"...It's a shadow."

"No, no, it's shinier than it should be, see?" He walks closer. "Come over here."

...Fine.

He reaches out to touch it, there's a brief flash-

-and they are abruptly elsewhere.

"Pod!" she snaps.

     "Scanning."

They are in the middle of nowhere. Wide, empty, occasionally forested. 

    "Alert: location unrecognized. Maps unavailable."

"What?"

"Iiii don't think we're on Earth any more."

"What?"

"I can't access the network. I'm- not getting any signals at all, actually."

"Then where are we? And what happened?"

"No idea. Running a detailed scan, hang on."

What's the area got to say for itself, besides mostly wide and empty?

There is ground and sky and plants. There are some animals. 

There are two people walking over thataway!

"I've got movement, six aught four."

"Machines?"

"Nnnnoooo, wrong temperature. Also, nonmetallic."

"Androids? Animals?"

"No black box signature... Bipedal, probably mammalian..."

"Let's go check it out!"

"Carefully."

"Worrywart." Towards the probably-humans!

Meanwhile,

Something trips the alert of her stretched out senses. She stops, gives the sign they have for this.

She also stops.

Stretching out senses more specially - what is this, more specifically, kind of relevant to what kind of response it should get.

Well, looks like our hobby's getting more popular!

Two people heading this way.

...

Who are... made of metal. And... energy. 

Well that's new.

Made of metal.

...Is that something you had?

Nope!

...Something from Kashjar?

She has a hand on a weapon, somewhat from reflex.

This expression definitely means 'if it were just me I'd totally stick around to find out more but since you're here too I think you get the say'.

...Well I suppose that would make it hard for them to report us to Helas...

Probably!

Guess we can... go out toward them?

Actually I'm pretty sure they're coming to us!

Great.

Then I guess we can... stay here.

She forces herself to take the hand off the weapon. First impression probably matters more. And much difference it would make, really, with a marble tower mage and apparently Kashjaran metal people. But.

She has wards up already, obviously. Tests them in case, puts some extra power into them, considers things she might not have thought of without knowing metal energy people were a potential thing. Adds some things in. 

Oh and they have floating luggage. She can't feel the spells on it, which is weird. But metal is weird sometimes, that's a thing, and if it's something she's not seen... Still, on guard. *Pretty* sure they aren't mages though.

Teleportation at ready, etc, etc.

They stay where they are.

The metal energy people get closer, and stop when they come into view. There are two, a boy and a girl, both dressed in what look to be formal clothes. The boy has a black jacket and shorts, and a small sword across his back. He looks excited.

The girl is more subdued, in a a poofy black velvet dress with a short skirt, and two rather larger swords on her own back. Their metal luggage floats behind them just over their shoulders, rectangular boxes with a pair of arms coming out of the bottom.

And here are the two people they've been walking toward! One with about chin-length dark chestnut hair and fairly simple clothes and some packs, looking rather gleeful.

And the other with lighter brown hair in a bun and light armor (leather and such and some metal) and also more subdued. A sword and daggers and a bow and smaller packs.

Arms that's interesting! Now what is that for and how does it work. 

The swords are - somewhat reassuring. Something familiar.

She stares somewhat at the dress.

She's much more used to bizarre and fancy materials and doesn't as much. 

The weapons don't seem to be blood iron, though there's definitely something... weird about them. She relays this to Genea.

Well hopefully that's good news.

See if they'll make the first move.

They wait.

"Hey, why'd you stop?"

"They're human."

"Looks like."

"We should report back."

"No network, remember? We can't."

"Let's at least go talk to them."

"Okay."

They walk closer.

Talking outloud, that's helpful. Not in a language she already knows or has used, that was probably more likely. 

Know the language by any chance?

No. Not even anything close to it. 

They'll probably figure out I'm a mage. If they know we're not from - wherever they're from, and I start talking.

On the other hand if I don't we'll have a job finding out anything else.

...Well, we stayed to meet them...

She grins. Sure did!

And, starting the basis of that process. Reaching (they're still apparently made of metal but they definitely have minds). Mapping, mapping, language, language.

If they don't start talking first after a bit she's going to say hello.

He's perfectly willing to start the conversation.

"Hello!" he calls when they're close enough.

Well, she's got enough for that! (continuing in the background, working, language, language. (And it'll help that they're talking now!)) 

"Hello!"

"We're a bit lost, can you tell us where we are?"

Well that's a question with a lot of possible answers. (She relays the meanings to Genea).

If she says something in her own origin's system they might realize she's from there. Which won't do. And Kashjar's she obviously doesn't know, whatever they have.

"You're in Sovereign Crossing." (Not really a good way to choose between all the names, so go with that one). Check with Genea, check around, and she recites the location in the local system (uses the river confluence as reference, like her origin's, but the numbers and all go different.)

"I don't suppose you'd happen to have a map?"

Well she doesn't.

I am not showing unknown strange metal people a map. And if they're Kashjaran they're more likely to be hostile than not. (She'd considered objecting to giving the location, but it's not that hard to figure out, and she does get the idea of gestures of goodwill, in case they actually are here for some other reason. But this is too far.)

...Diplomacy's really not my strong point...

Well I can't speak the language.

...I think I can translate the other way.

Takes a few moments to get more of the hang of, but it looks like she can. Enough for a few sentences, at least.

So, with the silent coaching,

"Before we consider sharing further information, might we know who you are and your intentions?"

"I'm 9S, and this is 2B. We were hunting machines but uh, we ran into something unusual and wound up here somehow."

Aye confirms that 'machines' is not getting through translation properly for her. Maybe that's what they call Beasts?

I don't think so...

Well, maybe not really what she should be asking first, but,

"'Machines'?"

and, because this probably is,

"Where were you from?"

They don't know the machines?

"You know, the murderous metal robots?"

Robots isn't coming through right either but 'murderous' and 'metal' comes through just fine. 

Maybe in Kashjar they have metal Beasts?

Dammit this is making her really want to scry Kashjar. Also it would be handy if she could figure out how to say 'Kashjar' in this language but that also doesn't seem to be happening.

"We don't have those. All our -" apparently Beasts isn't quite coming through "- monsters are animals." 

Meanwhile Aye seems to have started shaping some illusion. The river system, she can tell as it gets clearer. The Sovereign Crossing has little representations of the four of them. Tscher has little marble towers. Aye points at it.

"Where were you from?"

"Not anywhere on that map."

Well presumably they could be lying (strange a thing to lie about as that would be).

Don't think he's lying.

...

Maybe like the Settlers?

That would be... a lot of things. 

Oh, fun.

"Were you in another world before? Are there more of you? How long have you been here?"

"Another world is starting to seem the likeliest explanation. We've been here about twenty minutes, and I don't think there are more androids here. How are you doing that map?"

She can't remember if all the Settlers showed up at the same time or not. And she doesn't know about the ones in Tscher or Kashjar. (Aye can't remember about the ones in Tscher either).

Well, if they just got here they wouldn't know about mages yet.

...I don't know how to talk to new Settlers.

...Well we know what not to tell them!

...Sorry.

Breath.

"Um, welcome. We are... pleased to meet you. Our ancestors also arrived from another world to this one." More breath. She looks at Aye. Remembers ranks of cages, remembers a whip, remembers heated metal, remembers stories of a house on fire and of murder and -. 

"My friend Aye," she has a name... "is a mage. Some people born in this world get born mages. If you have children - some of them will be born mages. They can do things. There's - ways to stop them if they decide to do something horrible. But they - they're still people, they're still your children. She's doing an illusion right now. And helping me speak your language, I don't actually know it." 

"We're not humans."

She confirms with Aye that 'humans' is translating through right. Alright, that implies their world has humans, presumably in addition to metal people. She's not sure why that was relevant to what she just said specifically. Unless they thought it was just important to say as soon as possible. Maybe they have their own... situation. She should have thought of that earlier. 

Metal people might not have children the same way.

That would also make sense. She thinks.

"I'm a human. My friend is a mage. We're both people. We'd - like to welcome all people who can live in peace." Some worry about being misleading... "Not everyone would. I'm sorry. But we -" she gestures to Aye, "would." Is this even the... best idea? Best order? She doesn't know she isn't good enough at this...

"What do you call yourselves?"

"Androids."

Apparently that's not their country or similar concept then.

"Is that about you being metal people?"

"Yes. We were created by humans to fight the alien machines and take back Earth."

Don't worry, if they've got a general policy of 'fight things humans tell us to' I'm not letting them run around here.

Right.

And the machines could just be actually horrible there's not a rule that says that can't happen. 

Right. They did say 'murderous' not that that's necessarily - 

Not - necessarily going to believe everything they say but could be - good to get their story?

She's sure not objecting to information.

"Could you tell us more about that?"

"Our world was invaded by aliens who created machines to fight for them, and they killed almost all of the humans. The humans retreated to the Moon and made us to reclaim Earth so they could come home."

...Well that doesn't sound good one way or the other.

...Retreated to the Moon?

"I'm sorry, that sounds terrible."

"Are the machines like people? Are the aliens still there as well? How - did they get to the Moon?"

She, predictably is looking at the sky where the moon is currently not actually visible. 

"Machines aren't people."

"The aliens are still out there, somewhere. They got to the Moon with rockets."

She's made enough progress that she gets some not-words for 'rockets', despite the lack of anything the more straightforward way. She sends over idea images with the translation.

That doesn't really help enough.

"What do the aliens want? What are rockets?"

"We don't know what the aliens want, other than humans dead. Rockets are... I guess it probably wouldn't help if I said 'external combustion engine'?"

"I'm sorry."

...That is, in fact, even less helpful.

"No, I'm afraid not. It isn't magic?"

(Maybe it's not a good idea strategically to betray what they might not have that these people do. But on the other hand that would be immediately obvious if they went anywhere.)

"No, it's like- you know what fire is, right? If you make a lot of fire very quickly and funnel it all in one direction, it can push you along."

"We know what fire is."

She helpfully spins some fire around in her hand before putting it out again.

(She is so curious to try this new fire thing...)

It occurs to her she's been neglecting some details of politely meeting people.

"Are you hungry?"

Except,

"Do you eat the same kind of food humans do?"

"We don't require food."

There's a moment when a thought stands out clearly - if they can be mages...

I'm sure there'd be a way. Confinement till the spark burns out if nothing else. She's getting the ramifications too, though, it's in even her mental voice.

I'm sorry.

Nothing to be sorry for. 'We're not all demons for shutting up in cages' doesn't mean we're all just lovely people. We're not. And we can make ourselves quite a problem if we want to, and I wouldn't argue some of us should be gotten rather dead. Mages no one can stop doesn't go well. And I'm the one who told you how to make a mage like me dead. 

But I'm sure there'd be a way. Even if it can't be starving.

If they can be mages, if - however they make more of themselves (or someone else makes more of them?) works for it. If there's isn't some other non-food resource anyway, come to think -.

She's trying not to let all of this show outside.

"Is there - do you know what you might be interested in doing, now?"

"Well, eventually we'd want to find a way home, but it'd be good to learn some more about this place first."

"We - hope you can succeed at that." She doesn't think any of the Settlers succeeded in traveling back, but she's not sure either if any tried. And if some tried on their own or with a few comrades and succeeded the ones who became the Settler Ancestors might not have even learned of it.

"What would you like to know?" 

"Are there more people?"

"Than - just the two of us? Yes. A lot more. Than the people who live within the map my friend showed you, not that we know of."

"Could we meet them?"

"How many humans are there in your world? And how many androids?"

"There are currently 47,422 androids active on Earth. The number of humans is classified."

She blinks at a number that exact.

"Is there anything else you can tell us about your humans?" She thinks they have some different - assumptions, or something.

"You seem to be basically the same according to the biological data I have on record."

"Is all social information classified?

"What do you mean?"

"How do they live? Are there many groups or one? What is the government like?"

"There's one arcology up there. The government is a ruling council, elected by popular vote."

She might perceptibly react at 'popular vote'.

"Arcology?"

"A dome that traps air and heat inside so people can survive."

Wow.

And - she knows she was stalling.

"People here are not all one group. There's three, that we know." Aye forms the map for her again. "This is Kashjar. This is Tscher. We're here.

People live in many towns and on farms and sometimes in bigger places. If you want to see more than one you have to travel from one to others.

In Kashjar they hate outsiders. They'll try to kill you, if you go near them.

In Tscher," breath. "mages took over. They rule other humans."

"Not very good rulers. Kind of terrible." 

"We - " breath, look at Aye or don't - "we enslave our mages. Our Law says it's justified. That - that they're demons.

They're not demons they're people and that's - what we do."

"Well, that's not good."

"We agree(!)"

"Are you doing anything about it?"

"Which part?"

"The part where people are slaves."

Shrug-ish. "Some of the Tscher humans are more directly slaves, even if you don't count the rest of them. Usually more with the mind control and rape, less with the torture, but someone's probably into torture.

Anyway, doing anything with the local version is in fact what we're trying to work on now, though, ah, we're rather short on ideas for 'make everyone cut it out' kind of plans so right now it's mostly 'help a few people we can' kind of plans."

He glances at 2B.

"We want to help."

"Well we certainly appreciate help! 

Can't say I've ever tried making any plans involving androids, guessing you must have, hear our plan and some details and see what you come up with?"

"Okay."

Genea's maybe looking not entirely happy.

"My friend is making the pretty fair point that even if from what you've said I'm pretty sure you're not going to go around whatever towns you can get to telling the Helas about us, it's maybe prudent and all to get a bit more before trust and all that.

So, you by any chance mind if I do a bit of a check on you? It's magic, it's a mind thing, I won't be able to get any secrets or anything like that. Just - get a feel for things, ask questions with a bit more certainty to it. If I can; I've never tried it on androids before."

"That should be fine."

She looks at the other one.

She doesn't exactly seem happy, but she doesn't say anything.

Well, 'they have a friend right there to vouch for them' is not the time to go doing mind things to people who look that way about it, or to try pushing on them.

"K, just you then." (to the one who'd said he was 9S).

She focuses.

Everything goes all slow and clear, the way it does when he's hacking something. Except there's obviously nothing to interface with here.

"Woah."

"What are your current intentions in our world?"

"To help the humans that need it and try to make it so you don't have to hurt each other any longer."

(...wow)

"What are your current intentions toward me and my companion?"

"To protect you and get more information about this place from you."

"If you told anyone local about us and our plans, you could make things much harder for us, and probably get some mages hurt. Are you likely to do that?"

"No."

"Under what circumstances do you think you would attempt to harm us?"

"If you've significantly mislead us about the nature of the problems of this world or your position with respect to ending them such that you're more the source."

"Under what circumstances do you think you would attempt to harm someone else in our world?"

"Wouldn't without a good reason, like last resort protecting ourselves or to save a significant number of other people."

"Can we trust your companion?"

"Yes."

She looks at Genea without breaking her hold on him.

Nod.

She lets him go.

"Thank you. You're, ah, very impressive. Your companion doesn't need to worry, I'm not going to do it to her unless something changes and I really need to.

We greatly appreciate your willingness to help.

And seriously, impressive."

(...it feels like she should be able to do better than that but her mind seems to be pretty failing to provide anything for her. Which, well, might happen in very unaccustomed situations! But still. Maybe they can - show them with actions, or. Something.)

"Uh, thanks, I guess?"

"Well I mean if what you've said is true which it should be you're the nicest person I've ever met? Best person? So now I feel kind of bad except obviously I couldn't have known that without doing it so?

Uh, sorry," she adds to Genea.

"I'm not going to be offended." Obviously people who won't stand by during torture for years are better people than me.

Too good for his own good.

"It's all right."

...well, if she can't think of anything else to do might go give them the information they did this over.

"Alright, so: information.

I'm not actually from here, I'm from Tscher. I wanted to check out Kashjar but, as noted, they don't go for that kind of thing. I met Genea when I snuck into the town she was a fore-citizen of the guard in and pretended to be a mage-slave. I was doing some mind stuff for people not to notice me and she noticed me anyway because she was curious about mage-slaves.

Then she saved some people's lives in a way her town didn't like so they were probably going to kill her, so I helped her get the hell out.

The going plan at the moment is - 

So I can pretend to be a mage-slave. Genea can pretend to be looking for a job as a guard. Rescuing mages is a pretty hard problem - there's records and stuff, and the Helas know who and how many are supposed to be around. But if a mage growing up turns out to be too powerful the Helas kill them. I'm pretty sure I can catch one of those, make them think they killed them, and actually smuggle them out. Meanwhile Genea, with my help, can go around seeing if there's any sympathetic people - or potentially sympathetic people - like her around.

Payoff, some kids don't die and if we pull it off a few times we'll have more people and maybe we can do something bigger or something.

Disadvantage, it doesn't help the rest of anyone.

Counterargument, it's the best idea we have."

"How many people do you have now?"

She points between herself and Genea. "Two." (however trustworthy even magic says, she's not outing the hidden mages until they've done a good bit more than talking.)

"Do you have a base or anything?"

"No."

"A secure base of operations is the first step in a successful campaign."

There's a moment of a feeling - oh thank spirits someone who knows things. She - hadn't even realized how much she was feeling not having that. She clamps down on it - magic questions or no, she shouldn't get hopes up. But.

"We would be very glad to learn all about that."

"Do you have more detailed maps, population centers, known patrol routes?"

Brief moment then she pulls out the map.

Map, population centers.

"Patrol routes vary. My town figures them out for each next year. I don't know what other towns do, but probably also that."

"Without resources we'll have to rely more on the terrain. Cliffs or rivers to guard flanks, caves or ruined buildings for shelter. Somewhere we won't be stumbled across by accident."

The map shows rivers and cliffs. Maybe a few cave systems. Not ruined buildings. 

"People don't usually go out on their own. Just trade and travel groups and patrols." Trade and travel routes are marked on the map.

"If we really need material resources we can ah, cross the river." She gestures at Tscher. "It's - well, we'd be taking them from people who can't say no to me. I can do things in return - healing, fireproof their houses, make their crops grow better, shore up walls... More of it than they'd get if one of the others decided to drop by, probably. But that's what it is. 

If we really need it we can get labor that way too. If I take some people somewhere and say 'build me things here' they're not going to ask where they are. Or, won't insist if they ask and I don't tell them, anyway. And I can repay them again and probably give them a token over that so they're less likely to be bothered by someone. And I can find ones who won't mind the travel. But - that's what it is.

Oh and, speaking of travel, you got any advantages there, by any chance?"

"We don't get tired, and can probably run faster than you."

"This spot looks promising. We should investigate."

"Alright.

Our current state-of-art travel is, I teleport us as much as I can for the day - well, leaving some aside for emergencies. And then we walk."

How far away is the spot? 

"How much distance does a teleport cover?"

If she does one maximum-distance teleport (while saving for emergencies), this much. If she spaces it out a little with some walking, a bit more.

"We can also try to sneak over some place with humans and get a ride, if it works out better that way. And if we can find one where basically disappearing it won't mess things up for someone."

"How much would we stand out?"

Look to Genea.

"Depends on - a lot of things. 

But we don't need all of us to do the - stealing."

"Better safe than sorry until we have somewhere to fall back to."

"Probably right."

"I mean it's not really a danger for us thing - if we get in trouble I can teleport us out and they're not going to find us. Danger's if people know what we're trying to do we kind of can't do it. 

Also if I cause a mess, or I guess if someone else does in a way that looks like it could be a mage, they'll probably take it out on their mages."

"I support better be safe than sorry."

"The problem isn't getting actively worse. We can spend the time to set up right."

"Yeah, pretty stable problem, this one."

"Do you need to rest before we start moving?"

"Nope. Moving's the thing we were doing before you got here.

So, opinions on ride-stealing?"

"Don't."

"Alright!

...we'd compensate somehow, if that wasn't clear.

Anyway - off we go?"

"Yes."

Off they go.

"So probably makes sense to walk a bit first now that you're here, but we were doing the teleportation in pieces and I've got a few left."  

"Sounds like fun."

She holds out her hands. Water drops coalesce out of the air between them until they form a thin sheet of water that she looks into for a few moments before dispersing it all again.

"Looks all clear. Everyone ready?"

Nod.

"Yep."

And they are gone, and reappeared again somewhere else.

"Cool!"

Orienting around, then,

"That way."

Walking.

Walking. Pods flitting back and forth, keeping watch for danger.

"So," he says to Genea, "you used to live in a town?"

"Yeah. And outside the walls, before that."

"What was that like?"

"I liked it. I'd wanted to be a guard so much, and it was - very unlikely I'd ever get to. And I got to. And I was good at it."

"Why did you want to be a guard?"

"I think I just did. I could say things, but - my cousin would have seen the same things and she never wanted to be a guard."

"Things like what?"

"Responsibility, protecting people, the physical training, the - respect probably. Being able to do something instead of run."

"Doing things is good."

"Yeah."

Walking.

"So, what are your luggage things?" (Wave at the things in question.)

"Pods. Close support units. They handle heavy ranged weaponry and long distance communication."

"I understood 'long distance communication'. How does 'heavy ranged weaponry' work they're so small. 'Close support units'?"

"That means they stay nearby and don't act independently."

"If we're trying to remain hidden it would be unwise to demonstrate their capabilities."

"...Can they act independently?"

She's not even sure what to say to the second part.

"I could hide us? Or we could try communication by mind a bit, though might not be the best idea at the moment.

Or we could wait till we find a place you like, I guess, there's not really a hurry."

(Though that sounds like quite a thing to see, even if she has no idea what kind of thing.)

"Pods more than one hundred meters from their designated YoRHa operative will deactivate."

"It'd be loud and leave a pretty obvious mark."

"I mean is there - some other type that - does? Can?

YoRHa?"

"I can hide sound. Probably do something about a mark too."

"No. YoRHa is the organization to which we belong."

"By mark I meant more like exploded trees."

"I mean, I could probably figure out how to hide that if I had to, but if someone happens to come by and sees an exploded tree, they're going to think 'Beasts' not 'metal people from another world who have superweapons and want to free mages'."

"Weeeellll... What do you think, 2B?"

"Okay then! You, uh, might want to back up a bit."

"Lemme know what area I'm hiding."

"Twenty-five meter radius around that tree." She points.

Sound muffling and obscuring and readiness to teleport if anything 

2B's Pod turns to face it, and a small tube extends from its bottom. Then suddenly, it flashes out rapid fire with a series of loud staccato bangs. A horizontal line across the middle of the tree is vaporized and the top half begins to tip over. A port opens in the middle of the Pod and a searingly bright beam lances out, cutting vertically up the section of tree that's still rooted. The trunk cracks in half and begins burning. A group of micromissiles jets out of the top of the Pod, impacting the top of the tree and exploding as it hits the ground.

Well that's kind of incredible. "Damn."

She's probably about as made-an-impression-on, if less with the brightness. (And yeah anyone who saw this from farther away is going to think it's a Beast and go in the opposite direction).

"How - many times can it do that. How fast does it - reload?"

"It's got an internal nanofactory. After a while we'd have to plunk it down on some raw material, but that's a ways off."

"An internal -? 

And - how fast?"

"It can make bullets as fast as it shoots them."

"Spirits"

Then, because she was fore-citizen,

"When we make the - base. Or stop for long enough. We should test it on - shields, wards."

"Oh yeah that's a good plan. I think I could hold a shield a bit." (She's still kind of enthralled.)

"Good idea."

When she's a bit done with just being ! over the whole thing, she heads over to see if there's anything she needs to hide.

The tree is pretty much exploded and also on fire in several spots.

She puts out fires so they don't spread. Explosion will pass for Beasts just fine. Apparently some of the weapons are made out of materials. Any of those 'bullets' or anything lying around?

If she looks very hard she might find them. They're quite small.

Well fortunately she doesn't have to rely on her eyes. She collects them all. What are they like? Anything else like that around?

Pointed and metal, and a little hot still.

Ooh.

Is that everything?

Yep.

Great looks like that's all sorted then!

She turns around holding the bullets. 

"Can you shoot these one at a time?"

"Yes."

"Wonder how it'd feel if one hit me."

"Er, what usually happens if a human gets hit with one?"

"We've never shot a human."

"...That is probably important to know."

"Well, do you think it's like 'there's a hole in them' or do you think it's like 'they explode'. I'll be fine either way as long as there's something left, but it affects the timing and all.

Er, that's not true for humans, they die of like, crossbows, and it's not true of most mages who're not me, so. If I'm fine doesn't mean it's safe to shoot people."

"It takes more than one shot to disable a machine, but you're softer then metal is..."

"That I am. I mean, I could shield, but that'd be a different experiment.

Probably shouldn't be shot when we're still walking and all. Wait till we stop for the night and try shooting me?"

"Uh. Okay."

Excellent!

If that's everything they can keep walking now?

Yes, that's a good idea.

Walking!

Walking.

"So you can do healing on yourself?"

"Yep. And on other people, but I can do more for myself. Also mine'll happen if I don't do it, or can't."

"So it's automatic?"

"Sounds like a bit of a weird word for it? I mean, if some human - scrapes their arm or something, it'll heal, and they won't be like, thinking 'heal heal heal' at it or anything. Pretty much same thing, just - benefit of a mage spark and not just a body so it'll do it for more. And faster and all."

"Well, if we break down we have to get repairs."

"...do you have something around for that?"

"Nnnot exactly?"

"...how easily do you get hurt?"

"Not very."

"...It does make sense if you don't trust us very much, but if we're going to - work together, it might be good if we knew more than that?"

"When you say break down d'you mean anything at all, like, if I scape a carriage it's not going to paint itself, or do you mean just the serious stuff, like if a human takes a crossbow bolt or something?"

"Minor maintenance is unlikely to be an issue. Problems would arise if we had need to fabricate a replacement limb."

"Unlikely because your body can deal with that, or because you're hard enough to scratch that if something gets that bad it probably goes straight to breaking, or unlikely because you can just live with the scratch if it happens?

This isn't just curiously - I can heal a human who gets a scratch but I can't unscratch a carriage the same way, with a human I'm going partially on that their body's got the - system. So if you do have some system - well then I dunno, never met metal people. But if you don't it's probably harder for me to do anything for."

"A combination of the second and the third. You probably wouldn't be able to help."

"Well, it'd be weird if I couldn't do anything. But, yeah this all sounds like a thing to keep in mind while planning.

So what does it take to leave a scratch? What happens if someone shoots you?"

"We don't let it hit."

"...well that's very impressive but also does not answer the question."

"It depends what we're shot with."

"A crossbow bolt? Your pod weapons? Magical energy?"

"A crossbow bolt shouldn't be a problem. Sustained Podfire would hurt. I don't know what magical energy is like."

"Hurt as in be painful or hurt as in take your arm off?"

"The latter."

"It wouldn't be fun."

"Understood. Good to know."

Walking, walking.

"Could you show us some magic?"

"Sure. Anything in particular?"

"What about those magic blasts you were talking about?"

"Sure. I'll do a minor one if you don't mind, save on the effort and destruction and charging up and all."

And she stops, concentrates briefly, reaches out a hand, and blasts a branch off a nearby tree.

"Magic blasts!"

"Cool! So you have to concentrate more for bigger stuff?"

"Yeah and charge up and all. Don't reload as fast as your friends there. But if I took the time, there'd be a lot more than one tree down at the end."  

"I could have killed more than one tree."

"I don't doubt it! No deprecating of your abilities meant, you are clearly more than formidable. I imagine managing the whole forest would only be a matter of time, and perhaps not much of it."

"Mm."

"Still cool. Can you do- different sorts of effects? Like fire or electricity or pure force?"

"I can set things on fire. Can throw it, but not as much. Haven't the slightest idea what electricity is. I can move things, but not with that kind of force or at the amount."

"Move things? Like this?" A glowing ring appears around the hilt of his sword, and it swings out to hang in the air in front of him.

She still has the bullets. She levitates them in a swarm, then collapses them back into her hand.

"Oh what is that?"

"The Near Field Control System, NFCS for short. It's- uh, complicated."

"I don't mind complicated."

He launches into a highly-technical explanation involving words such as "grid-form force field" and "nanoswarm".

She doesn't understand most of it but that's fine, she'll work on catching up and all that if she can and otherwise, well, wow. 

"Is it just the sword or things you can put a ring on or?"

"It can be other things as long as they're close and not too big or heavy."

"But you have to put a ring on them?"

"Yes."

Well that's cool.

"Do you have a bunch of rings somewhere, or is it just the one?"

"They come up when I need them."

"Oh, is it like the bullets?"

"Kind of, yeah."

Genea calls a reststop. (As the person who actually knows how to schedule reststops, she is in charge of doing this.)

Aye calls water out of the air for Genea and herself. 

Reststop. Back to walking.

Aye would like to know more non-classified things about the other world's humans!

"Like what?"

Honestly she's interested in anything. And doesn't really know what questions to ask. Speak the same language the robots do? Family structures? Culture stuff? Problems that aren't aforementioned machines? Neat things they do with all these fancy things they must have?

"I've never actually met a human before..."

This is... getting slightly weird. Usually in the way where she'd suspect him of deflecting at this point, except they'd outright refused to share something already so why not just do that, if he wanted to...

"Ok, amended plan: if you can think of any information in the intersection between 'about humans' and 'not classified', start telling it to me, and if there's too much I'll narrow down from there."

"We only have stories, really."

"It was a long time ago."

"Stories work!"

"What was a long time ago?"

"When humans were around on Earth."

"Oh, I meant the moon humans! Not that I mind stories about Earth humans."

"You said androids were created by humans to fight the machines? That would have been the moon humans, then?"

"Yes."

"Did they - talk to you? Before they sent you down to Earth."

"Not in person."

She'll try 'wait expectantly for him to say more' this time.

"They record a message and broadcast it once in a while."

"That's nice of them."

"What's being on the moon like?" 

"No idea."

Expectant waiting.

Fine. "Why not?"

"We've never been there."

Oh for fuck's sake.

Aye's noticed Genea's mood issue.

I think I found talking to you less frustrating, and I thought you were going to kill me.

To be fair, frustration's really not the usual response to that kind of thing.

Well you were also being incredibly strange.

Maybe it's an android thing? Sounds like they were kind of... made to be troops.

Yeah I'm getting that impression.

"What's android culture like? Is that an android thing, talking in single sentences a lot?"

"Sort of? Some of us are more talkative than others. 2B's usually quiet."

"Do you do stuff that's not fighting machines? How'd that happen, that you were made by moon humans and never saw the moon?"

"Not really, actually. Fighting machines the whole point of us. There are automated factories in orbit."

"Are you - happy like that?"

"Happiness is irrelevant. We have a duty."

"Is there a plan for when you're done? ...How long do you live, anyway?"

"When we're done the humans can come back from the Moon. We live until we break down."

"What happens to you then? What's the average time on the 'until you break down'? D'you still break down if you don't get shot or something? Do repairs not help?"

"Parts wear out over time. If you get them replaced or have a back up, you're okay. I don't think any YoRHa unit has reached a natural end to operational life yet."

"How long's it been?"

He looks at 2B.

Shrug.

"...How long are your years?"

Well, years are pretty easy to talk about once you have days, but come to think they haven't compared those yet. Smaller subdivisions are probably different - Sovereign Crossing has different ones from Tscher - but days seem a natural category assuming they also have a sun and stuff and not just a moon. 

Androids measure time in units of seconds! One second is the time it takes a cesium atom to vibrate 9192631770 times. A year is about 31.5 megaseconds, a day is 86.4 kiloseconds.

...she finds their local method much more suited to her.

She is going to guess androids are better at doing a lot of math in their heads than humans here are! Wonders if humans or mages can get it through practice.

Cesium atom?

Everything is made out of little tiny bubbles called atoms. Different kinds of atoms have different properties. Cesium is one kind of atom, and one of its properties is that it vibrates at a steady rate when you shine a laser at it.

She would like to know more about this! (Laser?)

Like the Pod used, but lower power. Also, technically it would be a maser but the distinction is not really important at this stage.

She wants to know anyway! Is lower power like her blasts being able to go for branches and not whole trees?

More like a slightly warm beam.

She wants to know more (...she wants to know if she could make one). Also still wants to know more about 'atoms'.

Well, if she wants a basic chemistry lesson, he can give one. It'll fill up a lot of time, if he's allowed to keep talking.

Of course he's allowed to keep talking.

But eventually they get where they're going, right? Or something interesting happens, at least.

There's nothing particular interesting around. Genea will call breaks occasionally. If he can keep talking for the rest of the day then eventually it'll start getting dark and they'll stop for the night.

Chemistry is intricate, and they're starting from basically nothing.

Chemistry is fascinating.

She's glad Aye's happy.

It's getting dark and this looks like a good place to stop for the night.