Andre paid close attention to fiddlers in HIS bay. After all, newcomers tended to cause accidents and accidents required prevention or cleanup. Prevention was always better. He had nieces and nephews though and as he watched he paid close attention to the fiddled tools.

Anything NOT tied into ship systems normally? It was important to know if Gryftrr readily used things NOT integrated to the ship. Inspection of the modified drone would give an idea as to just what the gremlin was capable of... or wanted them to know.

Otherwise he was inclined to treat the- Gryftrr like one of those relatives. He was never going to be entirely off guard as long as it behaved remotely like a child. Teo had cut himself pretty badly in the garage back home.

Jhenko sighs.

"Andre, I don't know how to even begin with this. Call me if you need me."

He takes one last look at the gremlin's avatar, shakes his head, and then leaves the engineering bay.

Gryftrr waved goodbye as Jhenko left. A small drone with a holoprojector no bigger than a fist was floating behind him, hidden by the avatar when still. It looked like it had been slapped together by an amateur.

"Ah, seems the fearless leader has better things to do than to fiddle around in the wizard's laboratory."

He grabs another tool off the table and inspects it. There didn't seem to be any method to his madness. He was just observing.

"I however..."

Andre wasn't certain how a metal wizard should function, "Transfer to this room's emitter and I'll drum up a better synthesis of these parts for you. First though... Please apply increasing pressure on this for a little bit." he pulled out tools for reading and analyzing energy.

He reaches for the mobile emitter, "I'll need you to show me where you took these pieces from... I have spares that we can use for limited projects but stuff in the ship -the new body- needs to stay mostly where it is unless it is really needed elsewhere. It could be really bad for me in particular and Captain would restrict your freedom a lot."

The gremlin laughed as Andre requested him to actually do something useful and continued wandering around the bay. It was clear it the hologram was only fooling the eyes into making it look like he was interacting with the environment, when he really wasn't. Just rays of light pretending to be form.

"I took most of them from a room using one of the drones. It had lots of wires and screens and you could see everywhere in the new me from there even while not in this digital form."

The gremlin just described the security desk on the bridge. He tore parts out of the main security desk...the primary spot for sensors and communications. Just one more thing to fix. What's worse, he clearly had access to security drones. They were brand new and Jhenko must not have had time to set security protocols on the drones before the gremlin got his claws on them.

"Hmmm, well, I can't upgrade your mobile emitter drone until I have things fixed up. NOD's logs will make you aware that I don't do much play until the work is at least mostly caught up. I do enjoy play though and the rules by which spirit creatures operate..." He was somewhat hesitant to say the word because it suggested one couldn't know how it worked logically or empirically but he would use it for lack of a better short hand term, "I want to learn more magic."

The mechanic wished he knew of ways to bind spirits to his bidding but he wasn't above bribing young kids or gremlins, "If I feel right about you listening and working with me, I would build a body you could do more than just look at things and shine light from. I know you enjoy playing, Gryftrr. I might be able to integrate the device you brought with you. When I am done with the repairs we can talk about features you would like." His worst related fear was that these creatures had no way to properly express what he wanted to know and he would have to simply work from veritable scratch.

Grabbing his tools and locking up the gremlin pad Andre started for the bridge.
This message was last edited by the player at 03:28, Thu 22 Feb.

Gryftrr followed Andre back.

"You seem really talented with your metal magic, wizard. Or whatever they call this version of magic...uhm...Engineering I believe you call it."

The engineer replied with at least some amount of modesty, "I may not be the absolute best, but as far as raw talent is concerned I'm the best I've ever known. I've had dreams of, for lack of a better term other kinds of magic. I don't consider what I do to be a magic. What I do is merely a craft except for the inadvertent introduction of you to the ship's systems. The tools I make effect energy and matter but I don't effect energy directly very well. That is what I call magic... My ability to heal tools and constructs is almost what I call magic I guess."

Andre sighed and placed the modified drone carefully on his work table, it would take a little bit of time to get a holographic scan so that he could see where everything was when it was initially put on the table. "... Maybe I can use what I know about how I fix things and figure out how to expand that to creating things more efficiently. I am new to magic.

Could you perhaps direct me to code that displays commonalities in the magic you used? I will get to work a little after the scan finishes. Look through these and get an idea for style of the finished drone you would like..." he brought up some concept designs for drones and old school street race cars. He felt like Gryftrr would like the aesthetics.

The Gryftrr hologram pointed to the magical gaming device the gremlin had when it had corporeal form.

"Can you connect some golden threads to that? Or maybe copper? And do it in this order at these scales."

Schematics appeared on the nearest screen.

"These runes are tricky. You don't want to put too much lightning and you want them to be just the right tension and resonance. Only really smart and experienced wizards understand these things."

They weren't runes, they were integrated circuits, amps, voltage, and code for communicating between devices. It was tech that somehow synthesized with the gremlin's powers the whole time. The little creature just called it different things but there was clearly a connection between tech and whatever missing element "magic" was.

Andre looked into the drone's camera with one eyebrow cocked up, "Fundamental forces of the universe are at stake and you want me to just plug in a SECOND device I know EVEN LESS about when I haven't had time to assess if the first one was a good idea? I feel like you DON'T think I am a wise wizard. Smart is also debatable at the moment.

Tell me all about the functions of your device and I'll leave a port available for later, easy modification. For now pick a stylish look for the mobile emitter drone to be cased in..." He chided.

He switched up the coms to the cargo bay, "Can I get a check in? You all aren't just hitting the cargo with crowbars are you? Cryocubes are sensitive at best and I think those bastards were slinging EMP weapons in their first volley so some of them might already be messed up... Gryftrr the gremlin may be a part of our ship life for a bit. Analysis is ongoing but nothing actually bad has happened so far. A few minor inconveniences perhaps. I've discovered how to bind electrical spirits into machines. Incase anyone was interested."

Gryftrr scratched his chin.

"I choose this!"

He points to the very mystical gaming pad Andre had just refused to work on.

Andre smiled a quirk and began lining up plastics and metals on a different table. He shook his head with a laugh, "...and I can't trust the magics I don't understand. I'm a craftsman not a spellcaster. You don't talk to me about it I don't install it. I do crazy stuff sometimes and it has unintended side effects. The primary effect I anticipate must be desirable or I don't do the thing... Usually."

He began locking down the other drones. The new drone he planned would have hands of sorts, the pad integrated, an expanded battery because powers knew the little monster was going to be a juice hog... But all the bells and whistles would be plug and play. Interactivity, games, extra battery, all these things would have to be earned.

At least he had learned HOW to power or integrate the device. He wasn't certain he even trusted the idea of it. Particularly if the cargo bay teams were not responding.

"But I do talk about it. I gave you runes. These will make my magic work with yours! I've seen it before. That's how I got my magic window."

Gryftrr continued to insist.

"It's no crazy. It's amazing!"
This message was last updated by the player at 07:17, Mon 04 Mar.

Andre uncharacteristically shoved everything in drawers except the junk-modded-drone, which he released and bolted for the cargo bay, he knew that response to a check in request and didn't like the outcomes.

Between his vest and his specialized tool kit he would be at the bay shortly.

Returning from the Cargo Bay he drew out his plans and frowned, "Well, Gryftrr, it can't be incentive if you don't know what you miss if I have to take it away... So I'll take some time and this little hotrod will be ready for you to play around with. " He would get to taking the drone apart and putting together all of upgrades and reshaping the frame. Minimalist, sleek, turreted cameras, a pair of tri-claws, and the port for that magic pad the gremlin was so fond of and expanded battery slots. It would be a little while in the works.

In reply to Andre Klanktonne (msg # 34):

Roll me a Mechanics check to determine if you can get all this fancy crafting done quickly or if it'll consume a lot of time.

Andre Klanktonne rolled 12 using 1d20+8.  Straight mechanics. A 4 on the die might have crippled some engineers' time-frames...

Andre will be able to complete the device within the day, though not as fast as he'd hoped. It will consume most of the rest of the ship's cycle. He'll have the rest of the evening with this task and with talking to Gryftrr in the mean time. If there are any questions he had or things he wanted to investigate about the creature, now was the time.
This message was last edited by the GM at 15:14, Thu 07 Mar.

"Gryftrr, I'm wondering if you know other creatures of your species. You will rightly consider yourselves gremlin or do you have a different name? Are there even more than one of you that you know of?" Andre has a lot of questions... The not quite guest, had not been very forthcoming so far to Andre was of the mindset that how much he could reasonably expect to get answered would be disappointingly small. He hoped build something of a rapport before trying to revisit the topic of magic. He would focus more on what magic the gremlin would admit to being capable of and how that functions. Maybe some telling of that story or stories, some understanding of where the things come from, would give him greater limits for the creature and let him trust it more.

Being the only creature that survived the destruction of at least one other ship and having a mental focus that appeared to be that of a toddler, combining with the negative connotation typically associated with a gremlin- these factors made the engineer already uneasy but he was trying to move past that.

The hologram scratched its chin.

"Yes, I knew of others when I was in my native realm. Many others where I awakened. But here is much more fun than there."

It's dawning on Andre that Gryftrr has trouble being technical but speaks about things from its feelings and emotions. It sees everything as fun and unfun rather than logical or moral.

If asked, he'll spin a few tales about his adventures, but they sound like Arthurian legends with many inconsistencies. Something about portals and gateways to get from "there" to "here". It's clear that the gremlin is describing another dimension, plane, or parallel universe of some kind rather than another planet. It has little concept of technology and refers to everything as simply a different type of magic. It's knowledge from being merged with NOD certainly gave it a clearly understanding, but it's ego was still a gremlin despite that information. Gremlins clearly take joy in chaos, thus the love of messing up machines, gambling, and telling exaggerated stories that mess with the heads of the listeners. It's hard to tell when he's telling the truth and when he's lying for effect.

The gremlin was asked to share tales of adventures and Andre was very attentive to the details that were given. Andre imagined the creature's magic had more than a little to do with its nature. Chaos was not in his own nature. He was a student of Chaos Theory though, he enjoyed seeing the results of a terrific experiment, like this drone or even accidental integration of the gremlin.

There was some regret to this binding but then he thought a moment about the thing and how to take advantage. He flipped on comms to the captain, "Sir... I do think the new AI will be quite capable should you want to go back and try to salvage. I don't want to say rescuing others in cubes but I think I can write something that will actively mark active cubes on our charts if we get close enough. Though you may want to press on to deliver the packages. We could push the engines either way and I expect the new AI is going to react favorably to tense situations. I won't tell the others either way."

Jhenko (on comms): "Yeah, been reviewing the logs. By all accounts we're good. The initial design was meant to merge with a conscious mind. It's never been successful and I'm no computer scientist but the readings seem to say that it actually worked. I don't know how you did it but it worked. If you can write up a code that'll work with our external sensors to detect active cubes we might be able to save a few. But we'd have to avoid getting spotted by that warship. Val's cooking dinner. I say we get something to eat and then have a group meeting after dinner."

OOC
Cipher check to write the code. Higher the check, the better it'll work. You're already spending the day on the drone so you'll need another day to prepare. Should be more than enough for Gryftrr's nap.

On com to Jhenko, "Yeah, with the way the assault Force wasn't on sensors I have a few theories... but Gryftrr will be a welcome asset if it comes to piloting in the chaos of a fight, or ripping apart enemy ships with weapons. He should equally enjoy the chance to play them as fools with stealth so I don't think he would intentionally interfere.

I'll need tomorrow to do that coding though. I don't want it to suck and need to optest with our remaining cube but today has been a long day."

He glanced meaningfully at Gryftrr to get an idea of how/if his estimate of the creature was off while he continued fitting the drone. Shortly he would go to the Mess Hall.

Andre Klanktonne rolled 14 using 1d20+6.  Cipher for cube detection code
This message was last edited by the player at 19:27, Fri 08 Mar.

Andre sighed and stretched with a few cracks from joints that had been largely unused during his time working. Larger pieces of repair material were often needed but difficult to transport, he had learned to work minor miracles with what he had in his pockets and what might actually be some kind of magic. His universe had changed a little bit when he considered his gift for repairing machines as such, Gryftrr had called him a wizard, though for the first time it wasn’t merely in the context of one gifted at math or mechanics… he had, after all, heard it before.

There had been plenty of small repairs and replacements to do thanks to the barely restrained overload that had happened when the gremlin was integrated. Of course, he would cart the components back to engineering to work on real repairs, it was important to be able to do such swaps for the continuous living of people on the ship.

There was no secret he was sleeping in a hammock near the engine at least as often as in his quarters. “I’m going to sleep for a bit now that we got the big stuff out of the way… call me if you need me though,” he announced over comms to Octavius who had been relaying info on effected areas and systems to him from the bridge.

OLJ: "Roger that."

Jhenko came through on comms.

Andre could see the lights whirring around the engineering bay. Gryftrr was sifting through the systems again. It was clear he was present but his hologram wasn't.