--- Kamiko ---
"… and that's everything we picked up," finished Hunter. g was off to the side with a clipboard and glasses for reasons Kamiko didn't understand and Bower was dutifully ignoring. Hunter hadn't even noticed.
"So what is it your suggesting here?" asked Bower.
"Kill them all?" asked g with a grin.
"Stop trying to turn that into a joke," grumbled Bower. "We all know you were serious the first ti. Repeating it every ti it's vaguely applicable will not turn it into a running gag, nor make us forget that you an what you're saying." Once done with that Bower turned back to Hunter.
"I was mostly hoping for you input. This is your world after all," said Hunter.
"What I'm hearing is that you want to push this decision onto ," grumbled Bower.
Hunter shrugged, "Despite g's blasé attitude towards consequences quite frequently… she's got the right idea in this case. We won't be around to deal with these people once we leave. I am unsure how much we will even have to do to get them out of the mists. We'll leave… and you won't be able to. You'll be at least sowhat responsible for them all,"
Bower groaned, "So much for my vacation plans I guess. Whatever, I guess I can co up with sothing if I really have to… but I get the feeling that you have an idea, otherwise you wouldn't be back in front of us,"
"You are correct…" admitted Hunter. "I suspect that the best course of action will be to wake Corela and fill her in on the details assuming g can open the pod," g of course nodded, "Once she's out we just… allow her a large amount of influence on our final decision.
Frankly, everyone in the compound is so mixture of anxious and scared but the only person who wants to force a decision, like really force it, is the youngest around and I am unsure if we should allow that pressure to fall on her shoulders. Additionally, if she were to wake Corela herself it would drastically limit our approach options."
"I'm not against it in principle… and in practice I suppose I can't find a reason not to go along with it. I'm not happy with it, not completely but I can accept it for what it is. The fact we're on a bit of a ti limit does force things… but we didn't exactly want to spend long on this anyway… so why not let's go," confird Bower.
Kamiko just stood off to the side awkwardly as she remained blended into the background. She hadn't been entirely forgotten because g would look over and smirk at her at slightly irregular intervals but that was it. She wasn't even entirely sure if they wanted for her to co along on this trip.
Kamiko was assuming so, she didn't want to remain here by herself where she could get caught alone… but nobody had exactly addressed it.
In the end though, it was fine. The group made there way over to the exit and g simply put Kamiko up on her shoulders. Hunter didn't say anything at this, but did nod slightly. From there the three snuck through the compound making their wake back to the cryo pods.
Bower was able to keep up with the other two in regards to moving silently and knowing when to avoid the halls… but part of that might be the fact Kamiko was being carried, slowing down g proportionally. Or perhaps not? Kamiko had no idea how fast they could realistically move while keeping quiet.
Eventually the group made it to the cryo chamber and Kamiko was surprised to find it wasn't all that cold in there. Sure there were a bunch of pods that were sowhat iced over but the room itself seed to be a mostly normal temperature. Perhaps her own affinity for cold kept her from telling the difference.
While Kamiko was keeping herself off to the side again, g stepped forward and worked the interface for the cryo pod. They seed to be all individual and disconnected, Corela's especially. g had to press a few buttons, waiting for the right ti before continuing the sequence and fiddling with a couple dials for so reason.
There was a slight flash of red but it was either a trick of the light or it was dealt with so fast Kamiko couldn't properly register its existence before it was gone.
With a hiss the pod opened and g took a few steps back. Corela remained motionless for a couple of seconds before striding out of the pod like she'd just woken up from a short power nap. "So what have you young idiots got for this ti? What did you break?" It was only after she finished speaking did she actually open her eyes and take a look at the room. "Well… this is unexpected. Demons.
Did soone call you here to finish the job? Or did soone else call you here to take our knowledge?"
"Neither actually," said g stepping forward to be the spokesperson for the group. Kamiko gave Hunter a quick glance of worry at that but Hunter seed unconcerned… or maybe like she expected this?
*Why are we letting g handle the important negotiations that will be setting the tone for all interactions with these people moving forward?* "You see, we were tasked with destroying an item that teleported into the compound,"
"You expect to believe it just so happened to appear inside the compound? In the deepest levels? With no tampering for you lot?" asked Corela.
g shrugged, "It's part of a larger whole and just one piece managed to end up here, and due the magical affinity of the item a closed of space sowhat separated from ti makes it seem like it is not quite so accidental. Of course, I'm not her to dictate anything, just make so offers,"
*She can say that?! With a straight face?! And like… at all?* "Oh? Well what were the options you were going over? All of them please, I HAVE t demons before this place got locked down," said Corela.
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"Of course. We've been discussing it for so ti, and eventually decided that it was best to get your advice before approaching the rest of the people living here.
We could of course simply take the object and leave, open a gap in the shield around the place and let whoever out who wants to go… or we could ensure that any issues acquired from coming into contact with the object were dealt with in a more thorough fashion," stated g.
"Ah, so killing everyone and burning the facility to the ground. It would certainly be less hassle for if you went that direction," said Corela with a sigh. "Yet you've co to … so not every one in your little group was up for the whole murder… hmm… is it the old man? He doesn't feel like a demon,"
"I'm a native of the planet actually," said Bower. g turned around and shot him a glare but Bower kept going. "This is what essentially everyone sentient looks like now. Well, it's possible the distant kingdoms have their own unique appearances but as you can see, scale coverage is a bit more… complete now,"
Corela turned her gaze on Bower, and for a split second Kamiko shivered. It was clear Corela was here as a researcher and not as a relative because for just a mont Kamiko could see Corela's attempt to rip apart Bower with her eyes and study all of the changes involved in his anatomy.
For Bower's part, he didn't flinch… though if that was due to his old eyes missing the glint, or not Kamiko didn't want to know. Nor did she want to know why his lips seed to twitch in that mont.
"Welp, I suppose it's still better then that ti I was getting woken up once a year to fix the oven. Gonna need to ask a whole bunch of questions though. Though I guess the first thing, is the world even inhabitable at the mont?" asked Corela. "For us I an,"
Bower shrugged while looking at Kamiko and Hunter. "I noticed no reason for you to be excessively worried though the tech level has been significantly reduced. This is likely the most advanced facility still remaining," admitted Hunter.
g pointedly did not glare at this but she did step forward a slight touch and confirm it. "Hunter there is correct.
I know of no reason for the outside world to be intrinsically fatal but there are political and social realities that need to be recognised should you chose to leave… of course the generators outside are slowly falling apart and the ones inside are likely going the sa way so it's unclear for how long you could remain here safely anyway,"
"Of course. Suppose the robots are doing maintenance on them?" asked Corela.
g shrugged, "There is a small glade of treants living on the exit,"
"Do you an glade as in glade, or is a group of treants CALLED a glade?" asked Corela
"The second," confird g.
"Not sure that makes things better…" grumbled Corela.
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