Time is hard to tell on a spaceship, even without relativistic effects to consider. In Flat Space it's even worse, as it plays havoc with biological clocks as well. This leads to a lot of sleep deprivation, which generally doesn't help with the regular hallucinations the environment can induce. Most turn to Dr. Knight for sometimes-effective sleep medication, while others go for exhausting themselves in one way or another. A lucky few aren't as affected, but the ships clock still isn't able to force them into a steady sleep schedule.
For Tasha, some of that useful exhaustion comes from reaffirming her personal bonds with people. But that can sometimes be smothering - in a literal sense, when she ends up at the bottom of the pile. In this case, the pile is just Gabriel and Hakeber, but she's a bit less able to handle the weight than she used to be. And both of her partners snore when they're exhausted. Which serves to remind her that Katie doesn't snore, but also prefers things to be more one-on-one.
Not wanting to wake either companion up, but unable to sleep herself, Tasha does the careful wiggle of a woman long-practiced with escaping beds full of people. Once up she takes the time to shower, a quick affair more common to her old life than new, and sneaks out wearing some comfortable shorts, a stretch supportive top -- stretch items being her go-to now that more than half her wardrobe is loose -- her booties and a hair pin to keep her hair in a ponytail.
Ready, the woman sneaks out on an aimless wander, something she seems to do a lot when there's little else to do. She had considered practicing 'magic', but decided it was a risky idea out here. Magic, after all, requires mindfulness and the grasping of memetic and greater universe forces, yet she's struggling enough with flat space. She could end up making mistakes, hurting herself or others. So, no to that. Along the way Tasha stops by Katie's room, to see if the female Karnor is fairing any better. She chimes the door.
There's no answer, but the door isn't fully shut in the first place.
So Tasha stuffs her muzzle in the crack and sniffs around; the nose is slightly less rude than peaking, if just because more species rely on eyes than scent.
It definitely smells like Katie has been spending too much time in there (and there may even be some not fully eaten handmeals as well). So either she's starting to turn into Hakeber or is driving herself to distraction. On the trip out she had sequestered herself and spent most of her time in virtual reality, but she never did says what virtual realities they were.
As the Will, and as The Girlfriend, Tasha decides it's her duty to butt in where she may not be wanted. She steps inside and closes the door behind herself, then takes an inventory of the room.
It's not as bad as it smells. The bed is still kept neat and there aren't any clothes piled up in the corners or unidentifiable stains. There are a lot of flimsies though - 'digital' sheets of paper - covered in notes. The wall screen is showing a listing of programs on cosmology. It looks like Katherine has gotten through the introductory ones. Most telling, however, is the absence of her guitar.
Tasha studies list of programs, wondering what Katherine could want with ongoing state of the universe. The red woman can speculate, as there's certainly no few connections between such an investigation to their work: The Star Seeds, the impact of the Ogdoad and their creations, the Sifra and their pogroms. There are so many connections she finds it difficult to pick any one as the likely reason; they could all be the reason. Dealing with universal questions and essential existence pushes thought and reflection, as Tasha knows very well.
The absence of the guitar is interesting, as is the absence of Katherine herself. Tasha glances back towards the door; could Katherine be playing for someone, somewhere? Or alone?
The easiest way to find would be to just ask the ship, but if Katherine is trying to be alone that could be problematical as well. But if she's not alone, she has to be somewhere that other people are also at.
And so Tasha simply decides to wander the ship, since she does that normally and has even since before she left The Rake. If she happens upon a hiding Katherine, it can seem like coincidence. She starts with the lounge, which is by far the most likely spot.
The lounge is empty, but smells of unwashed Lapi, so someone must have come through recently. No trace of Katie though.
The lounge was her best bet, but Tasha knows people have been avoiding other and so isn't too surprised to find no one here. Perhaps the videos on cosmology are the key? She can think of two locations where a person might reflect on such with another being, and a great many more throughout the ship. Samael had chosen to sit with the Tadpole, so perhaps Katherine would be interested in the little ship's presence as well. As a ship, it, too, could have a sense of the universe. She heads there.
The Tadpole bay (nobody has started calling it the Pond yet) is dark and quiet. The Tadpole may be asleep, or its equivalent, since it's not singing. There are no impossible colors apparent either, so Samael isn't likely around either.
That just leaves the Bridge with its host of resources. With the ship in the emptiness of flat space, there's are few gravitational entities to endanger it, and little to do allowing for a lax in the usual conduct expected. Katherine could be there. She heads fore.
Tasha knows she has hit the jackpot after passing the galley, where she spots Aaron in a bathrobe apparently gargling with coffee. There aren't any other sounds, not even from the med bay, so the voices coming from the bridge are easy to pick up. There's Katie, Moka, Hera and Soshelle talking in there.
"Hello everyone," Tasha greets the others as she steps on the Bridge, pausing a moment to take in the scene and brush a stray lock of hair away from her face. "Is something interesting afoot?"
The tactical table is being used to display bizarre looking geometric figures, including something that looks like an hourglass inside of a serious of slightly larger hourglasses. "Tasha," Katie says, perched on a stool with her guitar. "I asked a simple question, and it led to all this," she claims.
"We are discussing the rate of creation of new universes in the eternally expanding spacetime of D-Space," Moka chimes in from a monitor.
"And some of the ways we categorize hyperspace and causality," Soshelle adds.
"And dark matter and dark energy," Hera notes.
"And nobody is bringing us coffee either," Katie adds pointedly. "So, couldn't sleep?"
"Oh," goes Tasha, who feels the weight of a deep conversation coming on and so take a seat at an unoccupied station, turning the chair around so that she can face the others fully. She listens to the review, then turns to Katherine. "No I couldn't, so I thought I'd check on everyone and see what I could do."
"It's really overwhelming," Katie says, and idles strums her guitar. "It's the numbers. We're aware of the multiverse, but.. do you know how big it is?"
"In a very abstracted way," Tasha answers, and it's true. The beings she interacts with all generally work with a larger slice of the multiverse than she does, or for that matter, most everyone in her own universe does. It's not simply that they're aware of other universes, but they can have a real and consistent influence on them. The Waymakers travel them constantly, the Ogdoad devoured them, Thotep exists across them, and the Null may very well exists at the end of each of them. "My work with what you might call 'higher' beings, including beings of a memetic nature, usually involves lessons on the nature of the multiverse. Being able to handle incomprehensibly large concepts is part of interacting with them."
"Ten to the power of thirty to the power of seventy," Katie says. "Conservative estimate. And that's for the number of new universes created every second. Or every dark-second, which is a two-dimensional-time second."
"And ten to the 500th power possibly initial configurations," Soshelle offers. "Best guess. And I believe that one of those created in the far distant past, long before our generation of universes, was where the dark beings developed. Not in D-Space itself, but a universe with a similar energy density so that they could move out into it easily."
Tasha rests her hands in her lap, nodding slowly. "There certainly are a lot. I woman I know told me they may well be infinite." For her part, she's handled immense questions by simply accepting them without action. It's not that she doesn't dwell on them, she simply makes note of the information, relies she doesn't have all the information about it, and cannot at this time. In many way it's no different from cosmology, piloting, or knowing how many tasteful pillars exist in the universe. She also knows hysteria and panic can await by trying to take on big questions, to shoulder their burden. She moves through and between the questions, touching them and letting them go, shouldering them briefly and moving aside. Living between the space of big things mentally, as she does physically. She listens to the origin of the Dark beings and nods again. "I hadn't considered where they originated. I thought maybe they were a consequence of the mechanism of the multiverse as a whole."
"If they are created within D-Space, then technically they must be caused by quantum fluctuations," Soshelle reasons. "But that would make them expanding bubble universes as well. That does not seem to be the case however. They can move."
Tasha scratches her nose slowly. "Samael told me he's self-contained, that he can only effect himself, but he may also not be 'real'. Another person told me they are likely formed, partially, form convoluted space-times. They lack an interior, subjective, imaginative universe. They're drawn to us because we internally create realities less oppressive than the one they dwell in, which is unfiltered by the need for processes like senses, brains, and steps of removal." She draws in a deep breath, exhales, and goes on. "The Shadow-beings of a greater memetic nature are harder to grasp. They are, in a sense, reliant on our belief in them, so they may have been produced from the first emergence of sentience, as a by-product, or echo, and its influence on D-Space which is sensitive to concious minds."
"The notion of memetic entities is hard to grasp," the hyperspace specialist claims. "Even these shadow beings have some sort basis in quantum theory. Memetic existence is another level divorced from even that most fundamental level. That they could exert influence from the bottom up is very worrying."
"Doesn't it suggest that the meme they represent must have existed in some for even back then? That there was a sentience and mind for memetic to form from? Some of them rely on sentient minds to carry them, to help them propagate. That wouldn't have been possible, otherwise. Unless ... " Tasha sniffs, flicking her tail in to her hands, thumbing the top with her right hand. "They do seem to be extra-temporal. At least from the perspective of our and other temporally-aligned universal functions, they could seem to be first, but in reality be omni-temporal or at least multi-temporal so their influence does not depend on a temporal dimension at all."
"That goes back to the whole issue of universes being created," Katie says. "There really isn't a beginning to things. So.. what came first doesn't really fit into the context, and that's when we're trying to think of it in our own linear perception of time."
"Trying to make things fit to our perceptions a problem when dealing with matters such as this," Tasha agrees, nodding slowly again. "But it may not be an ineffective way to interact with memetic threats, as exerting your will against them could cause them to conform to your reality. You could ... " She digs around for the terminology Samael use, " ... exert your will against the domain of their existence. Some of them aren't real as we know it, they area living concepts able to exert influence and maintain sentience. This was a mistake the ancients often made, to fight the conceptual with the actual. And in being unable to, maybe their belief in their own weakness made it so?" Her ears perk; she'll have to remember that one.
"So, they are what people think they are rather than what they think they are?" Katie asks. "Is that how Sam can be invisible to people he doesn't want to see him?"
"They may have a self-concept, but that self concept is probably their concept. They think they are the meme they are. They won't just roll over because we think they don't exist, we must defeat the momentum of their self." Tasha pauses, head tilting as she reviews that. "I think. I'm new to magic. But if what I've been told is correct, they are living concepts, often also some measure of physicality, reality, or strange things as well. It is the Ogdru-hem's otherworldly nature that gives them power beyond the laws of this reality. The strength of their mind and influence can somehow change even static reality." She then nods to Katherine. "I believe so. He can mainly effect himself, however. So his influence on them must be self-contained, or local to his domain. He's not influencing them so much as changing his domain to slip past awareness. That seems like the product of understanding and a cunning use of his resources."
"So the ship's engine," Hera asks, "is the living concept or motion or something?"
"Our vessels use telekinesis for many things, but we do not have firm grasp of how it works," Soshelle admits.
"I think so," Tasha confirms, gesturing back towards the lift. "Or transport, or conveyance, or something of that effect. The manifest color of blue projected by Persephone is probably also a byproduct of the immensity of her mind in to local space and thought, because that color isn't real. Also," and here Tasha raises a finger; her tail also goes up much the same way. "They are what they know. The Shadow-beings are what they know. They have no internal reality. They are reality. The experience it directly, and are also of it. But they're also sentient. So their grasp of memetic nature is a fundamental part of their actual being. And that being can influence a reality."
"I was trying to avoid existential dread when I started learning this stuff," Katie says, and strikes a discordant chord on her guitar. "But it seems the more you know, the less you understand."
"Well, it's for me to worry about, right?" Tasha reaches up to tap her head, her tail points at her head as well. "That's why I'm the Will. And maybe understanding isn't exactly the right way of things. It seems to me eventually must declare what is correct and make it so. Realities are made of rules, structure, influence that resists us. But past that, the multiverse seems much more malleable. Isn't the nature of a god to create? And sanity is measured by understanding of reality. So an all-powerful god could not be sane, as all would be a reflection of its own will, or sanity and its desire are the same thing."
There's another note, coming from behind Katie on the console. She slowly turns and looks at it. "Huh.. that shouldn't be happening," she notes.
"Those are exciting words," Tasha remarks, standing up, brushing herself off needlessly, and walking over to have a look. "Did the universe bring us coffee?"
The incoming message indicator is flashing. Katie stares at it. "Moka, did we just get a lot closer to the nearest hyperwave beacon?" she asks. "No, we are not in range of it.. not for a long while yet," the Phin replies.
Katie stares at it some more, making no move to select it and see what the message is. "I don't want to answer it," she admits to Tasha.
"Time to show some leadership skills," Tasha chimes in. She gently, but firmly, nudges Katherine from her chair so she can take a seat.
The message indicating is a pulsing red. It reminds Tasha a bit of the color that came from Samael's wounds. The impossibility of it does give it an ominous sort of weight. It doesn't help that the other are crowding in behind her now.
Tasha reaches for it, but then stops. She makes a very deliberate show of lowering her hand, closes her eyes, taking a deep breath, exhaling, and then reaching for the touch screen.
The indicator is pressed.
"Dark Horse Enterprises transport vessel Dark Horse. The is Aldara Tasha Argentine. How may I help you?"
There is a burst of clattering noise, and then the light changes to green. A real-time link. After the noise come growling and banging and a distant, forlorn howl, even everyone else is backing away from the console now. Finally, "Dis on? Datchoo Rustpuppy?" It sounds distorted, but familiar. Bumper.
"Bumper?!" Tasha exclamation is loud and equally sudden. She throws up her hands and drops back in her chair, laughing for a long moment before suddenly leaning forward, up to where the mic is fixed to the board. "This is choo. What are you all doing out here?" She pauses, ears going up. "Was it my signal?"
"Big stink, gotta sniff it," Bumper claims. "Notice hammer ship out here. Verra 'spicious. Gotta steal your pants now, find out what happen. Who to blame, mebbe."
"Big stink," Tasha agrees. "Pants got eaten. You'll see. Lets meet up?" Leaning back, the red woman yells across the Bridge, "Kaa, Moka! Intercept that signal. We're going to meet them in real-space. Prepare for docking after we surface, Titanian vessel inbound."
"Which one?" Kaa calls back. "Ugly one or scary ugly one?"
"There's more than one?" Tasha leans back to the mic. "Got'chu friends out there, Bumper? Fleet, maybe?"
"Just the Mauler," Bumper claims. "Heard you ran into Divine Lobotomy though out by ol' Acheron."
"Yeah had questions, new to things, needed help, cute woman with cup, that sort of thing." Tasha turns to Katherine and thumbs towards the fore mouthing, 'check for other vessels,' then returns to the mic. "Can't remember why exactly, been very busy. We're going to surface for docking. You'll want to check things." It's not a question; Tasha knows that even if she had been trying to avoid the Mauler, doing so would be a very bad decision.
"Should you get the Captain?" Hera asks, actually sounding nervous. Belters do not like Titanians.
Tasha gives Hera a nod and waves her to go do just that while saying, "I know Bumper, she's probably just worried about us. This is a strange place for us to be." Back to the mic. "So found Luk'thu-hem, big mother-Shadow, Ogdru-hem. Had baby Waybuilder, big fight, very exciting, kind of died, was Human, met mom-whale, new thing now, destroyed fleet with old scary weapon. Better than leaving it for Galactics."
"I come over," Bumper says, and then the link is broken.
"So is this good or bad?" Katie asks. "They could get us back to known space pretty fast if they wanted to, right?"
Tasha's hand moves to the internal broadcast button and hits it. "Stand by for ... something," Tasha announces, sitting straight. She then turns to those gathered and shrugs her shoulders, her hands, and her tail. "It's probably good. They're going to want an account of what happened, in detail, and they're going to want to check me as well. This is big news for them, big and scary news. I'm sure they noticed the damage to reality and that I stopped being around for a moment."
If the announcement didn't rouse people, the surfacing klaxon certainly would. Although there is a lot of shuffling and bathrobes when people do show up. Noticeably absent are Samael and Thoth however. "I was getting my beauty sleep," Modo claims, despite being fully dressed in his mechanic's overalls and toolbelt.
"Then I'm sure the Titanians will appreciate the effort," Tasha tells Modo, smiling at him in a nervous sort of way. She stands center-Bridge, arms folded. "So, as I said, the Titanians have tracked us here. Lucky for us they're Titanians I know, but I have a feeling a lot of Titanians know something happened out here and we were there. Don't ask how I know, that's the sort of question that gets a hammer to the noggin. And since it's going to be obvious in a moment, yes I deal with Titanians, and yes I'm allies with this particular vessel so we're probably going to be okay."
"Do you have a hiding place for what's left of the booze?" Hera asks. Professor Stanislav is near to panic though. "Titanians?" he says, as if the other horrors they've faced were nothing to panic about. But the Titanians are a known danger. Possibly exaggerated, but Tasha has seen the Mauler in very brief and effective battle.
"You get used to them," Hakeber says.
"Well, the scruffier we look for this the better," Gabriel notes. Yue still looks half asleep, and is being propped up by Liza. Her bathrobe drags on the floor, so it must be borrowed from one of the taller folks.
It is this memory that fuels Tasha's desire to evade neither the Mauler nor the Mauler's crew's desire for the truth. In many ways it feels like she's about to be subject for an inspection by an authority, except in this case it may as well be an anti-authority. "The Titanians take a certain interest in what I do. They're aware that I, like them, engage in research and opposition of the Ogdru-hem. They also take an interest in anything that endangers the galaxy, and that means endangers the universe. Such as that weapon I used. They will probably focus their questions at me."
"The Library module," Yue says, rubbing at her forehead. "The one from the wooden battleship..."
"Yeah, they also make sure dangerous artifacts don't get into.. anyone's hands," Gabriel says. "You need to make sure they don't take our one real prize, Tash."
"They might have a problem with that. or, they might not. They may even help us use it." Tasha gives Yue an apologetic smile. "All I can do is try and negotiate. We're lucky it's the Mauler and not one of the other vessels. I have a special relationship with the captain and crew of that vessel. In a sense, I'm considered an honorary Titanian, so that may work in our favor." And so she shrugs again, nodding to Gabriel. "I'll do my very best." Of course, they could well decide to grab her, too.
"The Dainty Mauler is coming alongside," Kaa announces. The Phins are keeping quiet about their dealings with these particular Titanians as well. "Port side, if anyone wants to meet them at the airlock."
"May as well meet them as I am," Tasha notes to anyone who cares to listen as she heads for the exit from the Bridge. "Any attempt to conceal things, even from embarrassment, might be seen as worth investigating. Gods know I'm strange enough without putting on a space suit." And they do. "If you want to seem less suspicious, come with me."
The ones who aren't immediately running to their rooms to hide things join Tasha. A formidable group to impress the Titanians: the Captain in boxers and a T-shirt that barely fits, a tired looking rabbit with a large mug of coffee, a Neo-chimpanzee idly holding a very large wrench, and a pop-idol armed with a guitar. But to be fair, they do fill up the available space well. The airlock indicator shows that someone has entered. There's no actual cycling of air or anything, since it's an airlock in appearance only. The inner door opens and there is Bumper in her space armor and helmet.. and half dozen barely-Lapi-sized figures in shiny silver suits and bubble helmets that immediately race out from around the Titanian, between the greeting party, and off into the corridors.
"What the hell were those?" Gabriel blurts out.
And there's Tasha, slowly watching the silver beings rush off down the corridor before just as slowly looking back to Bumper. Slighter, more delicate of feature, fey in style and manner, and with that curious sun-shaped mark on her forehead, she looks like a cross between a demon and a fairy caught off guard on her day off. "You brought me short silver people," she greets her old friend, "And here I didn't bring you anything. Should I ask about my present, or is it a surprise?"
The helmet comes off, and Bumper sniffs the air. "Guh, what you guys been eating?" She then swipes Aaron's coffee and tosses it down her throat. "You lose weight, Rustpuppy?" she then asks as she looks Tasha over. "Hrrr, man got bigger though I think. An' I sure you gots something for me, just don't know what yet! You got a fire pit in here?"
"Would the Galley do?" She thumbs back over her shoulder in the direction of the aforementioned area, then turns and starts heading that way before a response comes. "Flat space making everyone flat-brained. This is a fourth of the total passengers, they rest were "ooh Titanians scary" and hid in their rooms. We can make coffee." She waves in to the Galley, waves to the seats, and then plops herself down two seats from the cloest ones to the exit. "Have a seat. Lots to talk about?"
Bumper takes her time adjusting the bench. While she's doing that, and Aaron is starting up the coffee engine, Lacci rushes in! "Tasha there are little silver.. furry.. creatures ransacking the ship!"
By way of explanation, Tasha tilts her head towards Bumper, and then thumbs at her.
"My workshop!" Modo realizes, and runs off, actually knuckle-walking for extra speed.
"Oh, dey harmless," Bumper claims.
"Two thumbs on each hand," Aaron notes to Tasha. Kavi.
"Harmless," Tasha agrees, nodding slowly to Lacci and turning until only Lacci can see her, at which point Tasha makes a very subtle I don't know either shrug with her hands. She glances at Aarion, then adds, "Kavi. From where I'm from. I've never seen them out here, either."A little raise of the brows and rock of the head reinforces her earlier gesture of not knowing. Then, it's back to Bumper.
"So yeah got job, take Seeders to Halo, find Star Seeds, very exciting. Found Luk'thu-hem. Still very exciting, also very dangerous. Old Ones fleet, dead in space. Waybuilder child, came after fleet, took shot at Luk'thu-hem, didn't work. Got stuck. Been fighting, till we came."
Lacci also seems to reflexively puff in the presence of an actual Titanian. Bumper ignores her until she finally gets her seating to where she likes it. "Where'd the one that smells nice go?" she asks Tasha. Probably referring to Modo, who always somehow manages to smell of grease. "Back up!" she then tells Tasha. "Start with Trumpet God, Acheron."
"Oh him. Memory is fuzzy, not like head is fuzzy. Got eaten. New body." Tasha makes a hammering gesture at her head, as if she were holding a little mallet. "Under repairs. So. Found old trap system, then found thing old trap system built to trap. Trumpet God fighting Berserkers, big stalemate, probably losing. Had to run away after Horn scares us off. Shiny Vartan God says talk to Thotep, so talk to Thotep. Get offer, find demon, Dark Horse weapon ready. Found demon, Dark Horse weapon ready. Dagger of Eibon. Soul-burn type casuality failure weapon. Trumpet God no more."
Bumper leans in, and asks, "Where demon now?" She has a very good poker face, which means she's hiding something, since Titanians never bother with poker faces. They're more the "Poke her face!" sorts.
"Oh in shadows, being spooky, always sneaking up and lurking. Demon stuff. Mostly harmless," Tasha insists, waving it off as she waggles her hands. "Need him to use ship-weapon. Used up some of power saving ship from gremlins that come in after rip hole in reality. Demon-cannon not come with instructions."
"So where other ship?" Tasha then asks, casually. "Got me new ship?"
"What other ship?" Bumper counters, and then pats her many pockets. Only Titanians would put pockets on their armor. "In other armor," she claims.
"You skip over important part," Bumper then points out to Tasha. "Thotep. And Prax."
So whoever came with them is either off the Titanian's sensors or else wants the Mauler to keep quiet. And that could be any other Titanian power, Tasha realizes. They may still be alive because the Dainty Mauler crew convinced some Titania force to speak to her first, which means the other vessel is waiting for a wrong move from them. At least Tasha is proud she saw this coming. "Ahh yeah, memory not so good. Very busy, very dead. Right, so, Wizard in world, and another' hem'. Wizard have demon; talk to Wizard, get demon back. Wizard not want to fight Thotep, so gave back demon. We go to leave, Wizard or Leviathan use 'hem' to hammer worldlines. Get stuck as man, awful. Man-Tasha works with demon, dives in to 'hem', end up in Mr. Yellow's domain. Carry Marker, Mr. Yellow fix worldline. No choice, Man-Tasha accepts. Worldline fixed. World eaten by Mr. Yellow. Stuck being Mr Yellow's Servitor."
"Hmmm," Bumper ponders quietly for a moment, then holds her hand out. "Show me."
"Marker?" Tasha asks, then she looks up and makes a shooing motion for everyone else present. Anyone who has seen it knows they can stay; the others, she'd rather not infect them.
Aaron sets a pot of coffee on the table and just leaves. Lacci is still being puffed up, but looking put out that the Titanian is ignoring her. It's Katie that actually leads her off, despite the Vartan twisting her head around to maintain her glare for as long as possible. "I can close my eyes," Gabriel says, and does so.
Tasha barks an order to seal the Galley, causing the hatch to slide shut and the light beside it to switch to a unfriendly shade of red. She then rummages around herself until the Yellow Marker appears, and this she hands to Bumper.
"Hmm," Bumper goes, as she holds the Marker.. and then bites it. Unlike with Charon, she doesn't actually manage to get a chunk of it off. She does make a face and stick out her tongue though. "Nasty. Where you keeping that, in butt?"
"In soul," Tasha answers, spreading her hands. "Not real. Projection of concept in real-space. Memetic expression of Mr. Yellow's existence. Mr. Yellow propagates by sentient mind, so lives in inner-universe. Soul is inner universe. Projection of inner-universe Mr. Yellow in real-universe. Power of Shadow beings. Magic."
"Nasty junk," Bumper claims. "God-guts, basically." She slides the marker back across the table and guzzles from the pot of coffee. It causes steam to come out of her nose. "Okay, that one deal. What Thotep want?"
"Want demon back. Demon stays on ship. Hilt of Dagger, can't use without. Nothing more, but don't trust him. Maybe just wants Dagger used; lots of Ogdru-hem gone, now." And so Tasha shrugs, stuffing the Marker back out of sight where it ceases to be, though it never had been anyway. "Suspect long-plan in the works, not need deal. Plan happen either way; maybe only happen without deal."
"Get headache thinking like Goat God," Bumper agrees. "Still, whole planet gone now. Who knows reason?"
"Wizards tasty?" But Tasha nods; who knows. "Kind of cranky, actually. Grumpiest of shapes. What else. Not sure what to do about deal. Not much choice; not even me, exactly, when happen. But grateful; bad deal is still deal, safe family better than cursed." She gives the woman across her an apologetic look, then nudges Gabriel with her hoof to let him know it's safe to look again. "Come back from space, get job from Seeders, seemed like fun vacation. Not fun vacation."
"Fun to come out here the long way?" Bumper asks, and then laughs and slaps the table. "So, coinkydink you come here, huh? What you expecting to find, really?"
"Star Seed nest. Answer big questions, why species similar, bring people together. Instead, find Luk'thu-hem and old, old battlefield. Waybuilder, big surprise that. Hard to talk to." Tasha stands up, then wanders over to the kitchen and pulls out several bags of shaped crackers, returning with them and a plate. She starts emptying the crackers on a plate in a big pile. "Why, not suppose to come here? Things should avoid?" She pauses to look up.
"Yeah, not supposed to find anything that you did," Bumper says, throwing her hands towards the ceiling. "Supposed to just wait for Bitch God to finish dying. Million more years, tops. Space sick out here. Sick around her. And you poke at graveyard, eh? You do that a lot."
"Dead a lot more exciting than advertised. Dead now, too. Still exciting," Tasha insists, beaming. "Met Afterlife Goddess, very nice, and Ferryman. Very cute. Too cute. Cute enough to die for. Graveyard old and interesting; lots of history. Lots of education. See what Old Ones did wrong. Learn battle tactics, ways of Old Ones. Interesting. Scary." Tasha begins arranging the crackers on the table. Luk'thu-hem is a grouchy looking squid cracker, Charon is a red smiling fish cracker. Off in the wings, a blue smiling fish cracker must be Persephone, while assorted other shapes around them must be the fleet. She taps one. "Found second soul-weapon, armed. Thought about it. Charon safe, Waymakers gone. Luk'thu-hem dead. What do? What would Titanians do, what would Galactics? Tried to clean it up, used weapon, put in jar, put jar in jar. Poof, gone. Broke space." She holds her fingers an inch apart; broke space just a little.
"Mmm," Bumper goes, and then eats one of the fleet crackers. "How you get blue crackers?" she asks. "So, broke space. Then what?"
"Some kind of dye, dunno. Blue is complicated." Tasha reaches from her pile and eats a handful of as-yet-undeclared-animal-shape-crackers, herself. After chewing that down, she answers, "See Gremlins following. Not sure how to handle, will catch up. Made deal with fleeing Wizard. No." The young woman looks pained, leaning back. "No. Demon made deal with Wizard, used self, lure and devour. Self as bait, Wizard to devour both." She eats another handful of crackers and sighs, looking down and pushing one of the fleet around in circles. "Broke down, wasn't available. Demon took over, saved ship."
"Sounds fishy," Bumper says. "What you bring back from fleet before burying it?"
Tasha decides the Titanians will find out sooner or later, and a lie now could sink them. Actually sink them, if the other Titanian vessel is what she thinks it is. "Wood Library. Going to use to dig through old stuff, find other Ogdru-hem, find Library hub, answer questions. Look at old tools, old plans, old influences. Better than poke around. Got some old wood too, for whittling. Make walls?"
Bumper leans back and taps her claws on the table top. "Hrrrm," she goes, adding an extra sound than she'd done before. "Keeping it on ship?" she then asks. "Not sell, not give away?"
"Yeah keep on ship. No dare give away, didn't sink Fleet in to urn to make them fight over library-ball," Tasha insists, tossing back a cracker in to her waiting maw.
"What else you not telling me?" Bumper then asks.
"Lots, but maybe not intentionally. Lots happen. Lots to remember, not sure what important." Tasha drops her elbow on the table and her head on that, thinking, then she reaches over and pours them both a cup of coffee while she does, handing her cup to her tail, which is definitely new. "Big fight. Um. Died. Yeah, talk about that." She points to her tail, and it points at her head. "Dead-dead, eaten by Luk-thu-hem drone. Charon brought back, was Human until mom show up. New species now. Have children. Species-of-one. Make more of self. One with spore now, too, serve me. Can see colors of Shadow. Maybe, do magic. Power of Shadow. Use Shadow against itself. Maybe part demon now. But, almost complete."
"Charon," Bumper says, and taps on the appropriate cracker. "What a Charon, 'xactly?"
"Little Waybuilder. Young. Child. Maybe baby? Hard to tell. But equivalent, younger than me. Best guess, not baby, but not adult. Not close." Tasha traces a finger around the red cracker. "Found way in to universe. Found Luk'thu-hem. Waymakers enemies of Shadow, Charon tried to kill Luk'thu-hem, made mistake. Got grappled, could not get out. Luk'thu-hem tried drain power, kill Charon, regenerate. Stalemate. Boarded Charon, fought using Yellow Marker. Yellow Poison. Was winning until dead. Try again. Charon made combat body, big dragon, very nice. Second fight goes much better, fire concept from dragon-brain, Luk'thu-hem dissolve."
"Dying a pain," Bumper notes. "Waybuilder. Progenitor god. Didn't know they came 'round."
"Didn't either. Only met one before. Said nothing. Sent me to Atum. Very unusual to meet any at all. Can't stay in universe; other ones may come, see Shadow is here. Destroy universe." Tasha places several more fish on the outside in a pile. "Scary."
"Universes small, hard to find," Bumper claims. "Who you got withs you this trip? Seeders?"
"Waybuilders sense other Waybuilders. Why had to leave quick. Two here, others come. Bye-bye universe," Tasha explains. She then glances at the locked hatch and nods. "Seeders, Niss, Samael-demon, Thoth-Vril-ya, Tatha-hem-ship, Tadpole ship, Jotoki, cats, crew. Also, Blue Marker." She taps her chest. "In soul. Gift of Persephone."
"Taste better?" Bumper asks. "Hoa.. you gots Thoth?"
"Soothing taste," Tasha agrees. "Lets me talk to Persephone. Mentor, now. Teaching me how to lead, how to be. Smart. Big honor." And so Tasha smiles. "We gots Thoth. Hermes God, Knowledge God. Joined crew, going to make new organization, have occult section. Need to reorganize, current strategy unfeasible. Can't do it all alone."
"What you plan to do next?" Bumper asks, since Tasha opened the door.
"Drop off Seeders. Rest at Caltrop. Consider vacation at Ymir. Need to see who staying, who going. Establish hierarchy and organization. See who want to join, what resources are. Become Will, leader. Organization aside, next target is Daltuna Station. House Khomen. Katha-hem put memory in Hake-bear's head, aimed there. Ogdru-hem there. Mr. Yellow wants me there. There we go." Tasha sweeps all the crackers back on to her pile, then pulls a few out and arrange them. "House Khomen and Daltuna new kind of battle, against Galactic forces. Using Ogdru-hem for stator manufacture. Lord Khomen attack Primus once. Going to be making enemies."
"What make you think you not already have enemies?" Bumper says.
"More enemies," Tasha corrects. "House Khomen maybe not know, but maybe will after. Can't be helped."
"Khatta Houses," Bumper growls. "Gots their fingers in lots of pies. Waste of pies!" This reminds Tasha of the boarding simulation during the flight back from Sheol - where the Titanian pirates used tactical pies.
Tasha tries very hard to suppress a smirk; she only partially succeeds. "I hear Khomen got hand in artifact-trade pie. Not just Shadow-beings and stators, relics, artifacts, old technology. Found way to evade Titanians."
Bumper growls. "Sneaky cheaters," she curses, showing her oversized fangs. "Try steal whole Silent-Ones Star Empire! Mebbe they know too much about things." She puts an ominous emphasis on 'too much.' She then takes a moment to de-hackle. "Don't trust them enough to attack 'em though," she concedes. "Show me what loot you gots. Honorary status depend on it."
"Hokay," Tasha agrees without struggle, knowing it's for the best and, in addition, when she's vastly out gunned. Vastly out gunned, and doesn't want to fight her potential opponent. It's a special distinction. She rises and waves Bumper to follow her. "Not much really. Waymakers clean up good and used scary urn to put fleet in urn, then urn in urn. Poof. Gone." She spreads her hands: Gone. "Just wood bits and Library. Sam might count too, more like crew now. Demon crew. Hard to get used to, but interesting. Instructive." And out they go.
There are still silver-clad Kavi running about, but nobody appears to be chasing them yet at least. "Like to meet Dammitall.. no, Sam-I-Am.. the demon," Bumper requests, looking at everything. "Where find all this old-style stuff? Like out of holo-drama of Heroic Age."
"Oh, you not here when we set it up." Tasha had forgotten that part. She looks around to make sure none of the passengers and crew-that-don't-know-the-scariest-bits-yet aren't listening, then explains. "Is space-time bent to create fake-matter. Almost all interior structure. Tnuctipin smart-tech. Niss overseeing, act like central AI." She waves a hand at a wall. "Fake-matter," a railing, "That too," then as they head aft and a bulkhead door slides open, "This thing too. Real matter on board, maybe 10% tops?"
"Ah, it made of Marker then, eh?" Bumper asks, and gives Tasha a thankfully-light punch in the shoulder. "Tasha Marker. But ya, ray-tracing. Complicated if it all works tho. Upper limit on interior surface, define amount of data can be in hologram. Lots, if high rezo-looshun."
It still kind of hurts. Tasha rubs her shoulder when Bumper isn't looking; her new body isn't quite as durable as the old, nor as strong. "Smart-tech," she agrees. "Even Niss still figuring out. New systems available all the time. Ship made from smartest First Ones and memetic incarnation of madness." They step in to the hangar, where Tasha stops to see if anyone is lurking around. "Library in shielded box, uh, there." She points across the bay at a secured crate equally secured near the aft elevator, "Keeping eye on it."
The Library is also positioned where the Titan can reach down and grab it, interestingly enough. "Was on ship of Thotep worshippers."
"Hmmm," Bumper goes, and walks up to the crate to sniff at it. Then unfolds some sort of device covered in mismatched light elements, and holds it up to the side of the crate. The lights seem to blink, flicker and pulse randomly for a bit, then she folds it back up and sticks in a different pocket than the one she took it from. She then turns towards the Grunt suit and the makeshift workshop. "Oooooo!"
"Yeah got that too. Not loot, just bought it. Sad, someone throw it away. Poofy staring girl or statue-boy pilot it." She heads over there and waves around vaguely. "Also passenger work here, don't need to say which one. Been rebuilding Grunt, needed smaller-but-still-large power suit."
"You too dainty now, need tin can?" Bumper teases, and knocks on the side of the Grunt with a 'borrowed' wrench of some sort from the work table. It's not actually made of tin, but the typical ferro-ceramic alloy that everything else seems to be made from that is expected to operate in space.
"Yeah kind of," Tasha admits of herself, even if she's being teased. "Not sure why, Dragon Mom said I make myself." That continues to puzzle Tasha, and she suspects it will for some time. "Might try magic? Got Thoth and Sam, light and dark. Maybe help see how Shadow-things and Light-things do things." She then waves up to the Melchior. "Thoth make Titan, so maybe can upgrade Mel, too."
"We can do that!" Bumper offers. "Cannon in chest! Laser nipples! Self-destruct thingy! Flames on side, shoot really far! Flashy bits."
Tasha holds up her hands placatingly. "Yeah very good, but Titan for other purpose. Magic, make Vril-energy, more for elevate pilot than battle-power. Real strength is mind." Her hands fall and she turns to look up at the vehicle. "Thoth explain. Meant to elevate pilot to being closer to Vril-ya, higher state. Not work yet. Maybe work when I understand magic. Got lots of ideas. Seen lots, now. Going to try."
"Hmmm," Bumper goes, sounding disappointed.. and then she starts really looking hard at Tasha. "So, what special about new body?" she asks. "Laser nipples? Poop candy? X-ray vision?"
Tasha puts the pointer finger of her right hand on her forehead. "Can see extra-universal energies. Shadow-energy. Can't hide from me, if in range. Range not very good. Know when person influence by lingering memetic-energetic effect." She then turns her hands outward, showing the Human-like palms, feathered wrists, and taloned fingers. "Extra-feely hands." The hands point down. "Cloven hooves, easier to walk on." And then she pats her lower belly. "Can have kids. Females all like me, males like male who made them. Not sure how works, will find out soon mebbe." And so she winks.
"Hokay, we take one girl," Bumper says. "Not baby though. Mebbe adolescent. Marry to nice Titanian. Then you line be protected, yah? Use to cause trouble on behalf of Titanians. Lots fun for her, promise."
"Will think on," Tasha offers, head tilting. "Have to be her choice. Not want to force, will end badly. Little me, so know very well." She taps the side of her head; she has experience with herself. The hand falls and she turns,, heading towards the fore. "Time to find demon. You around, Sam? easier if you come out. be straightforward, looks good on reviews."
Nothing responds. "So, demon is real, yah?" Bumper asks. "Not voices-in-head kind o' demon? Void Demon? This space lousy with those. Need good brain enema, flush 'em out."
"Ugh," is Tasha's response to the void demons; little else need be said. or felt. She punches the elevator and heads up with Bumper. "Demon is real as demons be. He explain it indirectly: No Yellow energy, no Blue energy. memetic, conceptual. Samael not exactly like Ogdru-hem, more outsider. Self is domain. Like mini-universe with spooky wit. Self-defining, but controlled by Thotep, not sure how much. But Shadow-beings memetic, outsider. Perception of Sam maybe real, maybe not, in this-universe laws sense. Maybe just shadow on the mind, shadow that alive."
"Shadow can't be alive," Bumper claims. "Needs something to project it."
"Maybe concept live in all of us, like Hastur." Tasha nods, it could well be true. The lift opens and they step out in to the Owner's Area, which she immediately heads through. "Fancy area for personal living," she explains of it, "Lounge next. Thoth there. Maybe know where Sam is."
Since this is the 'private' elevator it stops next to Tasha's room on the executive deck. They are greeted by a naked Kavi girl that Yue has in a headlock. The Kavi still isn't giving up what might be a pair of Liza's lingerie. "Oh, hi Tasha," Yue says, seeming a bit more alive than she seems to have been the last time they encountered each other. The human is still half in and half out of a bathrobe though.
"Having fun?" Tasha inquires, stopping to watch the scene with the serene smile of someone used to standing in the heart of the storm. "You met Bumper?" She thumbs at the Titanian beside her. "This is Bumper. Mentor. Those," she points at the girl, "Kavi. From Sinai."
"Nah, Kavi from Kav'huok," Bumper claims.
"I remember Bumper," Yue says. "Going to abduct any of us?" She may be small, but she knows her restraining holds.
"Oh, really?" Tasha turns to Bumper and arches her eye brows, or at least the Karnor-headed equivalent. "Pre-Expedition arrival then. Never seen old records, who there before and who came with Fleet."
"Oh mebbe Lacci, can use for dusting," Tasha suggests, regarding abductions.
"No sure yet," Bumper answers Yue. "Kavi our Clients," she tells Tasha. "Went on Titanic."
"Oh, huh." Titanian clients. Tasha mulls over this a moment, then shrugs. "Make sense. Good combination."
"You keep one, good for steal stuff," Bumper offers. "Spy for Mauler."
"Yeah, uhh," Tasha points at the one Yue has, "That one. Not so sneaky can't catch. Lose stealing battle, ours now." And so she reaches over and pats the captive girl's head. "Welcome to ship. I own it. Big wolf captain." She straightens, then pats Yu'e head since she's preoccupied. "Take good care of new Kavi. Glad better. Have to find demon now, under review. Big cannons. Got to look good. Very important."
"She better be housebroken," Yue is heard to say as Bumper and Tasha move on. Since Sam is forbidden from hiding in Tasha's bedroom, he could be in the office or lounge. Less likely in any of the personal quarters, especially the one occupied by Thoth and his.. friend.
His extra-special hybrid friend, at that. "Well lets look around. Hide in shadows, that sort of thing." And so she and Bumper start looking in one room at a time while she hopes whatever mystery ship lurks outside doesn't get impatient.
The lounge couches don't have traditional cushions to hide in, but then Sam can hide from anyone in plain sight except for Tasha. There aren't any signs of the demon here, not even inside the piano, but everything looks slightly moved around. When the Mauler Kavis turn over a room, they seem to be very neat about it. "So what he look like?" Bumper finally asks, after they've been searching for awhile.
"Whatever he want," Tasha admits, looking around some more in the likely fruitless effort that he may simply pop up. "Usually like male me, except lost energy, so now like little brother me. Kind of weird. Maybe why had to touch him, like he some kind of living Marker."
"Touch him?" Bumper ask. "Touch him touch him? When he look like brother. Freaky stuff, Rustpuppy.."
"No not like that!" Tasha turns around and flails her hands at Bumper for good denial measure. "Don't cheat on Gabriel, careful around demons! You want more demons?"
"How you get more demons?" Bumper asks. "They breed on corpses, like flies, yah? So.. what you gots to lure him out with? Didn't bring any corpses this time."
"Breed on lots of things, soul-flensing, memetic copying ... " Tasha waggles her hands. Lots of things. She sits on the bench-like couch that encircles the Bridle's spoke, and plants a head on her hand. "Maybe try magic? Or Thoth. Want to meet Thoth? Kiddo of Horus and Ahriman."
"Eh, I hear he really creepy and can teleport," Bumper says. "Weird, cuz he not like Vulcan. Made by other gods, kinda mortal.. story shows up in lots of cultures. Plenty of weird demi-things like that. Never saw a demon tho."
"Always wonder how he get around, planet to planet." Tasha makes a mental note to ask about that later. "Hokay, well, lets see."
And so Tasha decides to try something. She takes a deep breath, pulls her legs in, and steadies her mind the way she was taught.
Inner domain. Outter domain. Will. Colors. Samael is a demon, and so his reality is not defined by the laws of this universe, only constrained by them. He is his own universe, but his will isn't powerful enough to exert influence on anything other than himself. Tasha supposes maybe that's a limitation of Servitors, or else a measure of his power. What it means is that Sam can only effect, and possibly move through, this universe by ways the work in this reality, even if his form is his to decide. And to place something in to a shape is to control something; both reality and Thotep control Samael, just as reality controls her as well.
And so Tasha thinks on these things, turning inward to her spore. She doesn't know what constrains it, but maybe she can try to project her will gently in to the ship around her and so attempt to sense that which resists her -- minds. There's only two demons, so the one that isn't in the Bridle will be Samael.
The young woman focuses, then tries to project her influence through the spore just as the Star Horse did through its mind and horn.
The effect isn't broadening her sense, but focusing it. This way, all of the 'perception' as it were could be extended at the cost of narrowing it to a tight beam of sorts. It also means that she doesn't get any extra context, since all of her senses are essentially dampened save for the one, as if they all had to share the same mental energy, and now the beam was draining the pool they all shared. It makes for a haphazard method, since she can't be entirely certain of direction. It also means that she has two reflections that aren't Tatha-hem: one of them must be Hakeber. But finding her is a simpler matter. The technique does get around another issue though: Tatha-hem's shadow. If her sense were any broader, she would not sense the brief 'gap' between one reflection and Tatha-hem herself. Since it's essentially straight down and a little forward, that places it in the Tadpole bay. Or else in a corridor, since distance isn't something immediately obvious this time.
Tasha snaps her eyes open while shutting the third. She blinks for a moment, looks around to see that, yes, she's still where she remembers herself to be, then claps her hands together and bounces on the cushion. "It worked," she exclaims, bouncing a little more, "When I try things like that it's never worked before. I must really be ;earning something, after all!" She briefly wonders if anyone felt the laser beam of sensing and if Thoth will rush in to glare at her, but that's secondary to the thrill of success. "Down. He's down. In the corridor, or in the Tadpole bay." She stands up, clears her throat, and adds, "Ahem, lets go yah this way here we go."
"Sure you don't gotta visit the toilet?" Bumper asks. "You looked like you really hadda go dere for a bit. And why you breeding frogs in space?" But she does get up to follow.
"Got to replace old dead frog empire somehow," Tasha insists, avoiding the topic of how she may or may not have looked. They take the aft lift and are soon in the corridor, looking around. "Sam?"
It's just Aaron with a new cup of coffee. This cup is pink with a rainbow on it. He still looks tired and takes a sip before replying, "No, I'm not Sam. I also don't know where this mug came from. I think one of the Kavi swapped it for one of ours with the horse-head on it."
"Their loss," Tasha insists. She looks around once more, then continues walking, telling Aaron as she goes, "Under review. Got to find Sam. Talk later, enjoy cup!"
And then it's down in to the Lower Cargo Bay.
"That gonna grow into a really big frog," is Bumper's comment on seeing the Tadpole.
"Confederate little bio-ship, here for testing and experience," Tasha explains, gesturing towards the little ship. Since there's no artificial gravity here, she simply pushes off and gently collides with the Tadpole, then gives it a pat as she holds on to one of the spines. From where she starts looking around. "Sam? Need you to meet Titanians now."
Sam appears around the hull of the Tadpole. "So, she needs to see me, or do you want me to do something else?" he asks Tasha, making it clear that he's still hiding from Bumper's perception.
"Good question." Tasha turns to Bumper, head tilted. "What you need to do with Sam?"
"Hmmmm," Bumper thinks. "Squeeze. Taste. Sniff. Bite, mebbe."
And so Tasha looks back to Samael. "Well there you have it. We do have what may be two large and powerful Titanian vessels reviewing how we conduct ourselves now." Tasha drops the accent, at least for now. It might be habit but she is asking a member of her crew to subject themselves to what may be unpleasant. "I've already explained to her your situation and how the ship works." Or how we know it works, anyway.
"Oh, so she knows that without me it's harmless?" Sam asks. "Do I need to be harmless?"
"It's hardly harmless, and I know what you're saying but the options available here are limited." Tasha climbs from spine to spine, getting closer to Samael. "You can decline, but I can't promise to be able to protect you if you do. I can't even protect this ship if you do. We're out-gunned here, Sam, and the Titanians have supported us so long as we've been straightforward with them." And when she's close enough she lowers her voice. "But I can't promise anything. Luk'thu-hem taught me to know better when I'm outmatched, and there may be two warships aimed at us as we speak. Titanian warships, one much scarier than the obvious one outside. You'll have to decide what you want to do. You could always try to escape if you have the power to do so."
"Hah!" Bumper then shouts. "He looks like you little brother!" She sits on the edge of the elevator platform, which puts her lower legs in zero-gravity, and pats her knee. "Come see Auntie Bumper little Sammy. I not bite really."
Sam takes Tasha's hand though when he walks towards Bumper. Which sort of turns Tasha into a balloon, since she is in freefall while Sam is not.
"Yeah don't be too sure about that," Tasha tells Samael in whisper as she floats along. It takes some flailing with her feet until she can drift close enough to a hand hold and face Bumper properly. "So here he is," she notes, needlessly. "Much cuter than usual."
"How cute he normally?" Bumper says, lifting Sam onto her knee.. and sort of holding Tasha down by the shoulder onto her other one. "Now, why look like Tasha but not?"
"Because she was the first one to see me when I was freed from my prison," Sam answers.
"Yah that make sense," Bumper agrees, and pats Sam on the head. "You from Kadath?"
"I don't remember," Sam claims. To Tasha he says, "That is Thotep's palace if you did not already know."
Tasha flushes, except she's already red so it really doesn't make any difference. She hasn't been on anyone's knee in a long time, unless you were to count Gabriel's, and that she does for a great many exciting reasons. "Well he normally looks like me, so of course he's very cute," she insists, trying to maintain her composure. She looks away when everyone turns towards her. "The floating castle with the screaming people. I remember the place but not the name."
"So not change much from old description," Bumper says, and hugs both of the 'kids' rather hard. Because there's always something hard that they get hugged against. "Oh hey, you hands match now," she suddenly realizes, as if it took seeing a duplicate Tasha to remind her about that. "So Sam you been a good demon? No eat anyone?"
"I've been eaten a bit, not the other way around," Sam claims. "I don't believe in good and evil."
Samael can see Tasha squirming to get free, or at least not have her face pressed up against what may or may not be some kind of lighting array. "He hasn't hurt anyone," she insists, if strainedly, "He likes being spooky."
Those matching hands are, of course, trying to free Tasha's face from mechanisim.
Bumper eases up on the hug. "Spooky like ghost, or scary like Titanian?" she asks.
"Like ghost," Tasha answers without hesitation. "Where is Sam? He's behind you? Where is he now? On the ceiling. And now? In a dark corner. Shadowy." She rubs her nose, which got the worst of the crushing. "He can dance and seems to care about what happens to us."
"I can sing too," Samael claims. "It may cause minor insanity however. Everyone is a critic."
"My oldest daughter sing like that," Bumper notes, nodding. "Good for loosening dried grease. Hokay, you seem to not horrible, not sekritly control Rustpuppy. Got's no evil worms in you brain, right, Puppy?"
Tasha waves it off. "Minor insanity is served with breakfast around here," she insists. And, since she has both her 'Chief Engineer' and Bumper here, she asks, "Bumper, you said this ship seemed like the drive core to another ship, and we've thought maybe it's a prototype. Do you think it could be rigged to a large vessel, or that a finished model might exist somewhere? The Tnuctipin homeworld? It should be close to where we destroyed Sedu-hem."
Tasha blinks at this, then taps her head which requires extra effortin zero-G. "Besides the spore? They'd have all gotten eaten by the drone, which serves it right."
"Worlds move over time," Bumper points out. "'Specially over really long times. We no find other hammer ship, and we look real hard. Not like can hide hammer metal. No sure how they make this one. Long long long time ago."
"The Tnuctipin are smart, and they would have been working with the metal a long time before there were any Titanians. They probably knew it could be located in space, and would have hidden it. They were hunters after all, and very good ones from what I've learned," Tasha notes. "Maybe this ship knows? Or at least knows where one of their facilities are. Their infrastructure might not be all gone."
"Prolly lots o' god weapons we not found yet," Bumper admits. "Maybe Horse part of big one? Who knows. Maybe your god-ghost? Cill tell some of what they found before take knowledge with them."
"God-ghost wants us to enter the Void," the larger of the two twins notes. "Need to find Wizard. Another Wizard. Or deal with Daltoona, that Ogdru-hem knows, too."
"Yellow-god want that too, yah?" Bumper guesses.
"Yeah," Tasha confirms, nodding, Bumper's hand keeping her from floating off. "Lots of things converge on Daltoona. Have a bad feeling, but still need to go."
"No blow it up," Bumper warns sternly. "Lots people there. Hostage shield."
Tasha holds up her hands. "You think I'd blow up a station full of people?" She then glances at Samael in askance.
"Praxafalopus was an accident," Samael claims.
"The battleship graveyard, that was deliberate," the demon then notes. "And Urgo-hem."
"I thought it was some kind of deal?" Tasha tells Samael, brows arching. "Not that I remember agreeing to the eating of a planet, but I thought it was one of those 'deal with a devil' side effects of the bargain." She considers this, then nods approvingly. "An accident." And then she frowns over the next part. "Well, dealing with the Ogdru-hem is our stated purpose. And they're still alive ... " She waves her hand in a circle, "Somewhere."
"Not really alive," Samael chimes in. "But they exist."
"In an urn, which is also in the urn," Tasha agrees, turning to nod to Bumper. "So you see, I haven't done anything Titanians haven't done before. I cleaned up the Fleet and we handled Luk'thu-hem and Sedu-hem."
"Hmmm," Bumper goes again. "'Cept stead of owing us, you owe demon-gods," she points out. "And you got kilt. We didn't try get you killed on purpose."
Tasha gives Bumper an uncertain look. "I remember someone sent me after Lord Yama."
"But the rest is a fair assessment," the red woman then adds with a sigh. "I'd like to say it could have gone better but I'm not sure what to compare it to. The Tnuctipin fought Sedu-hem and were annihilated. The Fleet fought Luk'thu-hem and lost. Most of the ancients avoided or sealed the Ogdru-hem."
"Yeah, but now they prolly know things getting shook up," Bumper says. "Three gone, ping pang pop. Bitch-god dying for long time, no big surprise there. Trumpet-god and frog-god not already dying though."
"Lots goin' on since we get corn-god," Bumper adds. "We try be sneaky 'bout that one though."
"There's that," Tasha agrees, nodding slowly. "It didn't occur to me these battles are paced battles. But, I'm also not sure what the timetable is. Both the Sifra and the Ogdoad are moving. Moving slowly, but moving. And some day they'll get where they're going and then it'll be too late."
"Gots to be careful," Bumper warns. "Some Ogdru-hem very smart. Corn-god was dumb. Plant-spirit. But dumb. World made of corn. Hard to miss. Others not sleep and wait. Not big, maybe small. Figure out who attacking, what their weaknesses. Gotta know who to fight and when and where, plan well."
"Well we've decided to form a real organization, divide in to specialties and departments. Have a hierarchy. I'd like to have internal agents to watch over everyone for the kind of control you described," Tasha explains. She then thumbs towards herself. "I have Persephone coaching me in leadership and organization. We didn't know what to expect before, but now we do. We can work to try and be as ready as possible."
"Aaaaand?" Bumper prompts, and smiles toothily to Tasha.
"Annnd it's still in the works?" Tasha offers, ears splaying because she assumes it's the wrong answer.
It was the wrong answer, so Tasha gets a bounce. "No," Bumper corrects. "Aaaaaand you tell us what you about to do, yeah? We gots stuff going on too. Need to know what to watch for. No surprise us!"
Tasha thinks her butt would now be sore if not for the wonders of zero-g. "Hokay fine," she agrees, holding up her hands. "Got communicator or should I use ship like with Divine Lobotomy?"
"Use ship, we hear," Bumper says, nodding. "And no one else hear."
"Easy," Tasha agrees with a nod. She then tilts her head an raises her brows. "Are we safe now?"
"Universe try to kill you," Bumper claims. "That is normal. Not take personally. I no think you safe. You prolly very dangerous." So maybe Bumper didn't quite understand the question.
"I mean, did we pass the evaluation." Tasha isn't quite sure what to think of possibly being very dangerous. It's not as if she's not aware of it, but hearing it from someone like Bumper puts it in a certain perspective. "Safe from being exploded."
"Ooooh," Bumper says, and laughs. "Thought you meant sumthin' else. No, you not safe yet. Gotta see Old Ma again."
"Hoookay," Tasha says, exhaling. This was the gentle talking to, then. Next comes the ascerbic one. "Can we at least hard dock and start our way back to Caltrop? I know everyone will love you if you shave months off the trip. I think some of us could use a change in scenery. I also think you should drag my girlfriend off and teach her about being Titanian."
"People knows you go on long trip," Bumper says. "Come back too soon, what they think?" She then gets up in the lift, carrying Tasha and Sam with her. "Got space suit still, or need go in escape ball?"
"Space suit still on Charon. Only one left and it hasn't been fitted. Ball," Tasha answers, wondering what people will think when they see her hauled off to the Dainty Mauler.