh?" He crouched down and raised his open palms like a boxing coach. Magenta raced over and began hopping up and striking out with her forelimbs to tag his hands, bobbing about and skittering back and forth to evade imaginary counterattacks. "Honestly? I'm kinda saving spiders. Arachnids in general! Never know when you might need to design a whole separate set of armours or whatever, can't use up all my thematic material in one go! Like, I was thinking about a motorcycle, yeah, only instead of two wheels there's a central tread and the tread is a centipede! I've got sketchbooks full of 'maybes', so we'll see."
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"Hah, I'm not really a knight or a superhero or any of that, though. I'm just one guy, like everybody else." Ryder raised both hands in front of himself and waved them quickly back and forth to brush away the assertion. "I never want to get into the habit of thinking I'm not allowed to make mistakes 'cause then I'd start thinking I can't make mistakes, probably? Like, you gotta be able to learn from an experiment, clean up the mess and apologize if you need to and listen to other people." He laced his fingers, pressed the heels of his palms together and placed his hands under his chin. "Making mistakes reminds us we're all human."
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Jenny barked a laugh at Natalia's quip while Ryder gave her a flat look and slid two burgers onto open faced crusty buns before handing her the plate. The patties had an unusual spiral pattern to them. "They're a little crumbly," Shawn warned as he sat down at the head of the table. "I'm experimenting with a spiral of beef and black bean! The seasoning's where I want it but the binding agent needs some iterating." "Drinks? Also who would that be for, Dad?" Jenny asked from the refrigerator, pulling out a can of iced coffee for herself. "Art dictates its audience, not the other way around," her father instead, emphasizing the point by pointing a sausage-like finger upward. "I suppose he gets that from me," he continued, turning to Natalia with a broad grin and familiar dimples, emphasized by his moustache. "I've always been the kind of man who sees the glass as half full and the empty space as an opportunity to try out new cocktail recipes!"
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"Ha, I think that's the first time anybody's been upset that I present as too masc, but I hear you," Ryder laughed lightly, lacing his fingers behind his head and looking up at the ceiling. "For the record I'd have still gotten my shorts in a knot if you were talking about Utsuwa's..." He paused for a moment and frowned. "Sword metaphor? I'm not great with euphemisms. When my sister came out the guys in gym class had a bunch of opinions about her body they thought they needed to share and y'know, I disagreed. But hey, no three day suspension this time, so I'm willing to call that personal growth!"
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"Not really, no," Ryder admitted without hesitation. He didn't seem particularly proud or defensive but nodded amicably to concede the point, leaving the bit about programmed feelings alone for the moment. "This'll probably sound like a line or whatever but I kinda forget how much that matters to most people? Well, no. That's not really right. It's more like I forget that it's the first thing most people think about, y'know? Not how I'm wired. Uh, so to speak." He let Magenta hop from his shoulder to his outstretched hand and then to the floor so she could scuttle about while they talked. "So it felt gross to imply I only like Nat because of her-- did you mean breasts specifically? I just kind of assumed but I guess, like, gravity well, curved space-time, it works for whatever." He sighed. "Anyway, I overreacted and I should have thought more about how it'd sound. Guess it's still a hot button thing for me."
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"You don't have to be self-deprecating, anyway," Ryder chimed in earnestly. He gestured with both hands as he spoke and perched atop his shoulder Magenta mimicked the motion. "Like, you know all kinds of tight tortoise facts so if there was something they were working on you were really interested in I think for sure you'd pick it up before you knew it!" He pumped a fist for emphasis and Magenta bobbed one of her curved forelimbs. "Haha, anyway! That reminds me, I wanted to ask Eira to explain part of the design to me before I get distracted by anything else. I'll catch up!" Once Voltage had guided Danica out of the room for a tour of the larger facilities he turned to the upperclassman and let out a long breath. "So I feel like I hurt your feelings earlier." It wasn't really a question.
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Shawn laughed again and followed her into the kitchen. "Well, if it's for science, how can I argue?" Ryder gave Natalia a small shrug while placing plates on the table. "Well y'know. Family stuff is sort of a lot for Utsuwa, Eira convinced herself that I'm trying to set her up with Jenny..." "Is this girl cute, too?" his sister asked innocently, making an exaggerated expression of consideration and setting a large bowl of mashed potatoes down. "Sure but so is her boyfriend." Ryder retrieved a sort of oversized charcuterie board piled with toppings that ranged from slices of tomato and onion to a wedges of fruit and unusual cheeses. He looked back to his classmate. "How many burgers did you want to start with?"
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"Oh captain, my captain!" Kimber snapped upright from her horizontal lounge and gave Eve a sharp salute. Her outline lost focus for a split second as though seen at the very edge of peripheral vision and her outfit was replaced by what might be described as a sailor's uniform in the same way a fashionable clutch might be described as luggage. Ruffles giving the faintest suggestion of a skirt sat on either hip of the bottoms while the striped top came together in a navy blue bow in front. A jaunty little hat sat atop her suddenly much tidier bun while she floated back down to hover just barely off of the floor to link arms with Tarva. "Allons-y!"
