Titles are hard

[small_compromise]

WHO: Omega, Tony the Mothcat and whoever's in Sh'Ka
WHERE: Sh'Ka
WHAT: Not getting into any trouble, honest!
WHEN: During the Apocalypse in Temba
WARNINGS: N/A
NOTES: Will match pose pref!


i. General Exploration
Omega hadn't meant for her trip to the other city to be as long as it was, but there was nothing to do about the train being inoperational, nor the comms ceasing to send out. She could only hope that Echo wasn't worrying too much about her absence, but she'd been sure to let him know where she was going beforehand at the very least, and she wasn't alone. There had been others aboard the train at the time. Maybe they're still around.

Even knowing that there are others from Temba here in Sh'Ka, it's still an entire city. Things are still quiet, and the young clone tries to remember to be cautious as she goes about her exploring. She fancies herself out patrolling, wandering along the streets, keeping nearer to buildings. At times she comes to a halt by the edge of a wall, holding up a fist the way someone would signal for a halt to their troops. Except the only one with her is a rambunctious little mothcat on a harness who never fails to leap on ahead, oblivious to her intents. And with a sigh and a shake of her head, Omega could only follow after. "Tony, we're definitely going to have to work on some things."


ii. Estate
It was the mothcat who noticed the activity at the estate. Perking, Tony hadn't waited to take off like a little kite gliding along with the girl trailing behind him. He'd started to take to the harness, which at least assured Omega that the flying fuzzball would stay within sight. The last thing she wants is have Jon get mad at her for not looking after the mothcat.

"Whoa... what's going on here?" she marvels, spying the grounds-keeping robots as they buzz about their work. She's never seen any droids like these before. After catching Tony making an attempt at pouncing the busy bots, she decides to keep a hold of him as she enters the estate building itself.

It's not a building she's ventured into during her previous visits, but it's definitely more lively with all the robots at work. It puts her at ease, even if they aren't very talkative. She might wear herself out following them as they go about setting up furniture, so if one doesn't catch her poking about after them, perhaps they'll come upon her napping on a pile of bedding left in one of the rooms with a mothcat curled up beside her.


iii. Target Practice
With danger of falling leaves and so many trees around, it was difficult to find a suitable spot for practicing with her bow. Omega finally settles for using the quarry. She's chalked out some wibbly targets here and there along varying levels where she could find a decent surface that jutted up. To hopefully keep Tony busy, she's found him a box from the estate to play in. Hopefully the robots won't miss it.

The girl extends her energy bow, taking aim at one of the farther targets before pulling back and then releasing a shot of violet energy. She makes a slight face as it clips the edge of the target. She's out of practice and can only imagine what Echo would say.


iv. Wildcard
Choose your own adventure!

Comments

[plate_builder]

"Indeed," Reeve smiled as he finished with the picture and offered it over. finished it looked like a young woman with short shorts and a strange top that was part sweater, part crop top, part tank top. She wore a large gauntlet on one arm, and in her other hand she held a massive shuriken, nearly two feet from tip to tip, perhaps even more than that.

"Shuriken. She could use it for melee fighting and for throwing. Yuffie, she's a ninja and a princess and a very good person. Even if she has sticky fingers."

"She would steal all ya materia," Mini threw in.

[small_compromise]

Omega was clearly fascinated as she took the finished picture. Reeve had done it so quickly, it was almost magical itself for how he'd made a few lines form such a comprehensive image.

"Wow... This is amazing!" She smiled as she considered this Yuffie person. The weapon was so huge and yet it sounded like this girl had no trouble using it. She giggled at Mini's addendum. "What's materia?"

[plate_builder]

There was no magic in this, but in the delight that she was going through.

"Materia is crystalized knowledge of my world, which enables those who are not descended of the Ancients to use magic."

In fact... He pulled his ice materia from his pocket, holding the glowing green orb in his hand.

"Like this."

[small_compromise]

"Crystalized knowledge?"

That sounded like something impossible, or perhaps just abstract, but if it had to do with this magic thing then it was probably more of the former. Omega looked at the glowing orb that Reeve produced, mouth forming an 'o'. She hesitated from reaching out towards it, a glance at Reeve asking if it was okay to do so.

[plate_builder]

"By all means," Reeve said, holding the orb out. It would tingle to touch, and to those capable of calling power into them, like frost. But that would take training.

"Where I'm from, life is a cycle of life and death and rebirth. So yes, knowledge can be crystalized as life returns to the origin."

[small_compromise]

Omega was careful as she took the orb in hand, eyebrows arching at its tingling sensation. "Wow..." she breathed. "I've never seen anything like it before." She still wasn't sure how it would be used for magic, but it was certainly pretty to look at.

"How does it crystalize?" she asked, holding the orb back out to Reeve.

[plate_builder]

"It isn't a thing of this world. Perhaps not of any world but Gaia. A blessing of Minerva one says."

How does it crystalize? Reeve took the orb and began to do some contact juggling with it. On his world if you had access to Materia, you tended to get good at this. Just because you could.

"It crystalizes out of mako fountains when it's natural. But there are processes to force crystalization. We don't use those anymore."

[small_compromise]

Not that she'd heard of such a world, nor whoever this Minerva was. She couldn't help but smile a little as Reeve absently toyed with the orb.

"What's mako?" she asked, her accent stretching the sound more into a 'meeko' as she tilted her head. "I guess there's a lot of things to have to understand, just to understand how Materia becomes what it is."

[plate_builder]

Mako, oh dear.

"Mako is... it's the lifeblood of the Lifestream. The souls and very life force of my world. All life comes from, and returns to, the lifestream."

And it was a beautiful existence they had. Not that he'd ever done the right things regarding it before this.

[small_compromise]

Omega's eyes drifted towards the materia again, lips pursing thoughtfully. "But that's not actually made of souls, right?" she pointed. Just some kind of...byproduct? She hoped it wasn't made of living beings, anyway.

[plate_builder]

"No, it's made from knowledge," Reeve answered.

There were no living souls in this. Not... not anymore. Reeve sighed and tucked the materia away.

"That is just how life works out in my world. THough we don't use magic as much these days, the planet is tired."

[small_compromise]

They were back to square one with knowledge, but at least it wasn't directly the Lifestream source. Omega tilted her head, looking back at the drawing before passing it back to Reeve.

"Did you use too much magic? Is that why it's tired?" she asked softly.

[plate_builder]

"Not exactly, but you are a very sharp young woman. There was an abuse of the Lifestream itself that weakened it. Now we don't use materia because the magical essence of the world is unstable. WE have agreed, more or less, to avoid using it as much as possible to help the planet heal. It will likely be decades or longer before regular use begins again."

Which was fair. But at least there was plenty of materia already in the world. People likely wouldn't need to create more in a deliberate fashion, just level what already existed so it could grow and split.

[small_compromise]

One of those better late than never cases, it seemed. Omega nodded, even if only having a very rough concept of how it all worked. It was still a little difficult on the magical, supernatural level to grasp, but she could understand resources and overuse well enough.

"At least it has a chance to do so. I hope your world can be strong again."

[plate_builder]

"So do I. But it might take centuries for that," Reeve admitted before putting the materia away. And he sighed, because this was hard to contemplate how long it would take to recover.

"I hope no other world should end up like mine. This one is strangely in a better state."

[small_compromise]

Omega turned, gathering up Tony as the mothcat finally drifted back over to her. "And yet the people who lived here can't use it because something keeps them away," she said sadly.

[plate_builder]

"The storms, yes," Reeve agreed, nodding with a frown. "I've been here through them before. It's... Unpleasant to say the least. And I hear that when some people here met Ga Re for the first time, it was possible to see how the storms were affecting her."

[small_compromise]

"That's terrible..." The girl frowned as well. "But it's more than just storms, isn't it? Someone's causing them?" There was a lot that Tony and Jon had explained to her and she wasn't quite sure she understood it all. "Why would someone want to drive someone away from their home?"

[plate_builder]

Yes, it really was. The young woman was so bright.

"I don't know. But from what I've heard of the people that ran the Drift Fleet, sometimes there are people who are just horrible out there."

[small_compromise]

Sadly she couldn't disagree to that, having had encounters with such people. Omega nodded solemnly. "I guess that's true... But even then there's some reason behind it." The Zyggerians valued profit over people, just like the Empire sought power. What did the Atroma want?

[plate_builder]

"Sometimes all the reason a person needs is 'I don't like them' or 'I have power.'"

Which was sad. It was heartbreaking. And if they were caught up in that, then who knew what hope there was for them. Still, he had to believe they could fight.

[small_compromise]

Omega scratched the snuggly mothcat's head, sighing. "Well, whatever the reason, it's still not fair to the Agrii. People may not like the way they were just brought here, but if the Agrii were that desperate to get help...well, people will do anything for good reasons just as much as others might do things for bad ones, right?"

[plate_builder]

"Yes. There is a saying. The road to suffering is paved with the best of intentions."

And he sighed, reaching out to pet Mini's on head. The doll, realizing that he needed comfort, moved to lean against Reeve. Clearly the cat wanted to keep him calm.

[small_compromise]

Her smile wasn't as light as earlier ones, but there was some resolve to it as the girl looked back at Reeve and Mini.

"Then we'll do our best to help them. And that'll help everyone who's been brought to help them too."

Would you be okay with wrapping this one soon?

[plate_builder]

Oh what a bright, kind girl. Reeve offered her a deeper, truer smile.

"All I live for is to help those who need it and will ask for it. Or accept it."