Grumble, grumble.

Ailith visibly tensed as everything was going on, only relaxing - barely - when everything had been calm for a good minute. And as she did, her eyes drifted towards the Winter button, wondering what it would have done.

On second thought... Considering that it had been the one she had been intending to touch, maybe it was for the best that she didn't know.

“Alright...” She glanced at the two drones, “Thanks. So... This one,” she pointed at the button marked door, “Then we go see what's behind that door Foot wanted opened?”

In reply to Ailith (msg # 828):

There's a pause.  Then lots of clunking noises.  Like heavy metalic things are being dragged across something metalic.

Then there's a room rattling THUNK.

And that door slightly swings open.  Slightly.  It's heavy as all get out.  So it takes you a moment to push it open wide enough to peer through.

There's a large chamber beyond.  It's almost all white.  And it's kind of steamy.  Like someone was boiling a lot of water in here a moment ago.  Though you don't see any pans or fires or anything.

The only feature of the room is a pedestal.  On top of it is a crystal about the size of your fist.  And the crystal glows.  Very shiny.  Enticingly so.

Uh, mumbled Ailith. She may have had her head tucked in her neck as she did too, but obviously it couldn't be because she was worried something was going to fall on her head, or worse.

And she absolutely did not jump with that loud noise, not at all…

But, once reasonably sure that everything that wanted to move had finished doing so, she finally looked around, then focused on the door. “Well… I guess that's it?”

Once she finally managed to move the door completely out of the way, Ailith took in the steamy atmosphere of the room. Which… well, it sort of made sense if there had just been a fire…even though she couldn't see many - or any, really - traces of it.

Soon enough of course, she focused on the crystal. And she looked at it suuuuuuper suspiciously. “So,” she glanced at Foot and Hammer, “Am I supposed to be touching this, and will anything else go up in flames if I do?”

In reply to Ailith (msg # 830):

Hammer squonks at you.  Foot does too.

They are nothing but helpful, aren't they?

The crystal seems to beckon you closer.

There are sigils cut on to the post it's resting on.  You can discern some of them.

Walk

Run

Fall Over

That odd feeling you get when you've eaten bad ro'zuk zuk eggs

And a fourth symbol which looks like...well.  Hammer and Foot.

I guess the drone one is the fifth one, not the fourth?

Ailith growled once more, though this time she was slightly less annoyed than previously. Probably because there wasn't the same urgency as previously and she felt she at least had some time to make her decision.

“Alright,” she muttered, “I don't want to fall over, obviously.” on the other hand, something she Would have guessed to stop the fire would have done… Well, something else entirely.

“And I for sure don't want to get like that.” she said, pointing at the last option. “There's no way this can be anything good.” Which left two options.

“So…” she glanced at the two drones once more. “If I push that one,” she pointed at the one with the drones, “Are you going to be replaced by drones who can talk to me and actually help?” Which… well, Ailith lifted a hand and grimaced, “Sorry, that was uncalled for.” Even though…

On the other hand, it might give her another drone, who was likely going to argue with the first two instead of actually help. “Anyway, I guess that only leaves those two.” At that point, Ailith didn't hesitate for long. “Walk before you run, I guess.”

At that, she pressed the walk button.

In reply to Ailith (msg # 832):

Yes O Smarty Pants.  It's the fifth one.

Hammer and Foot squonk.  Indignantly.  Which you didn't know they could do, but apparently, yeah.  Indignant squonks are a thing.

You reach forward and press down on Walk

Nothing happens.

And then the room starts to shake.


No.  Not just the room.  The whole...whatever this place is...a building?..starts to shake.

Ailith!  Llewelyn's voice suddenly comes out of the air overhead.

Where are you?  What did you just do?  I think you started the hen-jen.  Hen-jen are dangerous.  Can you hear me?

“An hen-jen?” asked Ailith a bit incredulously, “How can an hen-whatever be dangerous?” she muttered. Louder, she added, “I can hear you yes. Not touching the hen-jen then. Oh, can you bring Coq here?” maybe he'd be able to understand more than she did.

She then turned to Foot and Hammer, “You know I don't understand you at all, and no matter how much you squonks it won't change anything.” she paused, frowning at that. “Actually… Why don't you squonk once for no, and twice for yes, all right?”

“So…” she asked after a question, “Should I touch that one then?” she pointed at the drone-like button.

In reply to Ailith (msg # 834):

Hello?  Damn.  You must not be near a eye k a fon. Okay.  We'll come find you.

Seems like Llewelyn couldn't hear you.

Both Hammer and Foot squonk once.  Long and  loud.  Once.  No.

YOu should have thought of this ages ago.

Ailith grumbled, knocking her forehead, a bit annoyed she hadn’t thought to ask things like that before. On the other hand, well… Ha, anyway. Rolling her eyes, she muttered. “Fine, fine, not that button.”

“This one then?” She pointed at the 'falling over' one, then at the odds-eggs-feeling one, though she really sounded very doubtful. “Unless I’m supposed to go somewhere else? _{Not supposed to move though I guess, Llewelyn would be annoyed…}”

In reply to Ailith (msg # 836):

Hammer says yes at the Falling Over  Foot says no


They both give you a YES...at the odd-egg feeling one.

“Are you sure?” she asked suspiciously. She would have expected to be told to push the falling over but not the rotten thing. “Oh, and I hate when you don’t agree and I don’t know why…”

Shaking her head, Ailith considered the buttons some more - cocked her head to the side to see if she heard Llewelyn, giving him a chance to get there - but finally with a shrug, she pushed the weird-egg one. While muttering, “_{This had better not be a joke.}”

In reply to Ailith (msg # 838):

AND EVERYTHING EXPLODES IN FIREY DEATH!!!!!

Or not.

The shaking stops.  The lighting in the room suddenly turns blue.

Foot and Hammer seem to be bumping into each other, squonking joyously.

The door opens and Llewelyn, supported by Coq.

Llewelyn glances around.  His "bird" squeaks.

How did you know to jeddy sun tho eggs host?  We were in trouble.  Good job

“_{What does everyone has with funny eggs?}” Ailith mumbled under her breath, before shaking her head and pointing at Foot and Hammer. “It was their idea. They agreed about that one. They also agree about this one,” she pointed at the drone-like one, “but to say that I don’t want to touch it. And,” she pointed at the last, about falling over, “they disagree about that one, but I’ve no idea why.”

The young apprentice turned to Coq, “Do you have any idea what it does?”

In reply to Ailith (msg # 840):

Coq peers at the symbols.  "That...egg one.  It's not egg.  It's...uhm.  Tired maybe?"

"I think the closest you can get in your language would be...uh..."waste".  This room is...I think...this ship's power.  It what makes the ship move and work.  I am guessing that the power...new word... Injun say it with me.  The injun got broken because it hasn't been used in a while.  Maybe.  This is a guess.

"What you did was to tell the ship to throw out it's waste.  Which was probably stacking up.  If an injun's waste gets too...high...it can make serious trouble."

He peers at the icon related to Hammer and Foot.

"This is another guess but that must make Hammer and Foot...uh...wake up or sleep.  I bet if you touched it, they would go to sleep."

“An injun?” Ailith faithfully repeated. “Hmm, alright.” she then added once Llewelyn was done explaining about what it was and how her touching that icon had been good. Which didn’t prevent her from muttering “_{Stupid egg.}”

“Oh.” was all she commented about the drone one. “I guess it makes sense why they didn’t want me to touch that one then.” she squinted playfully at the two, but didn’t add anything.

Instead, she pointed at the one Foot and Hammer didn’t agree about. “So, what about that one? Any idea Coq?”

In reply to Ailith (msg # 842):

Coq shrugs.  "Falling over?"

Llewelyn's bird squawks.  He looks at it, touches it, and mutters something to himself you can't hear.  Then he says out loud, "Falling Over" might mean...uhm..."Clear the Table".  I think.  I'm not an <blue>injun ear</blu> But it's kinda like...oh.  This one is hard to explain.  It might have been like telling the ship to stop moving but not do everything needed to be done to stop moving.  But that's a guess."

Llewelyn seems to look at Foot and Hammer with renewed interest.  Bit surprising they disagreed about something.  Usually, things like Hammer and Foot think about things in a certain consistent way.  It's odd they disagreed.  Do they do that often?"

“That’s what I got too, but…” Ailith shrugged, “Somehow I doubt it’s anywhere near close to the real thing.”

Ailith shrugged, then tilting her head, took a moment to think about Llewelyn’s question. “I don’t know about often, you know Foot usually stays with Master Matah, it’s not like there have been all that many occasions for them to disagree on anything, at least in front of me. But…” She shrugged, “It has happened yes. Why would they always think the same thing? It’d be boring…”

“_{But convenient…}”

In reply to Ailith (msg # 844):

Llewelyn continues to study them a moment.  They seem to study him back and make low squonks to each other as they do.

They also seem to communicate verbally.  Those...squonks...

He seems to consider something than shrugs.

Hammer and Foot are like my bird.  They are...built instead of born I guess is one way to put it.  But my bird doesn't have a personality like they do.  And it doesn't have...it can't think for itself. It can only think as far as doing what I ask it to do.

These guys...they seem more like people than...built things.

Do you think of them as people? Or maybe animals?

“Well… Yes?” Ailith seemed to not exactly understand why she would not think of them like that. “I mean…” She waved vaguely in the two drones direction as if it explained everything.

“The only problem is that I don’t understand their 'squonks' - or most of them at least - at all. Most of the time it’s not that much of an issue, but…” She grunted, pointing at the falling over button “Well…”

After a couple of seconds, she added, “That’s also why I told you to ask them before you tried to open them before you know.”

In reply to Ailith (msg # 846):

Llewelyn shrugs.  I can't understand them either.  Or at least not as we are now.  I think I can work it so we can communicate.  But...

He seems to think.

If I can't...work on one of them...would you mind if I tried working on the ship here?  Maybe I can find some kind of...uh...scroll library...that would answer some quesitons.

That elicits a long and loud series of angry sounding squonks from both Hammer and Foot.

Llewelyn sighs.  It's up to you.  They'll do as you say.  Honestly, if you want answers, this is the only way I can think to find them.  Not just about Hammer and Foot.  But about...a lot of things.

Ailith considered Llewelyn for a moment. “Does it really matter if they’ll do as I say? I certainly don’t know enough to decide one way or the other.” She shrugged. “Feel free to convince them, but I’m not going to force them to do anything, particularly something I don’t understand.”

“Plus, as you say, they are their own persons, it would not be right.”

“As for that 'library' thing…” she glanced at the two drones, then looked back at Llewelyn, “Looks like they don’t think that’d be a good idea… Though I would be interested to see that.” With a frown, she turned to Foot and Hammer, “That being said, while I do understand what you don’t want… What are we supposed to be doing now? Didn’t you say there was danger or something? The whole reason we came here in the first place?”
This message was lightly edited by the player at 21:25, Fri 03 Mar 2023.

In reply to Ailith (msg # 848):

He has an expression you can't read.  It's a new one.  He says nothing about Hammer and Foot, but he gestures to the pole in the center of the room when you ask your final question.

"I think we took care of it.  This is going to be a bit difficult to explain.  But this ship...it's like Hammer and Foot in that it thinks...sort of.  It's not a person. But it does have a...brain I guess is the closest term I can come up with...this is so damn difficult.  Anyway, the ship is old.  Very old.  And something didn't work the way it was supposed to.  The injun was...getting too tired.  It was about to collapse.  And when that happens to an injun...well.  It's bad.

"So we have come here to do what we came to do.  But I think we need to look around.  You have to be curious.  Why is the language of this ship so like your own?

"And why does Hammer and Foot not want you to find it?"  He gives you a direct stare.  "You've been suspicious of me before.  And fair enough. I would be too in your circumstances. But why haven't you been suspicous of them?  Because they're cute?  If they are own people, that means they have their own agendas.  Maybe instead of worrying about mine, you should consider what theirs are."

“Oh.” Ailith looked around for a moment, “Well, that was easy then. But how did they know?” She pointed at the two drones, “Can they talk to the ship here, from, uh…” she looked around, “Home?”

“I don’t know what they want or why.” She grumbled under her breath, it would be much easier if she did. “But… I… have some ideas about the language. Thing is, it’s, uh, a touchy subject. And why wouldn’t I trust them?” Ailith shook her head, “They even saved me in the North when that crazy guy attacked me.” She shivered at that. “And they came after I found something in, uh, well… A place I wasn’t really supposed to be?”

“Aaaanyway…” The young apprentice looked around for a moment, clearly trying to decide on something. Finally, looking up at Llewelyn, she asked “Do you know anything about…” She scrunched her face in concentration, “ardy-fizuhl gin-hed-tik mod-e-fik-a-shun, _{or something like that}?”

Before Llewelyn could answer, Ailith jumped up, “Oh!” she turned to Coq, “Do you know what 'Yellow is not your colour' could mean? Besides the obvious? I mean, like…” she waved at the things around her.
This message was last edited by the player at 23:52, Mon 06 Mar 2023.

In reply to Ailith (msg # 850):

Llewlyn makes a puzzled expression.  You've gotten to know that one well over the years.

ardy-fizuhl...where did you hear that from?  It's...yeah. I know what it is more or less.  But why do you know anything about it?

“Hmm…” Ailith looked around for a bit, as if looking for something that could distract Llewelyn from that line of inquiry.

Since nothing obvious came to her rescue, she shrugged. “I…had a dream about it? A…” She tilted her head to the side. “A 'modified memory' through ancestral blood? Or something? From my, uh, grandmother’s grandmother’s…many times over? I think it’s what it said?”