The Grandcypher

[Bloodedge]

An airship carrying the hopes and dreams of its crew toward the distant horizon. The skyfarers aboard have heard the dragon's voice that shakes the world's balance.

[Apollymi]

It took a couple of days beyond the end of the Demon menace in Eonis for the group, now plus a few additional people to make it all the way back to Atlantis and onto the the ship created by two others of their ilk. Bulma stood with her short blue hair being pushed about by the breeze, atop the deck of the ship just off the shores, of Atlantis as a cart pulled by a heavily fatted black Filolial road up to it. She smoked a cigarette seemingly amused by the sight. It'd been a few weeks since she'd last seen this group and she'd spent a lot of time, effort and a great deal of Miki's coin, making this ship into a moving hub. Now, she was simply waiting for the entire group to arrive.

From the cart, this ship was massive, a vessel larger than whole mansions by most accounts. It's hull had a shiny hue to it, but seemed to be made of some sort of wood and beyond all of that, a large dragon shaped balloon like set of sails sat atop it floating it just off the ground constantly. A ramp made its way up the side wide enough that the whole cart could be manuevered up onto the deck and it soon was, as the black Filolial ran forward, strangely enough with Hikari at the reigns. The Demi-Human lass had been thinking for quite a while, about the secretive nature of her brother among other things. But she'd carried on, as she always did, wondering just what all was going on in his head. Upon bringing a stop to the vehicle she raised a hand to Bulma and said a strange phrase. "Yahello!~" she chimed only to have Bulma reply in turn through drags of a cigarette. "Yahello!~ Hikari-chan... Minna, welcome to the Grandcypher!"

[Bloodedge]

At long last, they were ready to venture out into the open sky of this world. The group had certainly grown over the course of a few journeys. They were ten strong now, each member capable of contributing a great deal to the overall structure of a group. If they had the clearance, they could easily form a Guild here and now, with the ship as their base; it was certainly large enough to classify as one.

Ah, but there was one thing... just a single hiccup. As the majority of this group made their way to the ship, there was a greeting shared mutually between Hikari and their resident scientist, Bulma. The ashen-haired Saber named Kou suffered a twitching eye and lip upon hearing it twice, but he supposed there would be no avoiding it in the long haul. With a sigh, he accepted the fate that he'd never hear the end of this 'yahello' epidemic, even in this world. "... Right. Yeah. Grandcypher, huh? I wasn't expecting a zeppelin, but it looks pretty sick," he praised. A large number of the group seemed to be in awe of this construction. Among the most awe-stricken was none other than Dreyfus, their new and temporary blacksmith. With his maw agape, the large half-Dwarf sauntered his way inside the vessel, bypassing one Kaiba Seto... who naturally looked about as pleased as a rotten child. "Greetings aside, get this damn thing moving already. I have things to do."

[Apollymi]

Kou upon seeing the ship, classified it as a zeppelin and he wasn't wrong in this. Apparently, though he still approved of the look which caused a gentle incline from the head of Bulma. "Hai hai, glad you like it. It was the best compromise that could be achieved with the combination of things it needed to be capable of," she said taking another drag of her cigarette. It seemed that Kaiba Seto was none too thrilled about their lack of movement, but that was to be expected. After all the lad was never very patient. As more individuals came pouring out of the cart, a blue haired boy by the name of Jaskier hopped out as well, having a grand look around as Miki floated out once again this time with a frown on her face as she came to look at Kaiba. She absently pushed her hair out of the way and shook her head. "It isn't going anywhere. And some of us, always have something to do..." she said with a roll of her eyes. Of course, they'd been busy while they were gone, the extra people present was proof enough of that, but what this group couldn't know was how much world saving the group had managed to do while they were out and about. "Nice job on the ship. Is it fully outfitted?" she asked of Bulma because obviously having a normal conversation was Kaiba wasn't really on her list of things to do.

"Hai, I had a lot of time and a lot of funding. It has a fully stocked galley, living areas enough for 50 or so, including a large captain's quarters, a Library, a couple of different workshops and indoor plumbing." she said of the full layout. "Oh, and there is also storage below for carts, vehicles, and mounts so you can keep your pets from going stir crazy... But I left decorating to him... so no complaints about that aimed towards me," she finished up. "Very nice." was the last thing Miki had to say about it. Not so strangely, Miki had no problem trusting potential furnishings left up to Kaiba, they technically had similar tastes aside from his Dragon obsession. "We can take off anytime, anyone with riding skills who wants to learn the controls should come along though...they are a bit... different," she said leaving anyone who wanted to explore the ship to do so, while heading up to the area which housed the helm and all the navigation equipment. For their maiden voyage, Miki was content to at least learn the controls, so she followed Bulma. Hikari on the other hand decided to get Fiona settled, while Jaskier found a place near the mast to post up and begin tuning his lute.

[Bloodedge]

"If this is the best, I think you could have even taken a lazy day... or seven," Kou commented as he, too, boarded the vessel. Members of the group were piling on while Bulma explained matters of importance, primarily involving this ship's functionality as a base. "That's the stuff! It'll be a hell of a relief, having a solid place to stay while still being on the move for so long... yeah?" His clause ended with an upward inflection as his gaze found Miki. He would also be taking Bulma's offer to learn the Grandcypher's mechanics directly. Different though they may have been, he expected a simple enough transition.

Dreyfus took a quick trip toward whatever place would allow him to place his craft. Arjuna remained on deck, not far from the bard Jaskier. Diva, having little clue what to do with himself otherwise, followed Hikari, and the same could be said of... Xerxes, the dragon-like feline who'd been left to watch over Hikari and Fiona. "Right, I guess it's just us then? No worries. Teach away, uh... Teach," Kou stated in anticipation of this vessel's workarounds.

[Apollymi]

The words which came from Kou's mouth made Bulma look confused by association. "Lazy... days? I wouldn't know what to do with myself," she said simply. Of course she meant that whole-heartedly and it would strangely be Miki to provide clarification. "Number One workaholic, who doesn't know the meaning of the word play because she considers her work as such. Hisakawa Hiromi is not capable of taking a lazy day," Miki teased, in a fashion more typical of her original self. "Ashikaga, you can barely talk." Bulma followed up, without at all denying anything that was said. "But I can talk!~" the blonde lass teased. Moving right along, the news that the entire place was fully furnished, and outfitted for living seemed to bring Kou a great deal of comfort. "Yeah. I enjoy traveling as much as the next person, but a bit of security and comfort is definitely nice," Miki agreed without question. She then got to watch as the whole of their group dispersed to different activities. Even Xerxes was out and about as they went to get their first flying lesson.

Bulma took a deep breath and pulled out a fresh pack of cigarettes. She began tapping them against her palm while pointing around the control room. "Helm," she said pointing to the wheel. "These switches control the wings," Bulma said as she kept tapping her pack. "This one raises and lowers the ramp, and this one launches for take off," she said pointing to a blue button first and then a large red one, marked launch. It seemed she'd taken quite a bit of thought in designing this, but the truth was, this ship sort of, built itself. "Petals on the floor are gas and breaks, just like a car... but the gauges here read all different pressures, fuel, wind, weather, water, etc..." she managed and only then did the tapping stop. She pulled a single smoke from her package and a lighter from her pocket and lit it. A long drag ensued, "This last thing here is navigation..." she said pointing to a large glass sphere with a small cone visible showing presently the landmass they were directly floating over with the ship as its central point. "The ship is the dot, not sure how far she sees exactly, but her senses are better than ours. Also... I'm pretty sure it's gonna take some advanced riding to get it just right... the she's a little fickle..." mentioned Bulma. "Questions?" Though it wasn't technically necessary, to be fair, aside from its sentience this ship worked like any car or motorbike from their home.

[Bloodedge]

The exchange between Miki and Bulma was taken in stride by Kou. Hearing their words toward each other, he actually had a bit of input himself. "I dunno... she's got a point," he said to Miki, laughing just slightly as he did. From what he'd seen of her thus far, she hardly knew when to quit. Of course, he also had little room to talk in specific cases of immersion, but... those were specific cases. Moving on though, he had a look around the control room. It was quite an advanced structure, considering the look of this ship from the outside. Considering the state of this world, though, he wasn't sure if this was Bulma's work... or the original design of the old Atlanteans. It didn't matter long term either way, but it was a curiosity of his.

"I do have a question," he said, even though it had nothing to do with what he wondered previously. As he continued speaking, he also continued moving about the room. Everything Bulma mentioned was being committed to memory. "What's this about other vehicles? You know you wanna let me take that bike for a spin, right?"

[Apollymi]

It seemed that Kou saw the hypocrisy of the statements given by Miki. She simply playfully scoffed at the notion. Yes, she also knew that she had a habit of becoming a bit ingrained in her work. Even so, she was still ever so slightly better off than Bulma though by no doing of her own. "Well, sure she does. That's why I pointed it out... I still know my way around a lazy day," said Miki which was true, if only because her father saw to it, that she gained a knowledge of how to not throw herself exclusively into work, regardless of how she felt about it. Still there were able to move on to this point and get to the questions part of the explanation after of course, getting a general run down of the necessary information about the ship. "You said the ship is sentient, does that mean it has auto-pilot?" she asked of Bulma which made the lass laugh, but a shrug came after. "Uh, kinda. If she wants to go somewhere she will... as far as I know she seems to know what she wants out of travel. At the very least, she wants to go towards certain points. I was thinking of letting her choose our first destination since there weren't any specifics... I don't think she can be forced to go somewhere she doesn't wish to, though," mentioned Bulma lightly. Their maiden voyage was something to be decided by the ship if only because, Bulma wasn't actually sure it would take direct orders from her.

Beyond this, Bulma was about to say something which further backed up Miki's claim that she didn't know when to stop working. She pulled from her pocket a few capsules and held them out for Kou after his request to ride a bike. "I had a lot more free time than I thought, and per our agreement I made a few of these. The first one, is a regular land bike, a bit like a Harley. Magical but it can be modified a bit. The second is for water, I don't know how much you plan to use it but it functions a bit like a jet ski..." she mentioned of a the first two capsules which were black and blue. The last one was a golden orange a bit like the sun and she gave a bit of pause before explaining it. "This last one is a prototype. I made it of some left over dragon parts, I call it a solar sailer. It runs on magic and sunlight, but I haven't gotten to test it out yet. It's meant for some recreational flight type of things. You can test it out if you like once we're up high enough it should be a decent bit of fun..." she said calmly. "Also all vehicles of these type can fit two... so, do with that what you will," she mentioned while taking a drag. "Are we ready for takeoff?" she asked.

[Bloodedge]

"H'oh?" Kou seemed to be in doubt of Miki's claim. No matter what she said, he hardly believed her idea of a 'lazy day' could ever be the same as his. They were in two very different classes. The way he figured, her equivalent to a lazy day would be his equivalent to... any random Wednesday. "I wonder. What is it you even do on a lazy day?" he questioned. He legitimately wondered what the exact differences between their lifestyles were. This girl had never experienced a great deal of things that were commonplace to him, but... could their lives have been so separate in the other world?

Bulma had nary a thing to say regarding the use of her bike. She did, however, have a few containment devices containing three total vehicles. The first of them was just what he desired, while the second was something he imagined would see use in only a few locations. Ah, but the final offering... that was something to think twice about. She had a flying tool powered by Mana and sunlight, and it was his to toy with? Oh, he'd be wasting no time at all. Prototype or not, that was going to be the first thing he made use of once they took off. Speaking of takeoff, this new development left him less patient for departure. "Hell yeah, let's get moving!" he said, his eyes alight with wonder and anticipation for the new tools. Just after that, he took pause with an expression of wonder upon his face. "Wait, what agreement?"

[Apollymi]

It seemed Kou doubted Miki's ability to have a lazy day, or rather felt the need to question her choice of activities on a lazy day. Perhaps their ideas of lazy were different, but Kimiko in her life was still a shut-in gamer with way too much time on her hands. "Mine are spent doing whatever. A trip to the arcade, shopping, getting rid of staff and spending interrupted sweet hours in-game. Those were my lazy days... I suppose I'll have to eventually find something to replace those kinds of activities..." she mentioned thinking about it. Her lonely days at home, like the weekend that landed her here, were shining moments of glorious laziness for a lass whose entire life worked on a schedule, diet, and full-time work. Perhaps because of this, what she thought of as lazy wasn't truly so, but it still gave her a healthy bit of relaxation to ponder.

Beyond this point, while not mentioning her own bike, Bulma did indeed offer the lad two different ones and a prototype solar sailer. It seemed he was fine with all of these offerings and content to take off. "Hai hai launch at your leisure..." Miki said in response to the lass. She began preparations, removing the latches and allowing the ship to begin to gently lift further from the ground, pressing the button caused it to move forward and beyond that the shifting of the wings made it turn slightly until it was aligned. They slowly began gaining altitude thereafter. Strangely, Kou seemed to only catch what Bulma had mentioned of an agreement after the fact, and Bulma had no problem explaining it, much to Miki's dismay. "When I turned over control of the business end of my creations to Ashikaga, when we first saw each other in Atlantis, we struck a deal. Assuming you are familiar with her normal rates, you know the scale is negotiable depending on what you need from the deal. I plan to leave all the business end to her, so I would have been charged full price. She took a five percent cut for a provision which gives you access to bikes and a few prototype creations of mine. There's even a provision if you decide you want to build a bike. So, basically she hired me as your personal mechanic, and since our contract is indefinite..." she mentioned. Miki or rather Kimiko didn't seem to have much interest in the mechanical engineering side of things. And out right she was more of a car person, than a motorcycle person. But Kou had mentioned even in the Marshlands wanting bikes. Upon finding Bulma in this world, she made a deal to make sure he could have access to anything and everything he wanted in that realm. This was done even before her confession to the lad. Miki had the grace to look exceedingly sheepish after this her face painted red because she figured he would have gone ages without knowing and likely would have just figured Bulma was nice instead of thinking she had anything to do with it.

[Bloodedge]

He could almost laugh. In fact, he did. That rich girl known as Ashikaga Kimiko thought that classified as a lazy day? Oh, the difference between their lifestyles. Once he was done grasping at his abdomen and bellowing a guffaw into the ship's ceiling, he bent at the waist and shook his head. "That's it? I dunno, that sounds like a regular day to me. What the fuck do you mean a trip? There aren't trips in laziness! Skip school, stay inside, don't change clothes, eat cup ramen and let the noodles hang out of your mouth because you're too into a boss fight to even chew! Don't even get up to shower, just keep all your food and drink by the bed all day. That's lazy! There was a wide, carefree grin upon the face of Kou during this speech. He meant every word; his take on laziness was of a different quality entirely. What Miki had to say, truly was just an ordinary day to him.

Off they went on their sky ship, while Bulma explained the agreement she'd made with Miki in Atlantis. He certainly wasn't expecting anything of the sort, but it was strangely heartwarming. Could the blonde really think his gift to her was something so out of the ordinary, when she'd sacrificed part of a contract to grant him a simple desire he'd only mentioned in casual conversation? Ridiculous. What could he do now, though? Miki's face wasn't the only one experiencing an intense increase in redness; his was as well. He tried looking in her direction, but the end result was nothing more than him looking away immediately. "S─sou ka..." he said. This abashed demeanor of his wouldn't last long, though. His excitement returned soon after they took off, and he moved closer to the ship's deck. A single pop of a capsule, and he had before him what appeared to be a surfboard. Indeed, it was the Solar Sailer Bulma previously mentioned. Once his eye was on it, he had it in mind to take a more... exciting path to the skies.

[Apollymi]

Kou seemed to be having a great laugh at Miki's idea of laziness, and she was soon to find out why. An entire tangent ensued about things she assumed the lad did when he was being lazy. Not going for showers, eating nearby food, not leaving his house... this was an extreme amount of shut-in behavior. She wouldn't chastise his decisions though because he looked so happily carefree at the end of his statement that she couldn't bring herself to even try too pick apart his fun. Instead only a smile crossed her face. "Hai hai, I suppose that does sound a great deal lazier than anything I manage... I'm still not a workaholic," she said. The ship continued to climb and as it did the conversation about the deal between Miki and Bulma came to its high point.

The explanation provided by Bulma seemed to leave both of the younger teens in a state of embarrassment, which the blue-haired woman found amusing for a variety of reasons. "Yeah, so let me know if you want anything particular, or if after testing you think of some things which can be adjusted..." Bulma said with a solid offering of her own services, knowing that it was exactly what Miki meant for her to do. Still the cute embarrassment wouldn't seem to last very long as the lad moved on to his excitement about trying out the prototype and Miki managed to clear her head only to think of one thing as she went to watch the take off. It was a question surrounding part of his earlier tirade and one which only she could ask. "Wait... what the hell is cup ramen?"

[Bloodedge]

"Eyes of the beholder," the lad chimed as he stepped farther from the control room, toward the ship's edge. That feeling of the wind was just what he needed, and there was no better time than the present to have this new experience. He wanted to have an early go at it as well, before it became too dangerous for any random failure of the prototype. "Alright... Time to make a move," he said, propping his sailer against the railing and preparing for departure. Just before he hopped on, though, Miki shared a few more words. She couldn't have meant that, right? Ah, but she could. That wealthy lass truly was poor enough in experience to have zero familiarity with cup ramen. Kou was aghast. "You─" How could he even explain? Well, he supposed there was only one way to do so. Somehow, somewhere, he'd have to find a way to offer the experience directly.

"I can't explain it. It has to be lived." That was all he could manage regarding the great delicacy known as cup ramen. With that, he hopped off the Grandcypher with his new 'toy' in hand. There was a place to plant his feet, and once they were there, rocket propulsion allowed additional speed to his descent. It took a few seconds to adjust, but he soon managed to curve enough to begin moving alongside the ship at great speed, even exceeding the larger vessel here and there. "WOOOOOOOHOOO!~' Already, this was the most worthwhile use of his time at present. He wondered briefly what the 'solar' part of this device was, but it was easy enough to figure out. Application of Mana through his forward foot produced a literal sail on the board─ one which bore similarities to a solar panel, albeit malleable enough to be carried by the wind. 'Sou ka. If I use this, I can save Mana at a low speed cost. This shit's cray.'

[Apollymi]

Kou claimed such things to be in the eye of the beholder, and Miki could agree. She didn't see herself as a workaholic because she had examples of people much more prone to extra work and no fun than herself. Kaiba and Hisakawa came to mind for that sort of thing implicitly. Still, her question about cup ramen wasn't answered directly instead the lad claimed it was something which had to be lived. Perhaps, one day she'd find a way to try it, since the way he said it made it sound rather enticing. "Sou desu ka..." she managed softly. Of course, this was fine. And she was then content to watch the lad try out his new vehicle. Actually, that wasn't really the case she was unabashedly staring as the lad had his fun. Zooming around the ship, managing to speed up with it, all while looking absolutely entertained and amused. A small smile came to her face and there was a deep light in her eyes, seeing this amount of happiness definitely made that earlier contract worth making. All the while she leaned up against the railing, taking in the wind, her hair blowing gently in the breeze. This was truly picturesque, eventually the ship itself reached a stabilizing altitude and would turn itself towards wherever it was it intended to go. Then and only then did Bulma leave the control room several minutes after the fact and head back to the deck. There were a few other things to take care of about figuring out who was going to be captain and all of that, but she figured they could get to that after a bit of relaxation was reached.

[Bloodedge]

There were many twists and turns in Kou's flight, all purposeful. His path took him around the ship multiple times, though he mostly resorted to cruising alongside it. Eventually, he'd board again... but not quite yet. While he was busy enjoying his flight, others were moving about the ship. Arjuna, for one, had recently taken in the sights of the ship. The tanned male approached the pair of Miki and Bulma, speaking to the latter. Of course, this only came after he checked in with Hikari for... reasons.

"Bulma," he said, expecting that the young Demi-Human would be alongside him to chime in at her leisure. "I've inspected the ship, but there is one minor... issue. The captain's quarters is a single room separate from others, as it well should be. However, would we not have two captains aboard?" He spoke to Bulma, yes, but his gaze found Miki partway through his speech. There was something afoot here, but it was a grand gesture... depending on how one chose to view it. As he continued, his words became ones which reached out to Miki as well. Meanwhile, others such as Dreyfus and Diva were approaching this small gathering of people. "We were discussing the fact that there are two people who normally function as our leader. Should we expect the room to be shared, or will our navigator be taking it? Allow me to advise against the latter."