Void Rift (rp) - Intermission

Idhaenna tosses a core skywards, and it turns into a shield-projecting drone that hovers over Tiril.
“Don’t worry this much. You’re not solo right now.”

 

"I'll just feel a lot safer once I'm back in a city..." Tiril says, looking comforted by the shield.

 

“It’s an hour’s walk, just saying.”

 

"Well, at least I feel a lot safer traveling with you, Lady Iana." Tiril says, sounding a little more confident.

 

“I appreciate that. Most people want me to stay way the hell away from everyone.” Idhaenna laughs sheepishly.

 

"Why's that?" Tiril asks, more curious now his fear has mostly subsided.

 

Idhaenna hands him one of the cores on her belt.
“See this? My followers call them cores. They store things in them, and can be used to carry stuff more easily than carrying whatever’s inside them. To use that one, toss it on the ground. A fair distance away, preferably.” She says.

 

"I've heard stories about items sort of like these. Small things that can store more than their appearance would imply." Tiril says, throwing the core.

 

Upon hitting the ground, the core seems to disintegrate and reform into Idhaenna’s seraphic mechsuit.
“The fact that I can store a tank or piece of heavy artillery in the palm of my hand is why people fear me. I’ve dove so far into tech, people sometimes call it magic. Magic can do what I do, but nearly everything I do is a result of plain technology.” She says, recalling the mech back into a core that forms in her free hand.

 

"Have you managed to make life with technology?" Tiril asks, curious.

 

“In a sense, yes. Between nanobots and metals with biological properties, as well as making a way to virtually be on another planet and interact with it as if you were truly there... though there are species that are truly pieces of living metal. They’re called Teregecygians, and sometimes they use themselves to temporarily repair machine parts every now and then.”

 

"Living metal? How is that possible?" Tiril asks, confused.

 

“Wow. Put it in a book.”

 

"I suppose it's closer to flesh with metallic properties. How it's possible I don't fully understand, I'm still studying that."

"We established that I couldn't write already, no?"

 

"Well...that makes a little more sense," Tiril says, "I don't see how metal, something that has never known life, could live."

 

Idhaenna hesitates.
"To be honest, truly recreating life as a machination isn't something I want to do. I can convert souls into programs and let people live on as long as they'd choose, I can flawlessly recreate a person as a machine... but life itself I don't feel should be made artificially. I offer my followers enhancements, conversions, and second chances, but life itself? That's something I'm willing to emulate but never make. That's... well, I suppose I should tell you more about why I'm hated. I started what's known in my reality as the techno-magic war. Mages tried to leverage my machines to make magitech, but they ignored the guidelines I set for my followers. They truly made artificial life, among other things, that I forbade as something that would obsolete us gods entirely. I'd never shown the true extent of my arsenal before that day, and I don't know if 'war' is the right term for it... many call it a massacre, and I don't know if I could disagree. Anyone who practiced magitech I purged out of distrust of those who started the forbidden experiments." Idhaenna admits. "There aren't many people willing to risk dabbling in magitech anymore, and even my underground solo experiments have stopped. I don't worry about people discovering something I didn't know about, I fear what I know works."

 

"Life shouldn't be artificial anyway. That's not life, it's something corrupt." Tiril says.

 

“I was joking.”

 

“Exactly. I won’t argue that I took it too far, but I can’t let anyone work towards something like it again.”

“Me telling if you’re joking is about as hard as you trusting me right now.”

 

Suddenly, a large shield encapsulates Idhaenna and Tiril, sending out a strange wave that seems to interfere with Tiril's shield generator. A few moments later, a bomb with a timer counting down from two minutes appears, a shadow in a fancy suit and tophat appearing just outside the shield, twirling a cane.

"Oh me oh my, it appears the pair of you seem to be caught in quite the predicament! That bomb will surely explode and if it doesn't kill you both, it'll certainly attract the attention of the beasts roaming around here!" The Shadow says, overly dramatic, "Though...perhaps we could strike up a little deal to get the pair of you out of there, hmm?"

The Shadow gives a sly grin, leaning forward on his cane. Tiril's progress toward calming down seems to be entirely reverted.