Private ✪ Stokbon We'll Workshop That

[Luna Avalbane]

When the blinds dropped and the room was revealed, both of them seemed to be amazed at the state of the worshop. Heck, even the mech seemed to be appreciative of it, declaring that it would park itself, before moving into one corner and shutting down. Luna watched it in a mixture of amusement and amazement. If even the mech was impressed by this stuff, then she knew that they'd hit a pretty big jackpot.

And it just got better, as Mystia opened a trap door to reveal a stream of flowing water and a wheel that turned as the water flowed against it. Some kind of source of renewable energy was a godsend for Magitech, as Luna understood it, even if her own magitech often revolved around using Stardust as a fuel source.

"Well that's sure helpful. I use a pretty different power source to most magitech, but I can use this energy for smaller gadgets and stuff." She grinned, looking around. "So what kind of stuff do you normally make, anyway? A mech like that seems like a massive first project."

@Mystia

 

[Mystia]

"It shouldn't matter what your tech is powered by. With the right equipment, we should be able to change the generated energy into any form we need. The main point is that it's free energy on demand~!"

When she first made her character, Mystia considered choosing the Magia race. Playing as a robot yourself, how cool could that be? But then again, she did not want to lug around batteries to recharge herself when she ran out of energy. Not to mention that the faerin ended up also winning because of their attunement to magic, through which tech in this world was powered. That said, the girl turned around and tilted her head slightly as she heard the question.

"Mm? It was my first and, so far, the only project in this world. But I guess I did get really lucky with the materials~! Mm, maybe you could also count that one time I helped MIT engineer a cure to a strange debuff. It was a big event and all, though I didn't see it until the end. Apparently the boss was pretty strong, and new players were told to leave it to the vets."

It was a little upsetting since Mystia felt like she had a bit of an obligation to protect her students (other players), but she also saw just how many people went, so she believed everyone was fine. Though now that she thought about it, she never caught up with others to learn how things ended over there. Oh well, that was for another time.

"But I think I know what I want to make next. On the way here, I saw a few beastfolk, who looked like they were part-monkey, who used their tails to grab things! Mechanized spine with a tail that could work as a third hand sounds pretty neat, so I'll try to make one~!"

@Luna Avalbane

 

[Luna Avalbane]

"Ah well, I actually use stardust that I gather with Astramancy as a fuel source for my special magitech gadgets. I use Pyromancy to burn that stardust for energy. Dust from different stars and celestial bodies can also have different effects if you burn them in certain ways, as I've been discovering and experimenting with. It's all quite fun." Luna grinned, retrieving the prototype gauntlet that she'd made, a rusted metal thing with a glass tube, filled with a rainbow glowing dust. Attached to the gauntlet was a crude piston system, the thing that would allow Luna's punches to have more force behind them and hit twice.

Though Mystia seemed like she'd been involved with quite the something, if there was some kind of strange debuff that she'd worked with a group, apparently called MIT, which Luna had never heard of, to engineer a cure for. It definitely sounded impressive and it made Luna grin, also thankful that Mystia was apparently the type that would listen to advice when she was told to leave something to veterans.

And her next project sounded awesome! Luna nodded. "That sounds like a really interesting project. If it'd help, you can study my tail and stuff to help figure things out? Though please keep any dissections to a minimal, if you'd please?" She giggled, placing her junk, prototype gauntlet on one of the workbenches.

@Mystia

 

[Mystia]

"Oooh, I see, I see~! Very interesting~!"

The fact that there were different ways of powering up magitechs in this world was fascinating to Mystia. It almost seemed like there was no limit to combinations of masteries in that regard. Yet, as she discovered before, there were definitely specific laws that governed how things worked, just like in the world outside of the game. Uncovering those and gaining understanding was always the noble goal of a researcher. The fae would most certainly continue that kind of work here, whenever possible!

Luna surely shared the same kind of passion for these things. Well, her love for magitech was already displayed before and now as well with her glove gadget. But she went an extra step and offered herself as a test subject! There was nothing dangerous involved, of course, but it was still immensely appreciated. The small fae would waddle over and lean around the other girl to see that tail with her own eyes.

"Heeh, that would be most helpful! It's been a good few years since I had my last biology class. If I see how exactly the muscles move it around, I might be able to replicate that with some synthetic fibers~!"

@Luna Avalbane

 

[Luna Avalbane]

Well it was nice to know that somebody else saw her own ideas on how she could power and modify magitech as being interesting, even if she wasn't entirely sure it would make their crafts all that compatible with one another. Still, having the cute Faerin's approval was still pretty cool and Mystia, so far at least, had seemed like the kind of person that got invested in other people and their passions, kind of like Luna herself did.

She also seemed eager to take her up on the offer to study the tigress' tail, waddling over and leaning around Luna to take a good look at it. For her part, Luna pulled her pants down just enough for her entire tail to be revealed, including the place that it connected to the rest of her body, sticking her butt out a bit for Mystia to get a decent look at it.

"I don't think it'll be all that difficult to replicate. My tail isn't one of the ones that can be used as an extra limb or anything, so you might want to include some more fine motor control and stuff like that." Her own tail flicked and swished as she spoke, ears twitching at the sound of running water.

@Mystia

 

[Mystia]

Mystia chuckled a bit when Luna did her best to present her tail without anything getting in the way. Usually, people were a bit more hesitant to move their bodies like that or to partially start undressing in front of a stranger. Perhaps it was because whoever was piloting the Luna avatar knew that it wasn't really their own body, and thus the feelings of shame were not as strong?

"It will make for a good foundation, so thank you~!"

As she said her thanks, the fae would hop back a few steps before turning around and then clearing a few things off of a nearby table. Once clean enough, she would leap up and sit right on top of it, her legs swinging happily as they could not touch the ground.

"I'll have to find appropriate materials later, so it will probably take a while. I wanted to relax a bit after that big event anyway~"

@Luna Avalbane

 

[Luna Avalbane]

Luna giggled and nodded, glad that she had been able to help out just a little bit, pulling her pants back up when it was clear that Mystia was done inspecting her tail. She'd not seen any reason to be embarrassed, it wasn't like she'd actually displayed anything and this wasn't even her body to begin with, so it was very easy to do away with the notions of shame and embarrassment that had once controlled her entire life, even when she'd been playing this game four years ago.

She watched as Mystia cleared a bunch of stuff off of a table, before she jumped up to sit down on the table, legs swinging. The mention of an event had Luna curious though. "What's this I hear about an event? I've heard whispers that something pretty big happened, but I wasn't there so I don't know what anybody is talking about."

She wondered if anybody she knew had taken part in any of it.

"All I've heard is that there was some kind of sickness or something? A disease debuff? Is that what you were working with whoever this MIT group is on? Clearing that debuff that you mentioned before?"

@Mystia

 

[Mystia]

It was pretty natural that the conversation would shift to be about the Red Fever event, now that Mystia had mentioned it for the second time. And why not? It seemed like something Luna ought to know about, at least to some degree.

"Mmm… not too long after I managed to build my mech, I started looking around for directions. Looking at what I made, people kept directing me to this organization named MIT, or 'Magical Institute of Theory'. But apparently, all the important people were part of an expedition, so I caught up with them and was put into a team in charge of making an antidote to the debuff. All it really did was amplify our emotions, so it wasn't too bad at the start, but people were all over the place when we finally finished."

All while she was talking, the fae would move around her hands to help tell her story, doing her best to gesture in a way that visualized things at least a little bit.

"The project was a success, but apparently, there was still the source of the debuff left. That was when I was told to log off because things were about to get really dangerous. I didn't really want to but seeing how many veterans and important NPCs were going. I figured that everyone would probably be just fine. Dunno how things went tho."

When Mystia logged back in, the debuff was gone entirely, so she assumed the group had succeeded. After that, she headed back to the town and eventually met Luna, getting her to where she was right now.

@Luna Avalbane

 

[Luna Avalbane]

Well that all sounded like it was quite exciting and interesting, to say the least, though it was definitely something that was unique. She'd never really heard of a debuff that amplified and changed peoples' emotions, though it did remind her of how some of the old masteries had worked, particularly Berserk. Though she'd not been a user of berserk, she had known and worked with a few people that had used it and the effects of that particular mastery on them had always been quite interesting to witness and take note of. Seeing quiet people explode with anger and power up had always been pretty cool, if a little scary.

"Well I guess if you're pretty new, it's probably for the best if you follow the instructions and advice of people that have been at this for a while." If they had genuinely told people to log off because things would get dangerous, then things had probably gotten VERY dangerous. After all, Luna could remember when the Landers were callously demanding that the players throw away their lives against Titanius, or whatever it's name had been.

It was rare that players got told that it was better to log off and run.

"Still, I've never heard of this MIT group, though I wasn't really aware of any factions at all, even back four years ago."

@Mystia

 

[Mystia]

The small fae nodded along as Luna reinforced the idea that warnings from veterans were to be taken seriously. If they were going to fight something, then Mystia would have probably been a dead weight anyway. While her mech was quite powerful, she had not yet had much time to program in any fancy moves it could utilize in combat. And, to be perfectly honest, the idea of fighting didn't wholly appeal to her either. Mainly due to how realistic the game was, it sometimes just made her forget that the monsters were digital and not real beings that could feel pain and suffering.

"Yeah, apparently they're a pretty big deal as a faction. I haven't heard about any other organization focused on research either, so it seems like the obvious choice unless I want to just toil away at my magitech here in the workshop and not share with anyone~"

She joked a bit but was still glad that they had this place. She might have helped with the Red Fever cure, but she was hardly the most efficient person there. The chance they wouldn't even accept her among their ranks was real.

@Luna Avalbane

 

[Luna Avalbane]

Being a big deal as a faction sounded like it should have been something that Luna would have heard of by now, though to be fair, she had only been back in the game for a few days at most. It was still a matter of getting acclimated to this world again, before she went out on her quests to hunt down the people that she had known four years ago. She'd already run into one or two. It didn't mean that she wasn't going to be able to make new friends either. And honestly, she was pretty excited to make new friends.

Luna giggled at Mystia's joke. "Aww, but you're just so cute that it feels like it'd be a shame to not lock you away in this workshop and keep you to myself for a while." She giggled again. "Still, they sound like a pretty interesting faction. I can understand the desire to research stuff, I've seen a bunch of fascinating stuff in this game. Experienced quite a lot too. Died once. Dying is...less of a fun experience, if I'm being completely honest, though mine was over very quickly and I didn't even really notice it until I woke up at the temple."

@Mystia

 

[Mystia]

What Luna said was a little bit surprising. Somehow the fae didn't expect that her new tiger friend would make jokes like that. But she was no prude, so she laughed as well.

"Haha, first in a while to call me cute. At least out of the people that aren't my mom."

The girl joked back. But then, the conversation took a much darker twist. The fact that Luna carried more sadness with her than just the loss of her previous pet honestly took Mystia aback. Her expression quickly grew much more worried. Normally in this kind of situation, she'd offer a hug to the other person. But, just like before, she didn't really know Luna all that well. The girl could have easily been against such a thing. She also didn't want to come across as forceful in any way.

"I see. This might be a bit presumptuous, but if you ever need a listening ear, I could always offer one."

@Luna Avalbane

 

[Luna Avalbane]

Luna giggled, gesturing to Mystia as the girl mentioned not having been called cute in a while. "Well, I mean, just look at you! You're adorable and I don't even think a blind person could miss it. Very attractive." She complimented, hoping that Mystia would know that, whilst she wasn't hitting on her, not fully anyway, she did genuinely mean the compliment and wanted the girl to know that. There were a lot of attractive aspects about this engineer and the physical appearance was only the surface level of that kind of thing.

Like the fact that she was concerned or offered to be a listening ear for Luna, after hearing that the tigress had died before. "I thank you for that. In truth, it's not really something I'm all that broken up about. Well, there are bits and pieces, but me dying was by far the worst thing that happened at the time."

She could still remember knowing Ezra had died, the panic that had arisen as the truth had started spreading, that people couldn't log out if they died three times. "My death was pretty instantaneous. Back then, Arcanamancy used to be just all about raw power. I overloaded myself and turned myself into a bomb. I don't think I even felt a thing."

@Mystia

 

[Mystia]

"Then I'm glad you like my avatar-making skills~!"

Of course, it wasn't that hard to sculpt a character that looks good, great even. It might have been difficult to do otherwise, honestly. Still, it at least meant that her own tastes appealed to someone else, and that was nice. She just wished it would be so easy to remain pretty in the physical world as well. All the effort there, only for it to never matter because they were prettier people in the room. But enough about that.

"It must have still been a jarring experience. And even if there was no pain, there are some consequences, so…"

She cut herself off. Luna was just reassuring her that there was nothing to worry about, so it was best just to leave things there. Prodding and poking could do more damage than good, possibly re-opening an old wound. Today was a joyous occasion of them getting this workshop, so they should talk about positive topics rather than negative ones!

@Luna Avalbane

 

[Luna Avalbane]

"Oh absolutely. You did a great job!~" Luna gave Mystia a warm smile and nodded, looking the engineer up and down one more time. It wasn't hard to design a character, though it was also hard to go too far and manage to create a very uncanny character. Or manage to create the most cursed looking, hideous visage that was possible, though Luna couldn't really think of a situation in which people would want to do such a thing.

Though it was time to move the conversation about Luna having died, though she gave Mystia a warm smile again, as the woman tried to cut herself off and not try to keep the conversation going. "It's all fine, I promise. It was pretty jarring, but it did teach me a pretty valuable lesson. It was basically the last thing that happened before the servers went dark and we were all locked out."

@Mystia

 

[Mystia]

Letting out a brief sigh, the fae would slide down over the table's edge and land on the floor, briefly stretching both her hands and legs. The way her body worked was quite different in this world, something she still had to get used to. Especially since there was an actual energy meter to go off of rather than just how she felt. Now that the unpleasant conversation was over and both of the girls exchanged their wisdom, Mystia wasn't entirely sure what to do next.

"Mmm… I wasn't exactly planning on things ending up the way they did today. I don't really have anything with me to set things up in here. Hehe, sorry, normally I'm not this bad at leading a conversation~!"

Or perhaps it was just the awkwardness of trying to keep things going after such a heavy topic? That was also entirely possible. Death, even if less horrible than in the physical world… not exactly a topic she ever had to discuss with people, given how fortunate her entire family was with their longevity.

@Luna Avalbane

 

[Luna Avalbane]

Luna giggled and shook her head. "No it's fine, really! I don't think anybody is really expecting to be randomly approached by a stranger and asked if they want to rent a warehouse together. Honestly? I'm just glad you're not like, awkward or scared of the whole situation. Being alone with a stranger, I mean." She paushed to chuckle, a far out, melancholy look in her eyes for the briefest moment as she thought back to days that were gone and the person that she'd used to be. "Four years ago I could have never been in this situation. Not without you grabbing me and forcing me into it."

Back then she'd been the kind of person that could be bent and forced into shape easily. It would have been easy for anybody to select a shape they wanted her to take and force her to fit into that mold.

But that was the past and Luna had left that behind. She gave Mystia a warm smile, retrieving a toolkit from her inventory and laying it out, before retrieving a bunch of pieces of scrap metal and rubbing the back of her neck.

"I typically make my stuff out of junk and scrap, currently. Most of it is just prototypes, like that gauntlet." She gestured to the gauntlet she'd left on the table. "Do you wanna help me make a prototype out of better materials?"

@Mystia

 

[Mystia]

There was definitely truth to Luna's words. This kind of situation, it would never happen in the physical world. Mystia, or in such a case, Olivia, was a very social person. She had to be in her line of work. She also had to be responsible and know when to engage with a strange or when to back off. Those experiences, while definitely good, did not necessarily translate into the game all that well. Luna might have been a character piloted by just about anyone, even someone with any ill intent. But they were playing a game together. They were meant to have fun.

"Hehe, it was definitely quite surprising, you know~? But this is still an MMO so finding random people and doing stuff with them is a good way to get new friends, I think~"

After all, the two girls were quickly becoming rather good friends, no? They didn't know one another for more than an hour, but Mystia felt that the other girl was genuine. There was no reason to question or doubt her because they were doing exactly what they were meant to be doing. Especially after Luna brought out a toolbox and described how she made her own magitechs.

"Oooh, I wouldn't mind helping at all~!"

@Luna Avalbane

 

[Luna Avalbane]

"You're absolutely right, yes! Meeting new people and inviting them to do things is the best way of meeting people in an MMO. It's just a lot safer here than it would be in the real world to do this kind of thing." And she certainly wouldn't let a stranger take her anywhere in the real world. After all, in the real world, she couldn't shoot flames from her hands, or create a machine gauntlet that could add force to her punches. Hell, in the real world, she couldn't even throw a decent punch.

Though with Mystia's help with her gauntlet secured, Luna would start sliding the lumps of scrap metal over to Mystia for the Faerin girl to take. "Do you know how to use a forge and furnace? If you do, would you mind trying to melt these down and seeing how pure you can get them for me please?" She withdrew a screwdriver from her toolbox and began to slowly dismantle the prototype, scrap constructed gauntlet, trying to remove the cartridge filled with stardust out of it.

"Also, if you're any good at drawing or designing, maybe you can help me design a faster release system for these stardust cartridges?"

@Mystia

 

[Mystia]

While Mystia did agree to help and took the scraps that were given to her, she had to admit that smithing might have been a bit outside of her expertise. The only contact with that craft she had was watching first-year engineering students through the window in high school. Even then, she didn't quite understand why that specific course had practical classes on smithing. That said, her specialization was IT, so she avoided all of it.

"Ah, um… I know you have to heat up the… coal? Haha, apologies, smithing and working a furnace might really be outside of my skill set~! But I think I can draw diagrams just fine~"

Now that was something she had much more interaction with during her own studies. Though most diagrams were automatically created from 3D models in specialized CAD software these days, students still had to practice drawing them by hand, and Olivia just so happened to be helping a friend of hers with, learning a lot in the process.

@Luna Avalbane