World Tree MUSH

    The new arms and battery had been easy to install, at least. And there were few people Alty would have trusted with doing something as delicate as a battery swap. After all, it required a certain vulnerability in shutting down for a few minutes, and anything could happen in that time frame.
    Thankfully, Hyouka Kiyama is one such rare person Alty would trust with such a procedure, and when that was done and over with, that just leaves the little shinki all the time in the world to sulk.
    It's raining in Tokyo right now. Making underground exploration a watery, drenched, flooded hazard; and that means one more day of being unable to find Leene. On top of the fact that Serrah had gone missing just the night before, the little Altines is... In less than a stellar mood as she sits on a windowsill in Hyouka's apartment, staring outside the window and absently flexing her new arm and fingers over and over again, trying to get used to the more pristine parts.

    It's entirely likely that Hyouka was a nervous wreck throughout the entire 'surgery'. Her cybernetic body has more than enough precision and steadiness of hand to do even very delicate work, but that doesn't change the fact she's installing new parts on someone she's come to care about quite a bit. DARGN almost certainly had to talk her through it.

    She's been fussing and worrying in general; but now that Alty is definitely okay, the main thing on her mind is the shinki's down mood. So when the woman comes up next to the windowsill, she looks out over the city - the shining technological lights lights and magical beacons she knows as home - while idly reaching out to plunk down a small jelly can next to the little one. "It's a very different skyline, isn't it? Same city, but not really."

    Hyouka's work was solid. Even if she may have been worried the whole way through, the installation was a success and now Alty just needs to get used to her new limbs and the tingly feeling of a brand new battery on full charge.
    There was a time where coming up behind her in such a manner would have spooked the Altines; but now, here in one of the few places she can feel safe, she simply turns her head to peek back over her shoulder with that scarred scarlet eye.
    "Mn."
    She DOES reach for the jelly can, though, slowly unscrewing the cap and taking a few slow sips before she finally replies.
    "It's... Pretty different, yes." Murmured as she rubs her eye with her free hand. "I'm... Fine really." She says after a beat. "It's just. Everything went so completely wrong."
    She's not fine.

    It couldn't be more obvious that Alty is not, in fact, fine. And seeing that distress, Hyouka reaches over with a finger, and gently rubs the top of the shinki's head. Rub, rub. "Mm. A lot of things went wrong, yes. I'll admit I was... a little worried when you were injured."

    "You threw at least four fully grown men over three meters to your side in a bid to reach Alty's side," DARGN deadpans.

    Is that an embarrassed blush on Hyouka's face? "A-ahem. Anyway. We definitely didn't get the better of this exchange... but I'm not sure that I'd say everything went wrong." The cyborg leans down, resting her left elbow on the windowsill, and her chin on her left palm; her right, she holds up, counting off points as she maks them.

    "First of all, we caught the rat bastard who put you and your sister through hell. He's not getting out of this one so easily, and he won't be putting any other shinki through it. Second, even if we didn't rescue her entirely, we did get her free of the fighting ring. Things will be a bit dicey for her, but now we just have to find her. And third..."

    Here, Hyouka gives a soft smile. "You found out you still have someone you thought you lost entirely. That's got to be worth something, right~?"

    "I um. I noticed." Alty murmurs, head tilting to lean into the finger brushing through lilac shaded hair, scarlet eyes falling half-lidded, one hand reaching up to rub at the back of her neck before she glances down at the new scar over her belly plating, fingers running over the nick where Leene's dagger had gotten through to her battery.
    "I doubt he'll ever be able to legally buy a shinki again." She mumbles on the topic of her old master. "According to Officer Murphy, the Tokyo PD can hold my old master for up to twenty three days before officially charging him, so he's at least gone for that long before the trial." She pauses to take another slow sip of her jelly before pursgin her lips.
    "Yeah. ... Yeah." She admits after a beat. "It's not just that though. Serrah was helping me search for her the other night and someone came from her world and kidnapped her too. I'm going to try and help get her back, but it's... A lot to think and worry about, you know?"

    "Oh, I... hadn't heard, about Serrah." Hyouka frowns faintly. "...life really is kind of the pits sometimes, you know? It rarely ever stops sending problems your way. Even as a normal human, there was always something." She stands up and turns around, leaning back against the windowsill instead. "Pretty much all you can do is take it as it comes. And avoid doing the paperwork as long as possible." Hyouka, that is not advice you should be giving someone.

    "I wish I could offer more help. Maybe I need to take classes on investigation some time. Learn how to be a proper detective. It would help with adventuring work, at least."

    "The Serrah thing just happened last night.. It's why I came home so late." Alty explains glumly, propping her chin in her palm as she stares out the window. "I'm worried about them both. Serrah was having... Problems. Something about her humanity." The little shinki mutters, pausing to sip her jelly once again.
    "And then we don't even know where Leene is. She could be just... Laying somewhere down there with a dead battery, at risk of getting washed away in the rain floods..." The sigh says that this is really bothering her, but then she frowns.
    "I don't mind paperwork. It's relaxing."
    Of course a little helper robot would find something utterly mundane to be worth her time.

    Hyouka chuckles softly. "That makes one of us. I never could make myself do it until the last minute. It's so... mundane. Exactly the kind of thing I got this body to get away from. But that's another thing life won't let you escape so easily, I guess." She blows out a soft sigh, then shifts away from where she's leaning to stand up straight.

    As the cyborg starts to walk further into the room, her computer wakes up, as does her main TV screen; with wireless access directly from her body, it's pretty easy for her to use her desktop without ever touching it, and the TV's set up to stream video and audio... or, in this case, a picture. It looks like the cyborg, but... plainer. Less pretty. Unmistakably human. Wearing glasses and a business suit, with her hair pulled up into a bun. The perfect image of an Office Lady. "Did I tell you about how I got this body?" Hyouka asks, arms folding over her chest as she regards the picture thoughtfully.

    Alty finally turns away from the window, resting her jelly can on her lap as scarlet eyes follow Hyouka. There's zero surprise at the computer turning on by itself, but that's not what gets the shinki's attention as her gaze wanders to the television and the picture displayed on it.
    Sure does look familiar.
    "... You haven't told me." Alty admits, capping her jelly can and listening intently.

    Hyouka leans her weight against her sofa a little. "You know, when I was younger, I got to watch a magical girl save the world on live TV. Well, sort of a magical girl. Her armor was a mix of technology and magic, pretty much the first example of it. A huge dragon was casting a spell, over in Chiba prefecture, across Tokyo Bay. Trying to end the world because of... nihilism or something, I don't know. But it was the first time the magical world was ever more than a sideshow for politicians to complain about."

    Crossing one leg over the other as she leans, Hyouka continues. "That's the world I grew up in. Magical girls and wizards and dragons and elves, the Chiba Adventure Zone, magic and technology getting together bit by bit. I was always a dreamer, so having all that stuff around me... I loved it, until I looked up one day and realized I could never be a part of it. Realized I was just a normal office lady in a normal office, with a normal job, no talent for magic, no nonhuman friends or even acquaintances... my life was kind of a perpetual drag."

    A magical girl. The thought makes Alty blink slowly. It's not a new concept to her, she has access to the internet and has picked up on some of the tropes of her world's animated television, but she listens intently regardless.
    'Nihilism?' she mouths to herself as she plants her hands on her knees, tiny thumb brushing along the joint there. "Oh." A beat. "But that's not you anymore." She notes perceptively.

    The cyborg chuckles. "No, it's not. That's probably a good thing. I... I pretty much stopped caring about anything. Even these days I still have a little trouble, ah, getting invested with more mundane stuff. But back then... I was just going through the motions." Hyouka faintly shakes her head. "Then, about two and a half years ago or so, we were on a company retreat, mandatory team-building so on and so forth. Way up north in Iwate. I, ah... I got a bit lost, in the woods. And I stumbled across a bunch of bounty hunters getting ready to finish off just about the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen. A dragon, a great big one, with glossy black scales, lying there looking like it just wanted to die and get it over with. I... I got a little angry."

    Here, DARGN finally speaks up. "'A little' is an understatement. I had not been berated so by a human in a long time."

    Hyouka looks a little embarrassed. "...I just didn't think it was right for something so fantastical to just lie there and die. Especially not to a bunch of totally normal guys with guns and swords." Pause. "...and don't give her the wrong idea, you're not actually her, you're just a... whatsit. Thought pattern replication."

    "What were you doing in the woods in the first place?" Is the question Alty naturally asks, before her head tilts. So Hyouka ran into a dragon... One that wanted to die. One that was ready for it and to just let some completely normal guys.
    "Ah..."
    One that almost did, apparently if not for Hyouka's intervention. Though she tilts her head indicating the cyborg to continue.
    "S... So what happened?"

    "It was a resort surrounded by a lot of wilderness," Hyouka replies, sounding embarrassed. "I mostly just wanted a walk in the woods to clear my head."

    "Her plea made such an impression on m- on the dragon from whom my thought processes are copied," DARGN enunciates, "That she stood up and defended herself. They were little more than common sellswords, not a mage or a magical weapon among them. She had only to breathe a little fire, and they fled with their tails between their legs."

    Hyouka nod-nods, confirming the explanation. "After that, the dragon offered me a boon for my 'passion'. Anything within her power and wealth. ...I kind of spoke before I could really stop myself. I asked for a body that I could use to be an adventurer. I guess I had kind of cursed myself for being born a completely normal human so much..." DARGN sounds amused. "The phrasing of the request was so strange that I couldn't help but be fascinated by it. And my original had both the wealth and connections to make it happen. Not to mention knowing of a few interesting technology initiatives. The DraCor engine is currently one of a kind." Hyouka looks a little proud at this.

    Setting the jelly can off her lap to save for later, Alty's fingers lace together, fidgeting on her lap as she continues to listen. So DARGN was based off an actual dragon. It's an interesting thing to learn as the story comes to an end.
    "Huh..." The Altines murmurs. "That was... Pretty brave." She admits at length before rubbing at the back of her neck.
    "I wish I could could be more like that."

    "You already are," Hyouka replies, with a soft smile. "When it's something that matters to them a lot, most people can turn out to be really brave. Like stepping back into the ring to save another shinki like you."