Sightseeing is Risky

Log Title: Sightseeing is Risky Characters: Ko-Te, Poise, Sinatra, Skuld Location: South America Date: July 14, 2018 TP: No TP Summary: Poise is out taking in the sights, which today include smart rats and Junkions. As logged by  Skuld Log session starting at 19:56:59 on Saturday, 14 July 2018.

Earth has been an interesting planet to the Nebulan. All the colors were so strange, and the plants and animals were so weirdly evolved. On her galaxy-wide exploration bender, Poise has been investigating planet after planet, just documenting what she finds there, using her optical skills and hovercycle's sensor suite to record every bit of her experience.

Here on Earth, she had learned about the idea of 'vlogging' and promptly uploaded travels to other planets onto the internet.

The Nebulan also is something of a daredevil, while not intentionally careless, she's no doubt put the fear of Nebulos into some people as she explored all the planet had to offer.

CURRENTLY: Poise has made it to South America, no doubt breaking at least six countries laws in the process. In the mountains of Peru, Poise stands on her powered-off hover cycle. A small earbud attached to her helmet as she listens in, fine tuning her location for her next target.

"Machu Picchu...." She gingerly holds a four color travel brochure, as if it were a real souvenier of the planet, then slowly kicks the cycle back in gear, down into a smooth valley filled with sheep and cattle.

Down below, swimming its way up a river, there's an Alvis Stalwart. It's a bit odd to see a truck travelling on the water without a care, but this one is apparently managing it, and doing so at quite a pace, too.

Its driver... well, he's driving the vehicle with two sticks connected to the steering wheel, because he's actually sat on the roof, controlling it through the open hatch. He's barefoot, with his toes hooked around the lever for the hand-throttle to control the speed of the amphibian. Next to him on the closed lid of the other hatch, he has a disposable barbecue on which he's cooking burgers, and some truly huge rats share the truck's roof with him, some of them apparently eagerly awaiting the man to finish cooking.

Skuld isn't far away, working on her latest project. It might be a llama, eventually. If llamas were twenty feet tall. She looks over at Ko-Te. "Purple? I like purple." Without even waiting for an answer, she throws a round object at the metal sculpture and it explodes in a cloud of purple smoke. Most of it drifts away on the breeze, but the rest clings to the proto-llama. A purple proto-llama.

Ko-Te is sitting cross-legged not too far off from Skuld, staff resting across his knees, optics closed (maybe, honestly there's no way to tell), and hands resting on the staff. Presumably he's meditating which is why he didn't respond to Skuld's question, that and he wasn't given the time to do so.

The sensor system for Poise's hovercycle is one of its best features. She created it, after all. Holo-displays pop up before her, as the system shows figures within the miles below and before her. < Shepherd driving sheep, and sneaking a flask of alcohol > < Large condor probably scouting said flock for food > < Spotted Bear snuffling for roots > < Giant robot painting purple thing > < Human carrying sticks. > < Human eating food while driving in a river. > < Large Rats >

Wait a minute. She adjusts her glasses and peers in closer. Oh this place must be a mine for new situations. She beams as she revs up the cycle.

Poise makes her way to the river, but makes sure she gets over to where Skuld's sculpture is being put together first. She abruptly stops her green cycle near the two Junkions, "Hello Junkions!" She manages a wide wave of her hand, "Don't go anywhere, I'd like to ask you some questions about your thing! I'll be right back!"

She hits the throttle enough to cause her to jerk back in her seat as she moves out towards Sinatra. The hovercycle scares some sheep again as she zips on by. Water splashes as she hits the river, and causes it to spray about her. At least she was considerate enough to not hit Sinatra! "Hey!" She calls out as the cycle pulls up along side the amphibious craft, a large lense of some sort in the sidecar of her hovercycle looks at the situation. "This looks like fun, would you tell me what you're doing? I'm doing an Earth thing called a "live stream"

Sinatra blinks at the distant purple explosion, looking to his rats. "Hey, unaweza kuona hilo?" He says. The rat gives him a very flat look, and he laughs. "Bila shaka wewe sio watu hawawezi kuona kitu. Fikiria tunapaswa kuiangalia?" The rat thinks. Some of the other rats verbally add their two cents - to even a casual observer, it's fairly apparent that these rats are a lot smarter than they look. The concensus seems to be 'investigate', so Sinatra puts a cover over the barbecue. He's clearly about to drop down into his seat when Poise arrives. He blinks a little and gapes at the Nebulon, never having actually met one before.

When she asks her question, however, he pulls the throttle out so that the Stalwart will gradually slow. "Uh? Jambo, uh, yes... I'm jus' goin' up the river here." He points, cheerfully. "My rats an' I have been very busy over the past couple months, we've not really slowed down since the hurricane hit Texas." He explains. "We're goin' up the river where I hear there's a good place to get banana and sugar cane. My rats, they go absolutely -crazy- for banana, and all of us like to chew on sugar cane." He reaches down to scritch one of the rats' ears.

The rats vary in size somewhat, but as a general rule, not including tail, they're around a foot long.

Subtitles: Hey, you see that? Of course you didn't you guys can't see a thing. Think we should check it out?

Skuld blinks at the strange visitor, but doesn't even have time to get a good pose in before they're left behind. Well, how rude! She produces a welding mask from nowhere and goes back to work on her giant llama form.

Sinatra adds, happily. "I figure after all the work the little guys been doin', helpin' people, they deserve a treat, you know? I am Sinatra, I'm with GI Joe. This is..." He takes a deep breath and names all fifteen of them, from memory - pointing to each one in turn. When named, each rat stops whatever he or she was doing, turns to look at Poise, and makes some kind of gesture of greeting. Some bow, some wave, some nod, some wash their ears and flick their tails happily, before resuming whatever it was they were doing.

Ko-Te's fingers wrap lightly around the staff at the sudden visitor. In a flash, however they're gone so his hands relax and he goes back to focusing inward.

Poise looks curiously at the creatures and Sinatra. "Well that seems to be a fine batch of..." She struggles for the terminology a little, ""Earth Rats." She motions to her pamphlet, "I am on my way to Macchu Picchu. I don't know if this is close to your su-gar-kaen but I would like to see what you're looking forward to." She jerks her finger back to the Junkions, ""But right now if I go any further up river I may miss talking to the Junkions and their purple item over there."

She continues in her high-pitched tone, gesturing back to the river "If you stay on the river I will come back in a bit but I do not want to miss my window to see what they're doing."

With that she slowly accelerates, trying to avoid drenching anyone in the water, then zips back across to the Junks. "Alright. Sorry about just passing by like that. My name is Poise and I'm recording my adventures on Earth." She motions to the sensor suite sidecar of hers, which has 'Galaxy or Bust!' painted on it. "Can you tell me about what this is and who you are if you would like?"

Skuld pushes up her welding mask and clicks off the torch. "Ah! You return!" She springs to her feet, posing cutely on one foot with a hand thrust at the sky. "I am the magnificent Skuld!" She points a finger at Poise. "You can call me Skuld-dono!"

Sinatra, in fact, laughs. "We were actually going to just investigate that ourselves." He laughs, dropping down into the Stalwart's seat and putting the power back on again. With a snarl from its Rolls-Royce diesel engine, the amphibious truck picks up speed and climbs up out of the water, following Poise at a respectable speed, bouncing over the terrain.

The monk doesn't move as he responds, "I am Ko-Te, seeker of enlightenment, wanderer of the ten thousand paths, and keeper of the polyhedron of Ti Kwan Leep."

Poise tilts her head, "Huh. Okay. 'Skuldono' and 'Kotee'" She motions to the camera, and then climbs out of her hovercraft. She's a bit short on the human scale. While she's got on her standard Nebulan space explorer's suit, she's also got on a pair of Timberland boots, and a few other supplementary Earth items. It appears she's really into her souveniers. She tilts back to note the purple llama-to-be statue, the camera raises up to view it as well, as if it were attached to her viewpoint currently. "So two things real quick." The scattering sheep in the distance announce Sinatra's vehicle closing in. "First what is this that you are welding and what made you think to put it together here?" She turns to Ko-Ti. "and for you good mech. Have you been to Machu Picchu? I am on my way there too as I am exploring this whole planet. It sounds like you do a lot of that yourself. If you know the way it would be interesting to have some people to talk to as I go."

The truck continues to climb towards the group. When it eventually reaches them, Sinatra hops down to wave. "Jambo!" He says cheerfully, walking over to them. Three of his rats follow, while a fourth rides on his shoulder.

Skuld pauses, finger under her chin as she considers Poise's question. Why -did- she start making a llama again? Oh, yes! "This is llama-tron 1584! He will become a guardian to all llamas, to save their soft, fluffy hides from the evils of this world!" Skuld stands proudly by her unfinished creation, hands on her hips. There might be a lens flare over her shoulder.

Ko-Te gets to his feet to regard Poise from beneath his hat which, even from her low vantage point, his optics cannot be seen. "There are many ways to reach your destination, but only one road shows the truth of who you will be when you reach it."

Poise doesn't seem ill at ease as Ko-Te stands, must be part Witwicky. "Well you sound very smart. I think..." She taps on her forearm computer, "I think I have some footage of the Black Hole Philosophers of Tarzin-6 if you would like to see it." She notes Sinatra and waves back again, "Hello again. This is Sinatra. He was fishing on the river a little while ago. These are Skuldono and Kotee. I think Sinatra was interested in this large thing as well." Her attention returns to the llama-tron. "So this is to be a robot...or would Cybertronian or Junkion be more proper? And it is going to defend the llamas." There's actually no sarcasm in her tone as she says that. From her sensor drone, an image pops up of a llama for a visual, not that anyone really needed another one. "I think it is going to be very large when you are done with it. Perhaps it will work with Sinatra's..." She fumbles again, "GEIJOE to peacekeep the Earth."

Sinatra chuckles quietly. "It's not my GI Joe. I jus' work for 'em." He chuckles, looking up at the big robot-lama thing in purple. "I might wanna rethink the colours if I was you. I don' mean to be rude, but the colour purple is commonly used by the big bad Cybertronian people, not the good guys. Maybe go for a rainbow effect, like those things I see at parties."

Skuld blinks. "Oh!" She looks back at the llama. "Oh, I -see-! Yes!" She dives for her pile of parts and starts making something entirely new out of them.

GAME: Skuld PASSES a TECHNICAL roll of Immense difficulty.

Ko-Te watches Skuld move and then begins taking steps away from his companion and the llama-tron.

>> Ko-Te projects a forcefield over himself. <<

The hat covered monk lifts up his staff and a semi-transparent bubble of force surrounds his form.

Poise looks back and forth as she gets out of the way. "Well this looks like it'll be impressive." Her hovercycle moves a bit to keep Poise in direct view as she shifts her attention for the moment, "So are your Earth Rats sapient? If so do they work for GEIJOE as well?" Even as she talks, Poise is obviously distracted by Skuld's rapid inventing...or whatever it may end up being.

Sinatra smiles to Poise. "My rats are sapient, because they were used as test models for a treatment for brain diseases." He explains. "They are members of GI joe like I am. But most other rats, even of the same species, are not sapient." He chuckles. "To be honest, their desires haven't really changed. Gambian pouched rats like these? They just want food, companionship, safety. Only extra motivation my rat pack have? They want to be useful. Apopo trains their non-sapient cousins to hunt for mines and disease. This little nose here?" He gently boops the rat on his shoulder. "Almost as powerful as a dog's nose. But a rat is much lighter. It won't set off a land mine, see?"

Skuld finishes her work. she stands and holds one hand in front of her mouth. "O hohoho! They said it couldn't be done, but I am a genius!" She holds aloft an oddly-shaped box with some wiring sticking out of it and a large red button on top. With great energy, she lifts her other hand over it and slams it down on the button.

*WHUMP*

Multicolored smoke fills the clearing. As it fades away, the llama-tron 1584 is now rainbow colored. The front half of Skuld looks like she fell into a tie-dye factory. The grass and trees around her are also painted in wiggly bands of color.

The forcefield surrounding Ko-Te is bathed in a torrent of colors and ends up resembling some sort of multi-hued orb of protection for a few brief seconds until he drops it. Leaving a semi-circle of the ground untouched by the prismatic spray in front of him.

Sinatra blinks at Skuld and half-turns. In a resigned tone, he says "Vizuri, nyara." he says, sagging slightly. The rats scatter, although unfortunately curiosity is their undoing, and only two of them manage to make it into cover before the detonation goes off. The rats... are covered, changed into a wide variety of hues.

This immediately seems to be the trigger for an enormous game of chase around the truck. Each rat seems to be trying to check out the other rats and wrestle them around, while avoiding being wrestled themselves. It's very chaotic. If there are any rules, they are fluid and changing - except for the fact that they don't bite or actually hurt each other.

Poise watches the scene curiously and quietly, then WHUMP. She'd been glitterbombed, and she had her helmet off too! "Well, That was unfortunate" She looks over at her cycle, also colorized, and there's a spark of concern as she crosses through the rainbow colored grass, to check her sensor suite.

Skuld pauses, upper hand still on the button. She looks at her arms. She looks at the ground. She looks at the llama-tron. All confusion and doubt disappear. "Yes! This is perfect!" She turns to kneel down, one hand on her chestplate and the other open in Sinatra and his rats' direction. "You have done me a great favor! If you ever need my help, just make the call, and the goddess Skuld will answer!"

Ko-Te sits back down on the clear patch of ground and 'looks' at Poise. "There are no mistakes. Only happy accidents."

Poise examines her sensor suite, clearing glitterdust from the main optics with her finger. There's a bit of a look of distress on her face, but she refrains from saying anything about it, Skuld just seemed too happy with the results to do otherwise. "Well..." She pauses, working on that lens some more, "I think most of that got recorded. There you all have it. A giant rainbow llama robot." Poise steps aside to let Skuld get in another pose if she wishes, "I'm going to have to do some maintenance on my system on the way to Macchu Picchu. Thanks for being a part of the adventure!" She climbs into her hovercycle. The sensor suite lowers into the sidecar, no doubt already being maintained automatically. She throws out a wave, and gives Ko-Te a sheepish look, "Well...yeah. Maybe you're right. At least this time." Poise cycles up her engine. Eh sure its a bit of work to fix, but she wouldn't trade it for anything.

Sinatra smiles and turns to Skuld, coughing a cloud of rainbow dust. He chuckles "Thank you. An' if we can help at any time, let us know." He pauses, looking down at himself. He is half-rainbow. "Uh. Is this stuff washable?"

The rats' game is over as quick as it started, the rats trying to groom the dye off themselves.

GAME: Skuld PASSES an INTELLIGENCE roll of Average difficulty.

Skuld realizes that she's being cued for a pose, so she stands again, pulling out her hammer to lift it dramatically against the sunlight!

And then she turns to Sinatra. "Oh, very washable! No amount of water will remove it!" She grins, then pauses, tapping her chin. "Unless you meant washing it -off-? Ah, you will simply need an appropriate formula to destabilze the weak molecular bonds and rebind the colors. I recommend lemon juice. It's tasty, and you can have rainbow punch after!"

Sinatra listens... at first he looks dismayed at the no amount of water comment, before relaxing as he discovers lemon juice will get it off. "Ohh... they'll love that." He laughs. "I'll have to get some footage of it, they -adore- lemon so they'll be fussing and licking over eachother for hours."

The Hovercycle kicks its turbines online, no doubt spraying some of the pigment around as well, and then getting sucked through the vents, causing a tiny rainbow spiral in her wake. Poise gives a final wave goodbye to the group, and hits the plains again. About six hundred feet out, she intentionally aims for a slanted rock so she can ramp off of it, catching some air before disappearing into the horizon.

Skuld 's optics sparkle and she crouches down. "Kawaii!" She takes out a card that is only the size of an index card instead of comically too large and offers it to Sinatra. "Do you post videos? Please send me pictures!"

Sinatra blinks and laughs, taking the card. "I should. Looking after fifteen of these things there's almost always something funny or cute to post up."

As he says the word cute, one of the rainbow rats hops up into his arms, demanding to be cradled like a baby. SInatra of course obliges and it just curls up there, looking at Skuld.

Skuld coos and wiggles a finger in the rat's direction for a moment, but then stands resolutely, levering herself up with the help of her hammer. "I must protect the cute and cuddly things of this world!" And she walks back to her llama-tron, to get back to work.

Log session ending at 22:43:15 on Saturday, 14 July 2018.