Making a mention of the workshop's legitimacy made Arkady feel slight unease. Of course it would be checked by a board of people under Shun Xiao's thumb. She was making a move after all. Nice...

"I'm working on alternate energy sources and it's applications. Less theory based and more applied science. A research vessel allows to conduct experiments that would be... Too hazardous to conduct aboard the refuge."

He glances over her students and adds.

"If you gonna start pickin' around, don't make a mess. And whatever you do..." He points at the shield generator that is now surrounded with some marking tape "...Don't touch that. Seriously, don't."

"Alternate energy sources done on an experimental rather than a theoretical basis?"  She glances at Arkady's arms as a subtle point, "Yesss, perhaps a research vessel would be best.  And don't worry.  None of them will touch anything without your consent."

One of them was most certainly peering over the shield generator, though he was definitely paying attention to the tape.

"Of course, everything devolves to motonics anyway." She waves an elegant hand, "Essence essence essence, the building block of energy, the thread that ties the spiritual and physical!  I take it you refer to the different type of motonics, and not the long-mistaken thought that a mote could be split?"

He looks at his hands to see if there were something to attract her attention, like a stain or such until he realizes her point "Oh! Neither were lost in a research related accident."

"Actually, more for the latter. I was thinking more of a source that doesn't need replenishment and once initiated it procures enough energy to self sustain with excess. A paradoxal engine. I would explain how but I think it might induce psychosis to your students since... well... It's not supposed to work at all. Also I really can't explain it. It's... Intuitive. The very first step was a makeshift Abyssal/Infernal/Solar Hybrid-essence engine with two types of essence co-feeding one another, and the third acting as a kick start, with an enormous momentary energy output, far exceeding their sum." his un-modestly dismissed enthusiasm is mixed with a bit of mania as he explains.

"The research vessel of course is also present for eventual military testing. I mean, Name a single energy related invention that didn't gain attention as a possible military application? Even nukes were bombs a decade before the tech was used in a power plant. I don't dismiss the importance of theoretical research, but it all boils down to experimentation, the point when a theory stops being just a theory."

His caste sign glowing slightly as a surge of inspiration takes hold of him, after a moment he calms down a bit and regains his focus.

"Speaking of cannons... Now now students. If there is something you'd like to ask from a Solar Twilight, now's the chance. I've got some work to do with a potential to go boom boom for a very important client, so... Davai blyat!"

"You'd be surprised.  They're students, Mr. Dragomirov, by any normal person's standards they're already psychotic!"  She sits and listens, giving him a brittle smile as he explains. "So you're hoping to harness Abyssal essence.  That's a very gutsy maneuver, especially since we don't have easy access to a source.  The easiest way, of course, would be to capture a young Neverborn and bottle him up with a Solar-Infernal magnetosphere, it's possible motonically, but with the risk that eventually the Neverborn WILL grow older and more powerful, until it can no longer be contained.  Have you considered an easier, less powerful, but more abundant form of energy as a kickstarter?  Perhaps you should speak with the Dragon-Blooded, then."

"Nuclear weaposn required decades of research before the first experiment on Los Alamos,"  One of her student points out.  Shun Xiao immediately shoots him a venomous look.

"That was very rude.  Please apologize to Mr. Dragomirov."

"I am sorry, Mr. Dragomirov!"

"Very good.  Anyhow, Mr. Dragomirov- if I may now call you Arkady?- I'd like to invite you to dinner."

"Hmm... Interesting thought. I wasn't planning on using abyssal essence in the future anyways. That'd be way too risky. Like yeah I'm prepared for a reactor meltdown size scenario but not an extinction level accident. I'm smarter than that, tho I probably don't look like it. I know at least one dragon blood so I might ask him for... A donation."

As the student throws his crack-wise remark, Arkady's eyes lock into his instantly. Triggered. He makes an effort to calm himself and spare the poor student an agitatingly detailed lecture on the history of nuclear fission and its applications, he'd read about it in great detail.

He exhales and picks a calmer tone "Apology accepted, though you might want to look up when the first electricity providing reactor was built. A bit of homework for you."

He sweeps his hair back with his hands, regains focus and gives the student a last "Don't you fucking step on my toes, cyka" glare before he sets his eyes back on the infernal lady. "Yeah, Just Arkady is fine."

Invitation to dinner got him a bit baffled for a moment. Nobody had invited him to dinner, or even lunch for a long time... And even then he paid for it. He was running risk scenarios in his head for a split second, and those scenarios were quite a lot more complex than just dumping a bill on him. Well, the only way to find out is...

"A dinner? Sounds good to me! Time and place?"
This message was last edited by the player at 04:55, Fri 16 Nov 2018.

"You'll submit that report to myself and to Mr. Arkady Dragomirov.  Sixty pages.  And, on top of that, I expect a three page abstract in proper Cyrillic for the man you've offended."  She chips in with Arkady, keen to pile on the shame on the student. "You're going to need more than one Dragon-Blooded, by the by.  One of each Aspect.  But we can discuss this more later.  There's a place I'm partial to, Taiwanese hot pot, somewhere near the border of the Upper and Lowerdecks.  It's called the Happy Heaven.  Tonight, six hours?  I have a permanent, private booth."

Arkady nods as Shun Xiao gives the poor student his assignment.

"I kind of got the idea I'd need all of the five elemental essences to create a potent enough catalyst." He strokes his chin.

"Happy heaven in six hours. I'll see you there, Miss Shun Xiao."

Being polite was a bit unbecoming of him, but in situations like this there was no harm in it.
The more challenging task was to make himself somewhat representable. Man, he didn't even remember the last time he had to.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:52, Sun 18 Nov 2018.

"Depends on the yin-yang balance, honestly!"  She says cheerily, "I will see you there, Mr. Arkady."


Then she struts out, her students in tow.  For a blissful few moments there's silence, and then there's a message on his PDA signalling that Mr. Corduroy and his scratch work team have finished the first set of transfers.

Arkady closes the door fast. "Is everything still there? Did they take some of my shit?"

Damn it. He didn't pay attention to the students enough. Maybe they took photos.

Well. The photos wouldn't be too conclusive.

He replies the message. "Ok. I'll come by to check."

Six hours is a decent amount of time to him, about a night's sleep, If he felt like sleeping, so he might even have time to clean himself up a bit. Just a bit. Just enough to convey that he gives a fuck about himself really. He couldn't remember if the captain's quarters in his ship had running water yet. Might have to do some plumbing.

He exits his workshop, double checks that the door is locked, and starts walking towards the bay in a leisurely phase.

He doesn't remember a single student actually touching anything, but photos?  Photos are a very real possibility.  Most of the stuff he has sitting around isn't exactly spectacular, but that thing in the center of the floor, well... that might be worth taking a few pictures.

The door is firmly locked and he's on his way to the Bogatyr!  Nothing stops him or otherwise hinders him in any way.

The Bogatyr is (comparatively) old, rickety, and smells like sour milk left out in a forest rain.  The hallways are already cluttered with junk- old machinery, pieces of power tools, scrap.  It looks more like a scrapyard than a ship.  There are a few people clearing out the ship galley, setting up tables and even a few hammocks.  Mr. Corduroy meets him there.

"Sorry it's a bit of a junk pile but I had a lot of junk," He grins awkwardly, "The berth's kinda all fucked so we're gonna have to sleep and eat in the same place for now.  Excepting for you of course, you got your own room!  It even has water!"

"Thank god there's water. I need to freshen up..." He sighs
"We gonna sort this shit out a bit better tomorrow, and get the crew places and berth set up. Make me a list of materials we can't scav or make ourselves and I'll try to figure something out. Also we gotta clean it up properly, from inside and out. Adds to comfort, prevents diseases and keeps the equipment in good order..."

He smiles when he thinks of his tub. It's a piece of shit, yeah, but it's his piece of shit. He's gonna make it fucking epic. he adds with an amused tone:
"Shit man. I gotta look representable this evening. you know, for people to take us seriously. Got invited on a dinner, probably due to a tip by that informant dude. Our workshop got visitors today..."


He turns to Corduroy and his smile widens.
"Pick a wild guess who?"

"Well, it's going to be goin on for days, at least until we can get a smelter working.  Yeah, we need a bunch o things, like a good big-ass crucible.  I figure we're going to be doing scrap collecting, scavving, melting, refining... all sortsa stuff but those big crucibles ain't cheap now."

He nods.

"Shit.  Representable?  Uhhh.  Damn.  Got invited to a dinner, informant dude... shit, Red Queen?"  He hazards, "I don't fucking know."
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:15, Wed 21 Nov 2018.

"Red Queen?. Close but no cigar..."

He exhales and gazes idly at his ship.

"Motherfuckin' Shun Xiao... I'd really wanna skip that dinner ordeal, 'cause it's not really my thing, but I gotta show that we ain't steppin' down in front of her and her fancy academy... She and her entire band of pupils came around earlier to snoop around."

He pulls off his hood and scratches his head... More like shaking his hair nervously.

"Awww.... something doesn't seem like she's up to any good or Healthy co-operation... Still gotta see what kinda hand she plays. Like, the first things she said when she entered was that she'd check if our shop was properly registered or some shit..."

"She's a leader not a follower, but not a good leader."  Corduroy agrees, "Shit man, you stepped into some spikes there.  Well, I mean... here's the thing.  If that shop you found was still registered to someone, big fucking deal.  What's she going to do?  Make you return a bunch of books?  Nah, that can't be why she's looking it up.  Gotta be that machine, man.  She wants to know who built it.

Course.  You could skip it.  I mean, hell.  Who wouldn't?  Not the first time someone like her's been ghosted I bet."

"I know it's that machine. The pupils didn't take anything from the shop, but they might have taken photos. shit. I gotta figure out a way to move it..."

He picks up a bolt from his pocket and feels it whilst in thought, eventually throwing it away in an arc.

"Man fuck it. Gonna go anyways and see what's up. I heard there hasn't been a twilight solar in a while so she might just be genuinely curious too, with a slight malicious intent without a doubt."

He ponders a while and adds:

"The dinner might be a stalling attempt. We need to get that licence figured out before she gets her fingers onto it... I might be a bit paranoid about this shit, but I really have my doubts about her motives. fuck."

He stands up and dusts his clothes.

"If you have any pals or contacts who might know anything useful, a lil help would be appreciated. Imma go freshen up and take a shot of courage... or a bottle. shit."

"Everyone knows you can't trust a demon.  And an Infernal's just a demon with human form, so that's even worse."  Corduroy nods sagely, "Far as contacts go?  I don't run in that great of a circle boss.  You're asking for info that's gonna be one of two things, from one of the students who worships her or one of the heretics that hates her.  I don't think you're gonna get any good idea what until the moment you're sitting across from her."

Mr. Corduroy looks him over, "You want me to see if I can't get you some fancier duds?"

Nods to corduroys insight.

"Thank man, first steps are always the toughest, but we gon' make it."

He looks at his worn out clothes.

"Maybe something, but let's not over do it." He chuckles.

"You shower up boss.  I'm off to check the markets."  Corduroy slaps Arkady's shoulder, "We gonna make you all presentable-like!"

The prospector directs him to his quarters.  The Captain's quarters is near the bridge and is about the size and layout of a very small studio apartment, minus a kitchen. There's a rusted-looking shower in a corner with only a plastic curtain and a small lip that keeps the water in.  This is situated next to the toilet.  There's a single cot and a desk with a decrepit-looking laptop gathering dust.  Above the laptop there's an inscription etched into the wall:

"screw this"

Seems like the previous captain of the Bogatyr had a hard time.

Arkady takes a shower, and actually takes some time washing himself. It's been a while since he actually bothered beyond the bare necessities. A thorough scrub and a soak in cold water later he dries himself.

He sits on the cot and dries his hair, his eyes wandering towards the laptop from time to time.

"Hmm..." Well he had nothing better to do whilst waiting for himself to dry off and waiting for Corduroy to return.

He walks to the computer and picks it up, inspecting it slightly before blowing off the dust.

His eyes wander to the inscription on the wall. It doesn't help quell hiss curiosity.

He opens the lid and and presses the power button. Let's see what the previous owner had in mind.

The laptop whirs angrily, shit, what is this, not even a solid state drive?  It takes a bit to boot up, a weird pre-CORE-OS that Arkady has only dealt with once, LIFEDRIVE.  The computer prompts for a user name and password!

The username is already there:

INGRAM

((9, 9, 6, 4, 2, 1 & 1
clarity in openness +10 learning
HaXX w/ Learning 29+10+25= 64
Float 1-1))

Not a surprise it's password protected.
A bit surprised that the OS is THIS obsolete
Really surprised it seems only password protected.

Usually OS's are made to be at least somewhat intuitive, but this was necessarily not the case, so he tries the most common key combinations to gain access to root and starts shifting through for a bypass.
This message was last edited by the player at 21:54, Tue 27 Nov 2018.

It requires a reboot and a few arcane key combinations but he's in pretty quickly.  It would've taken the old him hours, maybe days.  New him?  There's not much to worry about.  It's like stealing candy from a baby.  He's even able to brute force the password out of the registry:

getup3Zybl0re§getonup@%328anddance!2

Which, well, he might want replacing soon.

Most of the stuff is- wow, ok, that's a LOT of vanilla porn, but nothing particularly uncommon for most personal workstations on transports nowadays.  Damn, INGRAM didn't even bother hiding the folders.  but there's a lot of info on the ship, including detailed logs of ship manufacture, maintenance, etc.

Arkady shuffles through the manufacturing and maintenance logs, mainly spotting unusual stuff and negligence in maintenance or manufacturing. Better check everything noteworthy, not to end up like old Paddy, being broken and shit every single day.

He's gonna polish this piece of shit into a diamond.

He then shifts all worthwhile info onto his PDA for safekeeping. He let's the porn be tho.

He then hits settings and resets the password to:
"N0th1ngT0D0w/Pr3s1d3nt14l%3l3ct10N5-Demon-Horse-Cannon"

While the PDA is loading he checks the time and looks around the cabin.

It looks like INGRAM didn't keep a diary, or at least one Arkady can find on the computer.  But the maintenance logs are very revealing.  Apparently the ship (once called TANTIVE-V) had a brush with the Neverborn forces in the early stages of the conflict a few years back.  It was one of the original run of transports, even.  An Abyssal had shot up the engines and it had never quite been the same.  It's undergone monthly maintenance trying to fix the engine, only to end up with some terrible shit- like explosive leaks, burning oil lines, etc.  In the end the engines of the TANTIVE-V had claimed the lives of a dozen men and women and INGRAM must've just snapped.

Man, it really didn't take him that long to hack that computer.  The logs took up most of his time; he's still got a few hours before the 'date'.  There's not much else in the cabin; which is about fitting.  From what he remembers of the Paddy Wagon the captain had taken great pains to decorate it and furnish it to his liking.  INGRAM took out all of his/her old shit.

Nice decor to his quarters is included in his future plans, but he doesn't have the time or the resources right now.

Besides, It's going to something in the lines of 'Hoarding cool shit and putting it on display" anyways. Intead he puts his mind into figuring out how to repair the engine, on swap it to a better one. That engine damage seemed serious so he'd better inspect it himself.

Tough that might take some time. Better just wait for Corduroy to come back.