Strange Minds

(This topic takes place after "Desert Winds" in Agrabah.)

The interior of the ship was rather odd. It was pure, brilliantly white, with blue, arcane markings all over it, forming symbols, images, and the like. There was a place for the pilot in front, yes, but it was primarily on autopilot. A white light existed in the center, a platform that was likely where people would enter or leave the place. Around it were a series of small raised areas, likely to act as separating walls or places to lean things against. There were doors all around in a circle, and many of them could be understood just by looking at them.

One door was marked with disturbing imagery, glowing a bit green. There were sounds that came from that way if someone came close, but not enough to worry its pilot, who had kept it that way for a reason, along with the lock on said door made from a mixture of science and magic.

Another area was clearly a bedroom, though the door was mostly shut, only allowing a peek inside. It was mainly bare aside from a dresser and bed. Given the makeup of the entire area, it was likely where the bathroom was as well.

Yet another seemed to be a laboratory, one filled with many mechanical tools, some automated, some mystical, and others just manually-operated devices such as wrenches or the like. All of that seemed to be turned off for the time being. Branching off from that was what seemed to be a sterile testing ground, but the door was closed to that one.

Some other station was a kind of kitchen, near to a sitting room in which there was a couch with room enough for two to three people to sit comfortably, or one to lie down.

And lastly, there appeared to be some kind of mat in the middle of a mostly bare area. Perhaps one to sit and think, or to meditate?

A flash occurred on the platform in the center. Naito stumbled forward, rubbing his head. After the encounter with Cain and that diabolical rock he had taken, he had mostly recovered, but remained a bit shaken. He had been leaning on his newfound ally, a young woman named Kara, but stood more or less straight after arriving, resting a hand against a nearby separation section. He was silent for a few moments... then spoke up.

"Thank you," he muttered. "Need a moment..."

It appeared that the new arrival had the run of the place, if she wanted to look around. He did not seem to be answering just yet, needing to catch his breath.

Kara let go of Naito as they warped into his ship. She looked at the snowy haired young man with concern, but left him alone. After what happened earlier with that Cain guy, she couldn't blame him. "Should've known better than to trust a guy named Cain." The engineer thought to herself as she looked around the ship. The design was completely different than what she imagined the inside would be.

With so many doors, a few she could see into, Kara made her decision. She went into the lab and looked around at the tools and devices that were located inside. "Whoa, look at all this! What kind of work does he do in here?" The engineer wandered as she looked around the inside, taking in the sight of the technological and mystical tools Naito had. She moved close to one of them and looked at it. "I wonder what this one does. I'd like to touch it and see how it works but I know better than to do that in a lab I've never been to before."

The Moon Tribesman let her look around, taking some time to himself. Given her curiosity, he assumed it wouldn't be too difficult for him to assume she knew what she was doing, and what not to look at. He wasn't... well, he didn't work well with people. Not to say he was abrasive, but that he was just... not good at figuring out what he was supposed to do here. He had thanked her, and he knew she was interested in his work... but how would he go about approaching her? What if she didn't really know that much about technology yet, but was just cautious around it?

Too many variables. He had to think, to center himself, to calm down. Naito walked over to the area with the mat, and sat down on it, removing his weaponry, setting it aside, and finally sitting crosslegged as he thought to himself, trying to clear his mind, to siphon out what was bothering him.

He stayed there for several minutes, perhaps fifteen, or even twenty, not moving much beyond his breathing. He could hear them, moving around his thoughts, and responded despite himself, mostly out of habit. No, he wouldn't do that. Yes, he was trying to. He would think about looking into that idea.

As he did, Kara could go through his workspace, perhaps try looking into any schematics he had brought together. His silver arm was easy to see as he sat there, the strange firearm he had created (of a design he had put together from his own imagination, something he had never seen before on his world) also sitting there. He had a bunch of different schematics put together on paper in his workspace she was looking over, and barely-started prototypes of various sorts, among other things.

If she did not want to go to him and ask things, as was an option, she had the run of the place, though not all areas were equally safe.

Kara was in awe of the things that was in Naito's lab. Several schematics, prototypes and the like where in her sight for her to take in. With the schematics, she did touch them, picking them up so the engineer could see them. "Whoa!" She read the schematics, impressed by some of Naito's plans for creating tech.

Kara walked out of the lab and searched for Naito. She soon found him meditating in the room with the mat, eyes closed. The engineer decided to wait for him to finish before she could ask her questions. She looked over the schematics she took from the lab again while Naito meditated, still impressed and getting impatient to ask him questions. Eventually, Kara decided to just ask and apologize later. "I was wondering if you could explain about what you were building in this schematic." She opened one of the schematics so he could see which one she was asking about.

(You can choose what she's asking about.)

By the time Kara had asked, fifteen minutes had gone by. While not entirely centered, and not beyond the voices that still clamored for attention within the reaches of his mind, the snowy-haired young man had more or less calmed himself down. As the footsteps came closer, he opened his eyes, back to their near-standard expression of quiet sadness. He looked at the schematic.

On the page was what appeared to be a set of goggles of some sort, with a thick strap wrapping around not only the back of the head horizontally, but another over the top, all to keep it in place. The lenses were meant to go over the eyes, with a dial along each of them, and room along the lenses themselves to put in small chips, seemingly to alter the vision or something similar.

"Psy-scope," he replied. "Name pending. Augments or modifies psionic abilities and works as a study aid and vision amplifier for different planes of existence." He paused for a moment. "Having trouble with frequencies."

His tense nature seemed to relax a bit. It wasn't much, and barely noticeable to those who would not pay attention, but it seemed that talking about his work helped to open him up a little more. If she wanted to have him go through some of the other work he had been considering, she could ask. There may have been some limits, but not many. Whether she would tread carefully or not was entirely up to her.

"Psy-scope? Looks cool, but how are you having frequency problems? Is it the lens? Or the connection you made to the circuit? Look, why use this component when you can rearrange the circuit to make voltage be the same with less pieces, using the others to boost the frequency modulation." Kara continued, keeping the schematic open and pointing to each part as she spoke, making suggestions.

She was impressed with his intelligence and skill with this tech she had never seen before. Especially since it sounded like he specialized in psionic technology, something she also asked about. The engineer also showed off some of her own tech to Naito, starting with the RIG she was wearing. "And it was on me when I woke up. Apparently, I was operated on because they found me in the cold. I never expected to wake up with tech from another world on my body."

As Kara went over various elements of the science behind his invention, Naito became more interested, more animated than she had seen him before. He apparently enjoyed working on these things. As they began talking shop, he explained about his work, how he tended to deal with not just psionic technology, but also magi-technology.

The two walked back toward his workshop, where he showed some of his other designs, such as a reusable magic-siphoning handheld explosive that could absorb and release a variety of spells as charged into it, and a look at the starts of a kind of armor. As they talked, his expression brightened somewhat. This appeared to be something that helped break him out of his shell a bit.

When the engineer showed her cybernetic interface along her spine, he immediately looked it over. Was she damaged and in need of this change, or was it just normal? Was there something that she needed to keep herself together? From what she was saying, it was normal where she had arrived.

There were segmented lights along this "resource integration gear." From what she said, it also allowed for neurally-linked holograms. Very interesting cybernetics.

"Don't usually work with cybernetics," the snow-haired young man said, pointedly not referring to his silver arm, though she could still ask if she needed. He did want to know what she worked on in general, though. "Any specialties?"

As Kara continued talking with Naito, she saw him getting more animated and interested in the shop talk. That made her smile, not just because he seemed better for the moment, but also because she had someone she could talk tech with. As such, the engineer listened with full interest on his explanation of his own tech. The fact that he also worked on magi-technology made the attention she was giving more focused. She followed him to the lab where he showed more of his schematics and she looked over them excitedly.

After showing her RIG to Naito and explaining how it could also let her use neurally linked holograms, she listened to his question and thought for a moment. "Specialties? Not really. I mean I like a lot of tech, but I can tell you I never work with fire. I have... personal reasons for not wanting to be near fire." She also motioned to herself, her own green skin obvious, showing another reason she won't deal with any pyro tech in the slightest. "I do have some schematics though, that I drew up. I'm not that good at drawing but this works." The engineer brought up a hologram showing the schematics for a hammer she was working on.

"It's like a combo weapon. A hammer for melee combat that can switch to a firearm. The firearm fires grenades and there are other kinds like sonic grenades, flash grenades, cryo grenades." Kara explained, essentially scrolling to other schematics showing said grenades. She then switched to one depicting a spider drone. "Also, this is for a drone so they can look around for me. Perfect to see ambushes, going into places I can't and even has a camera for me to be able to see through in my helmet. Any opinions or suggestions or what I should add or remove?"

Naito thought for a moment, looking at the two holograms before him, the schematics she had brought up. First, he looked at the drone, pointing at various points on it with his flesh hand, pointedly not doing anything with his silver metal one, leaving it hanging down. "Might need some intense automation, maybe a mind in there? Hard to tell. Are you sure you can make the remote connection right? The computing power, size, all sorts of things. It can be done, but might require a computing expert. I can try to help with that. I have experience with it," he noted, motioning to the various forms of high technology around the ship offhand.

He kept going, eventually moving on to the hammer-explosive launcher. Frowning for a moment on something, he muttered something over his shoulder. If Kara listened, she could hear him saying something. "I know, but I didn't make this one. Leave me alone, I'm busy," he commented to an unseen being beside him.

"This seems much more doable, but further from what I can work on. More something for you unless you want me to integrate a magical processor for the... what do you call them?" He stopped, trying to find the word in his ramble. Evidently, in spite of his technological advances, he did not actually know some of the words behind what he was using as a ranged weapon, or other higher advances, oddly enough. He snapped his fingers on his silver, crystalline left hand as he realized it. "Grenades, right. Well, those grenades, or the hammer for some kind of engine if you're not strong enough to wield it personally. I can also try to draw it up cleaner if it helps."

Kara wrote down some notes as Naito gave his ideas and suggestions on the drone itself. She listened as he explained he had computing experience, something she was grateful for. "I'd really appreciate that, thanks." The engineer continued discussing the drone with Naito and soon their talk eventually went to her own hammer. However, she did manage to overhear him say something and blinked. Kara shook her head, figuring it was the stress from earlier still affecting him.

She listened to him talk and saw him stumbling on trying to say grenades. The engineer was a bit ashamed but she chuckled a bit at that, finding it a bit cute he had trouble saying the word grenades. "Well.... I already have the frame of the hammer made and it's light enough for me to wield. I will take you on the cleaner drawing though. That'd be a great help." She smiled at Naito, feeling grateful for that. Kara's expression changed to one in deep thought and looked away for a moment. Then she looked back at him, looking slightly nervous. "Say.... you don't mind if I call you Nai, do you?"

The Moon Tribesman was taken a bit aback by the nickname, eyes widening just a very slight amount. He had never actually had his name shortened before, for any reason. Then again, he more often had been called by titles (often to remember his past rather than anything complimentary) than anything else, and unlike the people of planets beyond Nippon, he lacked a surname. As such, he did not really know what to say about the request, so he tried his best anyway. "Um... okay."

It was pretty obvious that he was not very good at dealing with people, or at least with normal interactions outside of his engineering. It may not have been from any neurodivergence, but evidently he did not seem to be good at talking to people. Was it just women, or all people? At present, it remained difficult to say.

"Do... you have any shortened names you prefer?"

Kara watched as Naito seemed a bit surprised when she called him Nai. She was wondering if he never had a nickname before when he gave his approval for it. The engineer kept quiet while he was choosing his words, since it just appeared obvious to her that Naito had no experience whatsoever in dealing with people. She went into thought on his questions on a shortened version of her name. "Hmm... My name is four letters, Nai. Kara, remember. Still, you can try Kar if you want."

Having given her answer, the engineer checked through the schematics again until she found the one with the reusable magic-siphoning handheld explosive device. Taking it out into the forefront, she spoke. "I've been meaning to ask about this device. How does it work in detail? Does it only absorb magic or can it absorb other forms of energy? Is it a consumable, as in one use only, or can it be used repeatedly?" Kara continued on asking for details about the device.

Naito nodded to the response. He would keep it in mind, though he was not one to give shortened named too often. He was not familiar enough with others to know how it worked.

The Moon Tribesman was relieved when the attention turned back to engineering. He pointed to various parts on the schematics, mentioning them in turn as he went through. "The overall concept is that it can absorb raw or refined magic or psychic energy in a reservoir here, from existing wells or by charging it with a spell instead of casting it. It could let different people use a spell already inside it, or for a spell that isn't very useful at short range to be extended by throwing it." He thought on the idea proposed for a moment before answering. "In theory, it could be used for more scientific power sources, but would need a different one for that, though possibly working on the same principles."

He let Kara get closer if she wanted, absorbed in his work. "As for usage... it should be reusable, but if thrown would need to be taken back by the person. It does not return on its own."

Kara moved closer as Naito was explaining to her the details about the schematic. She nodded as she looked it over with him . "So no returning feature magical or otherwise? Maybe a chain tied to you or rope would help get it back. Are the materials needed to make more of these expensive? And does it take a lot of time to make more of them? If not, then losing them shouldn't be much of a problem. But-" Suddenly, she felt a tremor that made her stumble.

"What was that?!" The engineer asked, looking around. More tremors soon followed, in response to the sound of something impacting Naito's ship directly. This made her lose her balance and tried to grab the closest thing to steady herself. That happened to be Naito's left arm, the silver one. And that didn't stop Kara from falling to the floor, nor dragging him down with her, due to the tremors and loss of balance. She landed with a grunt and felt something heavy on top of her. Raising her head, the engineer saw that it was Naito, who landed on top of her and Kara blushed in response, not that she knew she was blushing.

Naito also felt the tremor while he was listening to her input, stumbling back in the process. He was surprised by the shock of it, but what really got him to fall was Kara tripping over him before he was ready.

She fell on top of him, but while she was blushing at their closeness, he was having a very different reaction.

He could feel the heat of the flames, hear screaming in pain, crying out for a mother and father. It was all collapsing, hurting his-or rather her- hands so badly, leaving deep, third-degree burns in the palms from then on. Her fear, augmented by those symbols from that icy planet much more recently, was not quite pyrophobia, as it was not irrational, but--

The screams of the alarm, blaring loudly, snapped him back to attention a few seconds after the fall. He did find her attractive, but all the Moon Tribesman was focused on in that moment was his position, specifically that of his hand.

Pushing her off of him firmly, but not roughly, he got back to his feet unsteadily, keeping his hand close to his chest with his eyes wild. He knew what she had experienced years ago, the memory of the pain fresh in her mind. He had felt it himself, and wished not to feel any more. Stammering with his words, he turned quickly and began running toward the cockpit without a second thought or a word edgewise. While he ran, there was the possibility that Kara could have seen something from his back, beneath slightly ripped cloth. A collection of white feathers on one side, something dark on the other... She would need to ask about it later if at all.

He got into the pilot's seat, and began typing furiously, seeing creatures with symbols of the dark, Heartless out in space, roaming. Seeing as he had no weapons on this transport, which was built more for speed, he sped ahead, luckily without any real issues of acceleration on the inside of the ship. However, if something was going wrong behind him, he would be unable to help it just yet, and he could not stop all of the incoming explosive creatures or vehicles firing on him, for which he muttered a stream of curses under his breath.

The next thing Kara knew, Naito pushed her off of him and got up. As she watched him leave, she noticed some white feathers on one side of his back and something dark on the other. "He has wings?" The engineer thought to herself then shook her head. She focused on getting up, while there wasn't any tremor right now from an attack. Kara felt the ship start to move and let out a sigh of relief.

She started picking the schematics and tools that fell to the floor thanks to the attack. As the engineer was trying to organize the clutter, another tremor was felt from an attack. This made her drop what she was picking and lose her balance. "Whoa! I need to be caref-" More tremors followed and she fell down again. Except this time, her head hit the edge of one of the tables hard on the way down. Kara lost consciousness after the impact, so she couldn't feel her body fall hard down to the floor. Some of the tools she had organized fell back down on the floor, a few hitting her body on impact. She laid down on the floor, unresponsive, Naito not being the wiser over what happened to her.

Naito navigated his way through the various incoming threats that rocked the ship. Finally, he hit a switch, and they rocketed ahead and out of the veritable minefield of explosions, never having fired a shot on account of having no weapons to speak of.

Only once he had done so did he turn around, quiet as ever. It seemed their problems were behind them...

... only for him to see Kara there, lying on the ground, amongst various tools and papers in his workshop. Blue eyes widened, and he sprinted back in her direction. As he did, he telekinetically picked up the various pieces of equipment, putting them back on the table before he came right to her side.

This was his fault, much like so many other problems. If he had just paid more attention... Oh, it didn't make any difference, he--

No. He was falling too deeply into his current state. He had to fix this.

With a deep breath and a moment's concentration, the Moon Tribesman's expression hardened, focused, and seemingly "came to life." He crouched over the engineer with green skin, and put a hand in front of her mouth. She was still breathing, so she wasn't dead. After that, he picked her up bridal style with some difficulty, and carried her to his couch, setting her down. Resting her there, he put a hand over her injury on her head, closing his eyes. Touching it, white light emerged from his hands, the glow going into her and healing up the physical damage.

The young man took a deep breath again, not used to using that spell too often, or to using his more physical Yang style in that way, and stepped back. He would likely need to prop her up, perhaps take some uncomfortable things away, but otherwise she had to rest. Until then, he could do some reading in his study, to wait until she was ready to wake up.

(You can skip ahead however long you want. He'll be in the dangerous psychic area.)

Kara began to stir as she groaned. It had been several hours since having her head hit while falling down, Naito's ship already in safe distance from any attacks. "What the...? Who clocked me?" She said, getting up and feeling something soft under her. The engineer noticed that she wasn't in the lab, but another room, this one with a couch she was laying on. Getting up, she stretched her arms and looked around. "How long was I out?" She asked herself and brought up a hologram to check the time.

"Seven hours?!" Kara commented in surprise. She walked out of the room to try to find Naito. She first checked the lab, only to see everything cleaned up and no one inside. Walking out of the lab, the engineer looked at the other doors then went to the one that got her attention first, walking towards it and opening it. Going inside, she saw that it was a study of sorts as she closed the door behind her. "Okay.... he has a study too. All that's missing is the fireplace." Kara muttered the last sentence, glancing around the room as she saw Naito was sitting down.

Suddenly, her vision blurred for a moment and she stopped, closing her eyes. As the engineer opened, she panicked as she saw a disfigured corpse with elongated arms that were adorned with blades made from the body and talons, also having a smaller pair of arms closer to the lower torso. The Slasher, as she knew the name of this type of creature, was in front of her, where she had seen Naito and had just noticed her. "Stay back!" Kara yelled, taking out her Scalpel, what she called her plasma cutter, aimed at the Necromorph.

In reality, she was simply hallucinating and her yell would get Naito's attention. It would also leave him surprised that she was threatening him while looking scared.

Walking into Naito's study was an absolutely terrible idea.

He had the signs there, though they could use some work. There were various tomes in a bookcase, a faint light coming from some of the books, but for the most part they were normal-looking enough. The problem was more in what exactly they were: tomes of eldritch knowledge, used to learn various spells or psychic abilities. Useful for research into the arcane, much like the circle set up a ways away in the same room, cut off by another door... but with the problem that they often could not be used safely for extended periods by those who wish to keep their sanity, at which they would erode continuously, indeed causing any existing mental illness to exacerbate in the room itself.

The snowy-haired young man, on the other hand, seemed to be reading one without any issues at all, just muttering to himself, or to something else near him. He was trying to figure out how to utilize his psychic abilities to heal a mind... but that would be very difficult indeed.

The other problem with walking into his study was his reactions. Startling Naito was not for the best, as he had a tendency to overreact to such things. Case in point, the fact that while he was reading, he tensed up on hearing the screaming young woman behind him, eyes going wide and wild. In an instant, he turned around, his Yin style causing him to let loose a barrage of invisible tendrils from just before his hand, acting akin to a hard shove or even a shredding strike aimed directly at the person nearby, aiming for center mass. The telekinetic blast threw Kara out of the room, past the doorframe and out into the main central area as he stood up swiftly enough to knock over his wooden chair, running out after her as the large volume closed itself behind him.

He stepped out into the doorway, his expression a combination of worry for one of the only people he could relate to and anger at her for going into the room at all.

His anxiety had increased significantly, and out burst two wings large enough to carry him in flight. The right wing was beautiful, a white one with well-kept feathers, seemingly that of an angel. The left, on the other hand, was blackened, lacking feathers and made from necrotized, dead flesh. There was something very, very wrong with him in a lot of ways, ones he was not explaining.

His words were angry, but also concerned. "Do not go in there. Ever. I only helped you, healed you, let you rest. Do not startle me again."

Kara suddenly found herself blown away, flying right out of the room and into the hallway. She landed on the floor hard, her plasma cutter bouncing a couple of feet away from her. Getting up with a groan, she saw the necromorph come out and shriek at her. "Stay away!" The engineer yelled, making to get her dropped weapon, only to see another Slasher necromorph standing besides it. She fell back down and saw the hall, filled with necromorphs, now looking old, damaged and out of order.

"What is going on?" Kara muttered.

"Make us whole again." A voice whispered.

"Wh-what?"


The voices just kept repeating as the necromorphs stood there, surrounding Kara. The hall's light started turning a foreboding red as the walking corpse in front of her changed back into Naito, but with a healthy white wing with feathers and a rotting black wing lacking feathers on his back. Behind him rose the image of a red monolith, form and design twisting upward and pulsating with energy, the voices getting louder and louder. The engineer shut her eyes, the light getting too bright as the voices united into one, reaching the height of their chorus.


Kara opened her eyes, ready to run, only to see that everything was gone, back to normal. She was on the floor of the main hall, outside the study she had walked through. And in front of the engineer was Naito, his wings out, looking angry yet also concerned. However, she was more focused at what she had seen. "What the? Did... did you see that? All of that? I saw one of those things here. I... I... The Marker, the words, I saw that. How did I get out here?" Kara got up, simply looking around and trying to make sense of what she just saw.

Though still unnerved, Naito took a deep breath once he heard what she was saying. He hadn't seen anything in there beyond his books... Oh. Oh, right. The books in his study would only cause an increase in psychological decay at that rate if the person already had serious problems. As for the green-skinned engineer... well, she was clearly hallucinating. He had no idea what the cause was, but apparently she had not meant to alarm him to that degree.

With a sigh, the anger fading away, replaced with annoyance at himself as his wings folded themselves back under his clothes, to be unveiled again only if she were to ask for it. He had been trying to keep how inhuman he was under wraps, but there was no hiding it from her now.

... He said about the young woman who had green skin but no apparent explanation as to why.

The Moon Tribesman ignored the laughter the best he could as he knelt down, speaking softer. "The books are dangerous. Nothing but me and them there." His phrases were shortening as he remained nervous about all of this.

"... You hurt?"

Kara watched as Naito folded his wings back down. She knew she hadn't imagined that as he knelt down in front of her. "...not really." The engineer shook her head, looking straight at him. "I feel fine. Sorry about going into the room. I was looking for you, to see if you were fine. If I did something, I'm really sorry about that." She placed a hand down on the floor then got up on her legs and stretched her arms a bit. Kara felt guilty for surprising him like that, not to mention she had no idea what happened that made her see that scene.

"I didn't know you had wings." She asked, trying to change the subject about what she had seen. The engineer had no way to explain why she saw what she did, nor the voices. She wouldn't have any idea how to explain about the voices only she heard, and the words they kept repeating to her. Kara did recognize the meaning of the words but decided to focus more on Naito. "I'd understand if you don't want to talk about your wings though."

Rather than press the issue, Naito let Kara ignore it. He didn't want her pressing into his own personal issues, so there was no need for him to look into hers. Furthermore, he didn't see them as his problem unless they became as such, such as if she had actually shot him.

When she brought up his wings, he just sighed, deciding not to hide it from her for now. His body seemed to relax a bit as they pushed out from under his shirt, though not extended to their full length, only visible somewhat as behind him. Looking in the direction of the discarded projectile launcher, he extended his left, dead wing, a skeletal hand atop it reaching down as if a fully prehensile extra limb and picking up the object before returning to him, whereupon he picked it out of the extra hand with his normal left one before allowing said blackened wing to rest again against his back somewhat.

"Had since I can remember. Don't know why. Never saw any but Celestials with wings, and not these. Not... like this," he noted, letting them stretch very slightly to show the near polar opposite between the both of them.

Turning the cutter in his hand, he held it by its barrel, finger off of the trigger with the point of release aimed at the ground, and handed it to the engineer.

"The study is dangerous, especially for the corrupted," he repeated. He did not mean this as an insult, but merely as a statement, and did not seem to register it as anything bad. "Stay away unless prepared."

"Celestials?" Kara asked. This was the first time she heard the word and wondered if Naito was a fallen angel or not. She noticed he definitely had the wings for it, especially the black, rotting one. Talking about the black wing, she noticed it pick up her dropped plasma cutter, not having noticed the skeletal hand until now. "That'd be useful for not having to bend down to pick up tools." The engineer thought to herself as she was offered her weapon back and took it.

"Thanks." Kara replied, placing the plasma cutter away. She did hear the part about the corrupted, and after the earlier episode, she was inclined to agree. The engineer had time to mull over what happened later, as much as she didn't want to. "Got it. No more me going into Lovecraft study without protection. Also, thanks for earlier, carrying me and healing my head I mean. I appreciate it."

(We can finish this here.)

The Moon Tribesman froze up momentarily at the question about the Celestials. How could he be so stupid as to bring them up? When he...

Instead, he immediately changed the subject, glad for Kara doing so herself. He was unaware of who this 'Lovecraft' was, but figured it amounted to what he was saying. Rather than react to her thanks, not knowing how exactly to do so, he moved onward. "If you don't need anything else, I can drop you off somewhere. Your... firearm, that was the word you used, seems to still be in working condition."

While he did appreciate her company on some level, Naito gravitated more toward his own solitude. Whatever was haunting him was something he did not appear willing to talk about. However, it appeared that she could go however she wanted.

(You can wrap it up.)