Complete Private Eastern Brisshal Living machinery

[MAI]

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Once MAI was back to her fully functioning self, Luna struck her right back down. Not physically... not with her words. the Magia froze for a moment as her mind went into a bit of overdrive. The thought process was rather simple. Even after I overrode my weird speech... even then I'm too quirky and unusual to be a real person..? Her ego shattered. With a fully deadpan face, she gave a simple answer.

"Yes. A person of the land."

She was reduced to playing the role of an NPC for the sake of not completely destroying her self-esteem. Her only saving grace was how well she was able to hold back her emotions, partly thanks to the synthetic nature of her chosen race. Doing her best to just forget what happened mere moments ago, she shook her head as she tried to think about the magitech involved.

"I get it. Although it's not like I was fixing your machine with just knowledge of my own. As a magia specialized in magitech, this stuff just... comes naturally to me."

@Luna Avalbane

 

[Luna Avalbane]

Well, that didn't seem right, either. The girl had gone from quirky but expressive to completely deadpan? That wasn't normal, but it also wasn't something that NPCs typically did. NPCs were either quirky and expressive all the time, or not expressive at all. There was, though, one thing that she could do to check whether or not MAI was a real person or not.

All she had to do was send the girl a friend request. Those didn't even work if you tried to send one to somebody that was UI-locked or an NPC.

So it was to Luna's horror when the message seemingly went through without a single hitch. She looked at MAI for a moment, shock plastered across her face, before tears began to spring from her eyes and she collapsed, falling butt first onto the ground.

Oh god, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to be so mean. I'm really sorry.

She wiped at her face, scrubbing with her forearm as her ears pressed flat against her head, tail tucked underneath her and between her legs. She half considered just logging out. The old her would have just done that, given up and run. Now, though, she at least wanted to try to fix her mistake.

I'm so sorry! I don't really speak with people and my friends list is empty and the only people I really hang out with are Landers and I'm so sorry. You can attack me or something if it'd make you feel better. I think it won't kill me...

@MAI

 

[MAI]

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Notice

@Luna Avalbane has sent you a friendship request.

As the message window popped up, it managed to make MAI jump a little. She really didn't expect the beast woman to become suspicious of her answer and check in this manner... actually, why did she even ask if she ended up not believing the answer anyway? No matter. If nothing else, at least now the other woman's name was finally revealed.

Although things only got stranger from there. Given how Luna behaved until this point, the Magia would never have suspected to see such an individual just... keel over and start crying. Especially for the reason that all of this was happening in the first place. Feeling rather awkward in this situation, MAI faintly reached out with one of her hands, entirely unsure of what to do.

"Um... should I be the one on the ground and in that state..? And why do you escalate things to violence?!"

Being almost a pacifist, or at least as much as this kind of game allowed for, there was no way the girl could just take out her anger on this poor woman. Not that she even had any anger to take out. And even if she did and was fine with it all, she was support oriented! Nevermind all of that, should she still feel bad, awkward, what?

"J-just stop crying. What if someone else comes here and thinks I'm bullying you or something? Magia already have such a bad reputation as is..."

@Luna Avalbane

 

[Luna Avalbane]

God she felt like such a bitch. Knowing that she'd been treating a real person like this just felt wrong. Granted, there were people out there that would have frowned upon her if she had treated an NPC like this, but Luna was still on the fence as to how she felt about NPC's. The NPC people were, strangely enough, hard to actually think of as real people, but back before the server shutdown, she'd been best friends with a digital white tiger, so that was a whole entire thing.

I...I don't ALWAYS escalate things to violence. Most people would, y'know, hit somebody after they were treated like that.

Well, anyway, that was how she saw it. There weren't a whole lot of pacifist gamers. Considering the kinds of people that these games attracted, usually escapists or people that were beaten down a lot in real life, it was no surprise that some would play just to get some aggression and negativity out of their system before they could go back into the real world and pretend everything was fine.

Luna pushed herself back to her feet and wiped at her eyes, shaking her head.

Sorry about all that. Disregard everything I've said up until now.

@MAI

 

[MAI]

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MAI thought for a moment, but she just couldn't quite agree with the statement given.

"The cultures we come from must be quite different then, if that really is true for where you are from."

She didn't necessarily consider the statement to just apply to TerraSphere, instead imagining it in the physical world as well. Yes, there were certainly plenty of people who would quickly go aggro when 'offended', but there were also many people who were the opposite. The reason why it felt like there were so many of the former was simply that they were covered in the news and media far more often.

As for Luna's request, the magia nodded. It was pretty obvious that the beastfolk felt bad for what had happened, and MAI was more than willing to let it all go, even pretend that it didn't happen if that made the girl more comfortable.

"Okay. My name, at least in this game, is MAI. Nice to meet you, Luna."

@Luna Avalbane

 

[Luna Avalbane]

Well, she certainly had no way of knowing where MAI came from in the real world and that wasn't something she typically asked anybody she met online, for more than a few reasons. Either way, maybe it was just a matter of growing up in New York City, but everybody she'd really known had been quite aggressive in various ways. Heck, even her parents had been aggressive in their business, constantly and doggedly pursuing business deals and stuff, sometimes to their own benefit when they got too obsessed with something.

U-Umm, maybe. I don't know how qualified I am to speak on something like that, though...

Maybe it was also just her own outlook on life. It was very easy to notice the loud and outspoken minority and miss the quiet majority. And given how often Luna retreated from people, it just made sense that she'd only hear the ones that went out to make themselves known.

MAI really did throw her a bone with being willing to just forget anything had happened.

R-Right, nice to meet you. And uh, I'm really really sorry about disturbing your rest. Let me just pack up and I can find another Manastone to study.

@MAI

 

[MAI]

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Many games were inherently violent, even if the violence was distorted by an art style or censorship. Something so accepted in the modern society that people practically did not recognize it anymore. Whether that really was a problem or not did not matter a whole lot, MAI figured. But TerraSphere was different because it did its best to pretend to be a new real life for people.

This was where violence probably did matter. Though... well, MAI did try to approach things as peacefully as she could, even if it would earn mockery from others. But none of that was no longer neither here nor there. Standing up herself, she quickly moved in front of Luna as the girl was about to dash away.

"D-don't feel that you have to leave because of me, please. The company is nice, and I don't want to get in anyone's way... you're certainly not in my way at all."

Looking down at Luna's device, she tried to appeal to that once more.

"I'm sorry for tampering with your things without permission before. M-maybe we can take a look at it all together and see if we can improve things?"

@Luna Avalbane

 

[Luna Avalbane]

It certainly wasn't like Terrasphere really advocated against violence. Hell, Luna could remember multiple times where violence had been the only answer to problems, including the time long ago where she herself had decided to blow herself up for the sake of stopping some kind of demonic thing. And that was back when she'd been a shy little wallflower, timidly following instructions and firing laser beams at anything that looked even remotely threatening.

Still, to be stopped when she was about to leave, Luna looked at MAI andd blinked, feeling strange about it all. This encounter had really been bungled and she wanted nothing more than to escape, but for some reason the Magia girl wanted to try and salvage this trainwreck of a conversation?

N-No it's alright, I know I'm not really all that good for company anyway...

She moved to pick up her device, before MAI apologized and suggested taking a look at it together. That made Luna pause, her hands touching the device, before she let her head drop and stood back up again.

O-Okay, we can give it a try, though you'd have probably made it way better by yourself than I could. But, well, yeah, the device sends a pulse of fire aspected Mana into the Mana stone, then examines and extracts data based on what happens to that aspected Mana inside of the stone.

@MAI

 

[MAI]

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Nodding along with Luna's explanation of how the device worked, she then proceeded to sit down in the grass next to the manastone against and patted the ground in front of her to indicate for Luna to sit down as well with the device. MAI was... horrible company most of the time as well. A shy introvert who preferred silence over conversation... but she found it so much easier to open up and talk in this game, so she wanted to make use of it.

In that view, her desperate attempt at befriending a random tiger girl she met in a forest might have been seen as a rather pathetic thing. Well, as long as Luna didn't think that.

"If you'd allow me to connect again... we could run the process together and fix any issues as they pop up, maybe improve the efficiency."

Maybe not the best suggestion, given how aggressively Luna unplugged MAI before, but it was by far the most efficient way that the girl could think of.

@Luna Avalbane

 

[Luna Avalbane]

Where MAI pat the ground, Luna slowly sat down, having to make sure that her tail wasn't tucked underneath herself so that she didn't accidentally sit on it. It wasn't like it was hard to do or remember, but well, it was still an odd quirk that people sometimes picked up on. Once she was sat in place, Luna turned to look at MAI as the girl spoke, humming along to the words. She'd panicked when MAI had just immediately started changing things, but maybe she should extend a tiny bit of trust.

You can connect to it again, yeah. Just, y'know, tell me about stuff and talk about what you're doing before you actually do it, please? I don't want to end up totally reliant on having somebody like you around to make all my stuff better for me.

And that required her to learn how to make her own Magitech better, without being able to directly interface with it like MAI could. She had no advantages when it came to Magitech. Just a body that was stronger, faster, sturdier and had more mana than most other players had, from what she had observed at least.

Something about the Beastlord?

Well, go ahead and plug in...

@MAI

 

[MAI]

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Once Luna was seated, MAI herself tried to get herself in a bit more comfortable a position. Scooting to the side, she leaned her shoulder against the mana stone and rested with her legs to the side, quickly fiddling around to find the cord extending from her lower back and directing it toward the machine. Though she wanted to ensure Luna didn't need to worry about anything.

"I won't change anything. Instead, I'll mention any errors we come across so you can change them yourself. I'll help if you get stuck."

That seemed like a pretty good compromise. In a way, it was almost like a teacher monitoring their student's progress and pointing out any flaws that could be improved upon. It was a bit funny. Despite having a high rank in magitech, MAI didn't feel like she was an expert... most of what she did just came naturally to her. All thanks to the game itself, no doubt. Sticking the cord in, she connected to the system and began monitoring it all.

"You can start whenever you're ready."

@Luna Avalbane

 

[Luna Avalbane]

Oh, if MAI was going to be listing off errors, then she REALLY needed something to take notes with. Luna panicked, immediately flicking her inventory open and looking through it until she found something that looked almost suspiciously like a touchscreen tablet from the real world, like an iPad or something like that, though the screen was a blank white and there seemed to be some kind of keyboard that took up about half of the screen space.

With that done, MAI it seemed had already plugged into her device and was ready to get started with whatever they were about to do. Luna wasn't sure if they were checking the actual function of the device, or if they would just be checking up on the Guiding Flame's composition overall.

Right, okay, I'm ready to make some notes so that I can fix any problems you find myself, once I have access to the device.

She wasn't sure she wanted to directly tamper with the machine whilst MAI was still plugged in. The last thing the Magia needed as a direct injection of flame aspected mana directly through...whatever those strange plug things were. That probably wasn't the healthiest thing in the world.

@MAI

 

[MAI]

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From the looks of it, Luna wasn't exactly a novice in terms of Magitech contraptions, either. Though that made perfect sense, considering the device that they were measuring. It alone was quite complex so unless she somehow got it form someone else, she must have been at least advanced in terms of progress in that particular mastery. Not too long and she would not require any more help from MAI either, becoming a master of the mastery herself.

Once the device was turned on, the magia started focusing on exactly what was going on that little heavy box, capturing the various processes through which the mana was sent, how it would analyze the result, just about everything. Of course, it wasn't fully connected to the manastone after Luna tried to grab it and scamper off, thinking that she was some kind of nuisance. But that was probably for the best in terms of this kind of testing.

After the process concluded, MAI would bring forth some kind of holographic screen in front of herself and start listing all the areas where she saw potential for improvements and some suggestions how those improvements could possibly be reached. All in all, it was a surprisingly quick process with no pain to either side.

"I think that's about it."

@Luna Avalbane

 

[Luna Avalbane]

There wasn't a whole lot she could do other than sit and watch as MAI did whatever it was that she was doing, the Magia's innate affinity with machines far surpassing any ability that somebody could develop through the refinement of skill and knowledge alone. It was actually moderately grating, to know that somebody could put in such little effort and outclass something that had taken her months to design and build, deconstruct it and find every single flaw that it held, with such ease.

Luna had thought she was over her days of being jealous about how much better than her everybody was.

Still, it was at least nice of MAI to project some kind of hologram to show her the flaws, which Luna would also quickly copy down onto her own device, frowning at many of them. There were a good number that would have been completely impossible for her to find on her own.

Which stung.

Uh, right, thanks. These will help, maybe. I dunno, a couple of them seem like things that would be really hard to fix, given that I can't exactly do what you do.

And she wasn't about to start fusing with machines. Animals had been one thing, but becoming part robot didn't sound nearly as fun.

@MAI

 

[MAI]

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With the diagnosis finished, the girl removed the cord safely this time, glad that her dividing consciousness was not bruised again. Giving Luna as much time as she needed to go through it all, she, in the meantime, snuggled a bit more against the manastone, bending her legs and moving her knees close to her chest before embracing her legs. With her head slightly tilted to the side, she observed the beastfolk with curiosity in her synthetic eyes.

"I'm glad I was of help. I can try to help some more with fixing the errors as well, if you would like me to. But I don't want to impose myself."

Social interactions weren't exactly MAI's forte so she wasn't sure how much she could reasonably say without sounding too pushy, annoying, condescending, or any other negative aspect that she hoped she didn't possess.

"You must have worked hard on that device. It's very well crafted."

@Luna Avalbane

 

[Luna Avalbane]

God, it was such a problem that would damage what precious little pride she actually had. Did she care more about making her device work better, or more about making the device work herself? Luna really wasn't sure if she was more invested in the results or the learning process that went into receiving those results. Because, truthfully, she didn't even really need to figure out how to replicate the functions of a manastone. It had just been an interesting endeavor, one that she'd been spurred onto for no real reason other than sheer interest.

Uh, right...I uh, I'll thik about it...

It would feel wrong for somebody to just come along and fix all of the problems that she herself couldn't fix. But at the same time, it was impossibly clear that MAI really wanted to help, for some completely unknown and unknowable reason.

Hearing the compliment, though, Luna chuckled and shook her head, breathing out a sigh.

Thanks. I uh, I spent months working on it, figuring out how it could work. I'm not even really sure why I decided to research the manastones in the first place, to be perfectly honest. I'm not a Magia, so they pretty much do nothing for me...

@MAI

 

[MAI]

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Just the idea of 'considering it' was enough for MAI, even if it would ultimately lead to Luna not accepting the help. The girl's desire to help might have been seen as rather desperate, and perhaps that is exactly what it was, but in her head, she just wanted to help others when they needed it. Maybe it was solely for the idea that she would want to be helped if she struggled with something, maybe it was something else... she herself did not fully know, either. It was simply what it was.

"Because they are a source of abundant mana, I think some players also train near them. Though I don't know if that actually has any positive effect. And those with traits that allow them to sense magic as well. I think they can serve more than just the magia."

They were certainly important for someone like MAI, but as with many things, there were other uses as well. One simply had to be creative enough, and an abundance of possible scenarios would come flooding in.

@Luna Avalbane

 

[Luna Avalbane]

Luna wasn't convinced that training near a manastone would offer any kind of benefit, considering that she'd never even heard of the ability to passively absorb mana from something else. Maybe a Magi would benefit from it because their tiredness meter or whatever would fill up when they were nearby, but for anything else, the manastones did seem very useless, all things considered. Heck, Luna wasn't even sure if they COULD be used to charge magitech gadgets or anything of the sort.

I'm still not even sure if it's possible to consciously extract the energy from a manastone or not, I'll be completely honest. I know I can push mana into it, but pulling mana seems to be way harder.

It was possible to just pump a manastone full of some kind of elemental mana, or something aspected with something like Chronomancy, or Astramancy, but Luna couldn't really see why that would be useful, aside from for her own efforts to understand what exactly happened inside of a manastone.

Really, what I would want is the ability to turn myself into mana and enter a manastone so I can figure out what actually happens inside of one. I don't have the correct skillset for that kind of thing, though.

@MAI

 

[MAI]

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It certainly was interesting to see someone invest this much time and energy into studying something and then claim it was on a whim or that they couldn't exactly even interact with the manastone in the first place.

"I think it makes some people feel more comfortable and refreshed. Even if it possibly is just a placebo."

Sometimes that was all that was really needed. The idea of turning oneself into mana and entering the crystal directly was certainly interesting, though. Sounded a bit like something Evoke users could maybe do. Although... it did remind MAI of something.

"I wonder if that's maybe not that good of an idea. I heard some theorize that the stones are like plants engaged in photosynthesis. Absorbing mana from all around the place, purifying it, and then releasing it back again."

That would at least explain why everything that came out of it lacked any sort of aspect at all. It also made her shudder to think what would happen to an actual person if they were forced to go through that process with their mana-fied body.

@Luna Avalbane

 

[Luna Avalbane]

You mean like when they give people a pill that turns out to basically just be sugar and flour? That kind of like, placebo effect?

It was possible. Supposedly the mind was actually extremely powerful, even if it couldn't always be controlled, it could still be directed through the usage of other things. Luna wasn't too sure what to make of it, she had no data to suggest whether manastones had an effect on non-Magia players, but she also didn't have any data that definitively said that they had no effect, so she was just kind of stuck making assumptions and guesses.

MAI did raise a good point, though. If the theories were correct, then somebody that turned into mana and entered a manastone would find themselves purified and pushed back out. Luna wasn't sure that anybody would survive that.

Though maybe that was just trauma speaking. Her last experience with pure mana had been rather explosive, all things considered.

Uh, right. That's where my machine comes in, though, since I'm trying to analyze what exactly happens to mana on the inside of a manastone, using a specific, traceable hint of aspected mana.

Granted, she had no clue if it worked. And if it did work, she wasn't sure what the results SHOULD look like. It was pretty much all a blind test.

I'd never send somebody in without completing at least this investigation.

@MAI