Chaos in the Farmer's Market? The Fabulous Five Investigate!

[deathboss]

WHO: Eikichi, Nanashi, Cloud, Sigma, Theobald
WHERE: Farmer's Market in Viea Village, this layer
WHEN: June 16th
WHAT: Zee Quest!
WARNINGS: Adults and Teenagers together, chaos in the streets

June 16th, five individuals get a message on their phones;

In the words of the great Daft Punk: buy it, use it, break it, fix it. You'll be starting at the Farmer's Market. See you there.

Arriving at the Farmer's Market in Viea Village, their mysterious requestor isn't anywhere in sight. Instead, they find a stall with their names on it, a pile of gadgets and gears, a tool box, and diagrams. The parts and the diagrams look almost alien-esque, unlike anything they've seen before, and there's also an additional note from Zee.

So…here's the thing…we had to take this apart because it got corrupted, but we actually kind of needed it! Haha, who knew? I'm not really a technical kind of guy but I know some of you are. Think you could figure it out?

PS. Be prepared.

Be prepared...for what?

Comments

ARRIVALS

[deathboss]

Absolutely nothing come be wrong with all five of them being present together.

[reaquila]

Hey......we're stuck here doing some bullshit for a while. Let's get started.

[ Nanashi rolls himself over with a wheelchair...because he can't walk anymore. ]

Don't mind me. I got a leg injury earlier, but I promise I won't slow anyone down. My name's Nanashi.

[ Some of these faces look familiar like Sigmund Klim and Michel. He doesn't know the others too well.]

[lienhearts]

[Theo's here, if reluctantly. Hair a mussy brown, clothes more befitting of a poor college student - a somewhat faded shirt, jeans beginning to fray at the edges - and not because of a fashion statement. He's brought bottled water in a plastic bag slung over his shoulder, but that's about it, because he's a finance student, not a mechanic.]

How'd that happen?

[Is it a Retrospec thing, or just your run-of-the-mill injury? Theo's gotten pretty wary about the former.]

[reaquila]

Retrospec. I can't feel my legs at all sometimes.

[All he needs to do is say one word. That would explain a lot. It's not just a normal injury anymore. ]

Do I know you from somewhere?

[He doesn't remember Theo's face at all. Maybe they met somewhere and he forgot. That's a possibility too.]

[lienhearts]

Retrospec, maybe? [His face is on there, even if it's also in disguise as Theo.] Or from around the university.

[Still, that's not great to hear about his legs, but... The guy already said his bit on it, and talking to him about it more likely isn't going to go anywhere.]

Name's Theo. I'm the monthly poll guy, I guess.

[quiet_storm]

Okay...

[Cloud made it to the Farmer's Market and found the only other visible people there. The Daft Punk thing isn't making any more sense now than it had before. He has a couple bizarrely oversize swords strapped to his back, but otherwise looks pretty normal. For him, anyway.]

Get started doing what?

[meowchanics]

Good question.

[No, really, good fucking question. Those who have met Sigmund before will recognise his faint frown as pretty much his default expression, but he can't deny feeling genuinely a little sceptical right now. What could Retrospec possibly want from this loose gaggle of young adults, a random teenager, and... him? He brought a toolbox, not a babysitter.

Having set his toolbox down by his feet, he straightens up, folding his arms.] For a start, did everyone here get a similar message?

[deathboss]

Sure did, but least time it was to explore an area, not to like...build stuff up. I've done my share of lego building but I ain't a great builder.

REPAIRS

[deathboss]

With that very ambiguous forewarning, they are all left with to their own devices to figure out how to manufacture whatever the hell this thing is.

There's so many pieces scattered around, it's hard to even begin to think what might go into what else.

[lienhearts]

They seriously couldn't be assed to keep track of anything when they took this thing apart, huh?

[He's looking over the pieces available and, hopefully, someone brought tools with which to work as well.]

Can we at least get the bolts and shit together and organize them by size? Should be a start.

[meowchanics]

[What a mess these pieces are in. Worse than the labs on campus after a full day of students. But this team and this pile of junk is what Sigmund has to work with, so he's wasted no time swiping the blueprints before one of the others could pick them up, and is now... lost, if he's quite honest. Are these even schematics?

Still, he's not so lost that Theo piping up can't briefly bring him back to reality. He looks up from the pages, frowning. He's been frowning since he got here.] Hmm? Shit is together, more or less.

[He sort of pushed all the bolts and bolt-looking things he could see to one side earlier. That counts as organised when you're a working researcher. Maybe.]

[quiet_storm]

[Cloud, who has been trying to glance over the guy's shoulder this whole time to get a look at the blueprints, has been fine-tuning the organization of pieces. In a different way than Sigmund had put them.]

No, it's not. I'm starting to think that some of these aren't the original pieces. There should be a bolt with a matching dent to this nut, but there's not.

[lienhearts]

[Good hustle, team.]

...I'm gonna put them together by size. That should give us a starting point at least, so we don't have to rifle through the entire pile every time we need one. Give a shout if there's a piece in particular you're looking for and I can try to toss it over if I've seen it.

[And so he'll sit himself down and begin doing just that.]

Not sure what we're gonna do about the pieces that are completely missing, though. Anyone here who can do a store run after we've figured out what we need?

[quiet_storm]

[Cloud finds himself blinking up at the sky. It's a peaceful looking sky. Much more peaceful than the grinding noise coming from somewhere to his left.]

Did it explode? I don't think it was supposed to do that.

[reaquila]

Oh shit! I wasn't the only one who imagined that explosion.

[ It's too soon....why are things going wrong so quickly? Exploding noises....repair problems. This isn't going well. ]

No, it's not supposed to do that.

[quiet_storm]

Okay, good. So I'm not confused after all.

[It was probably a good time to take a break anyway. Cloud's eyes start to drift shut.]

AWAKENING

[deathboss]

Once the repairs are done, the result looks like a mailbox. One of the wings on the side is labeled in a soft glowing green and the other is a red. There's a large door on the front that functions much like the current mailbox by Wiffle-Waffle.

...but what's the point? There's nothing there that gives them an additional clues what they should be doing with it.

At least until they soon hear the machine sputtering to life, gear clicking rapidly, extensions folding out and suddenly reaching behind them. The machine's seem to be "arms" puncture through some kind of force-field as it disappears into thin air.

As the extension returns to what they can see, all manners of fruit, bread sand jelewery are pelted their way. Someone's wig, fish, beer, it's the world's worst cornucopia being thrown in their faces. Screams from somewhere else each time the mechanical hands plunge somewhere else - it won't take too long for them to figure out what's happening.

Better so something quick!

[quiet_storm]

WHAT THE?!?!

[That was absolutely, positively, not supposed to happen. Forget conservation of matter, this thing didn't have any kind of power source! Now holding a slightly dented sword out in front of him that he was definitely NOT planning to use, Cloud dashed about in a valiantly useless way.]

Who turned it on?! There's no off switch!

[deathboss]

Not me! What the shit is going on?

[He's trying not to panic but...]

[quiet_storm]

[Tch'ing in frustration at his weapon, Cloud sets it down and promptly gets smacked in the face with a quart container of fresh strawberries. The delicate squishy juicy kind. He quickly wipes his eyes.]

Maybe some kind of rope? If we can tie the armatures down?

BATTLE

[deathboss]

There's a creature inside of the machine, seeping out of the cogs and materializing as a thick, oily substance. It's pretty gross, but it looks like it might be the source of their problems.

Don't let it escape!

[quiet_storm]

Shiva's icy blue TITS!

[At least it was a monster this time and not the machine they had been working all day to repair? Cloud charged in immediately, jumped high in the air, came down in a spectacular heavy sword strike... that went right through the specter without having the slightest effect.

Cloud had enough time to stare stupidly for a split second before it batted him halfway across the plaza in a heap of limbs. He sat up, once again bloodied but not nearly down for the count.]

That's just not fair!

[deathboss]

What the shit...

[Michel watches him go around and is both impressed and then panicking when he sees that cloud's attacks do nothing.]

...I...I need to go get my guitar case. It put it on the side to help with building this shit...fuck where is it?!

[quiet_storm]

Your what!?

[Does Michel think he's going to use it as a shield or something? Cloud gets up and charges again, almost stumbling as his blade seems to swipe through empty air, and gets knocked off his feet again.]

Everybody get into a building and hide! I'll keep it distracted and catch up to you guys later!

QUEST SUCCESS!!

[deathboss]

The creature defeated, and the machine returned to its once-again harmless form, it doesn't take long to fix what had been rebuilt but broken off. A text appears not long after as a message of thanks.

That went better than expected. I'll send a biohazard team and someone from tech out there once you clear the area. Thanks.

Well they had won! Maybe they could grab some of the stuff that had been thrown at them? Can't let all that produce go to waste...and some of the clogs and gears didn't seem to fit the machine in the first place. Who knew what their value could be...