Inunne Chapter 6
Ikota turns to double check a couple of readouts idly, then shakes himself out of his thoughts before taking a long breath. "Well, you have lovely taste in ship design. I'm no expert in Rutila vessels, but this is a particularly nice aesthetic you've chosen. Has the design always been like this?"
Oscillation's hazy orb shimmers slightly, the gaseous looking 'surface' rippling softly. Pursing his lips, Ikota wracks his brain for how to interpret that. "Hm, I wish I knew what that meant." He glances around for any kind of obvious microphone or Talking booth! Insert credit for talky talk! sign, to no avail. Oscillation's orb follows his gaze, floating almost inquisitively around eye level. It seems to be curious, at least to Ikota, though it was rather hard to tell. The kobold sighs. His fingers tap out a pitterpatter on his tool belt unconsciously as he thinks, frustrated. He liked to fancy himself a fairly competent technician, but he was starting to see why chrysalis engines were the bane of some of the older techs and mechanics he had worked with. Since it was fundamentally spirit-based magitech, there wasn't much one could do in diagnostics short of talking to the engine spirit - and there were many who had no interest in communication, too deeply in hibernation or just too antisocial to care about the conversation of ordinary mortals. Most Rutila ships practically ran themselves anyway, so hearing of a mechanic actually being necessary on one was very rare indeed. Lucky him.
"Well, I'm going to be honest. There's not much I can do to help you if I can't communicate with you in some way. I'll go take a look around the hull as best I can, but without knowing what the issue is then all I can do is patch up the surface problems I find. If you have some way of communicating beyond glowy orb wiggles, I'm all eardrums."
The orb shimmered a little mysteriously, then moved back to its position hovering above the console and went silent. All Ikota could hear was the gentle hum of the chrysalis engine carrying them all through spacetime. The orb seemed to grow darker, dimmer, and there was virtually no detectable movement of its energy.
Then suddenly, it vanished far more quickly than it had appeared. Ikota blinks for a moment, then curses under his breath in his native tongue. While he typically attempts to keep a calm, reasonable appearance in front of others, it was rather hard not to pick up at least a few tried and true favorites among the gearmonkeys of his childhood. Waving a hand over the console to dismiss the readouts, he turns in slight irritation to look for the maintenance corridors so he could at least get a visual on some of the issues - when a slight greenish light out of the corner of his eye makes him pause.
Turning around slightly, Ikota takes a step back in surprise. Standing in front of the console is a person. Or at least, at first glance that's what it seems. Upon closer examination, they appear to be somewhat see-through, very short, and floating a couple feet off the ground. Their long, delicately doublepointed ears frame a short, pointed face with large, almond-shaped eyes which shimmer in an endlessly shifting hue of colors. Their long, somewhat wispy frame seems to be a mixture of organic curves and almost mechanical edges, with long, multicolored sections of gently shifting light not unlike what could be seen on the outside of the ship. Their head tilts, watching Ikota.
He doesn't move, frozen to the spot.
A long few minutes drag on, and he realizes that they're probably not going to break the silence, and clears his throat. "Uhm. Are you Oscillation, by any chance?"
Their shifting eye colors are almost hypnotizing, and he forces himself to look away from the bright hues to pay attention to their words. Their voice is quiet, yet powerful sounding, filling the whole space. It's as if the air itself was speaking to him in a gentle tone. "That is a name I am known by, yes. You requested a manifestation with more communication abilities. This I have provided."
They float a little closer, peering at him with what appeared to be interest, though it was hard for him to tell with the distracting colors.
"My hull has held the current appearance for 237 of your years. Prior to that date, it was much smaller. This is my second sertairy hull. Do you have any other queries you would like answered?"
Ikota pauses for a second, then:
A) Asks out of curiosity if this manifestation is their 'true' form, or if it's something else. Or maybe it's the crystal that's their 'truest' form? Nobody had really been able to explain that to him before, and he had always wondered about the nature of chrysalis spirits. B) Blurts out a request to turn down the flashing colors a bit, as they're very distracting. He's not sure how he should be feeling about this manifestation, but kobolds often have a distinct allure to colorful shiny things, and he's trying to stay professional. C) Shakes off the surprise, and asks about the ship damages. Personal questions can wait for later, and he doesn't know how long Oscillation will be feeling chatty.
A) Asks out of curiosity if this manifestation is their 'true' form, or if it's something else. Or maybe it's the crystal that's their 'truest' form? Nobody had really been able to explain that to him before, and he had always wondered about the nature of chrysalis spirits. B) Blurts out a request to turn down the flashing colors a bit, as they're very distracting. He's not sure how he should be feeling about this manifestation, but kobolds often have a distinct allure to colorful shiny things, and he's trying to stay professional. C) Shakes off the surprise, and asks about the ship damages. Personal questions can wait for later, and he doesn't know how long Oscillation will be feeling chatty.
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