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

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]

Don't do that.

[Cloud tries to wave him away from the pile he had just reorganized himself.]

This is together because it's all part of the same mechanism. Don't separate it back out.

[meowchanics]

[Sigmund sighs.] Then just put those ones aside and let him do it. It's not like we have anywhere to slot it in yet.

[Kids these days, etc etc. He's still hogging the blueprints, for the record.]

[lienhearts]

[Sits on standby while you guys figure that out, though he'll go ahead and busy himself with beginning on the ones that are as of now A Mystery.

Don't mind him, he'll likely wander over to get a better peek once he's done this much.]

[quiet_storm]

[Cloud heads back towards Sigmund to look at the blueprints again, this time reaching out a gloved hand to tug gently on the upper edge.]

Hold still a second.

[meowchanics]

Oh, right... [...Why did the image of a small dog tugging expectantly at a favourite toy suddenly pop into his mind? Well, whatever.] Let's clear some space.

[By which he means sweeping a few more machine components to the side, quite possibly undoing more of Cloud's hard work, in order to set the blueprints back down on the table where everyone can see.]

[quiet_storm]

Hey!

[Cloud crosses his arms over his chest in a pout.]

I just finished lining those up!

[lienhearts]

[JFC Sigma.]

...I'll keep those separated from the rest.

[See, he's trying, Cloud.]

[meowchanics]

Where else were we going to put the blueprints?

[No shame. Look, they're nice and visible to everybody now. He'll even smooth over them with his palm for readability - not that it's going to help much with the incomprehensible captions.]

[quiet_storm]

[Now that Cloud's pile is ruined anyway, he grumbles and turns his full attention to the schematics.]

What language is this in, anyway? Are any of these symbols supposed to be numbers?

[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.]

[reaquila]

You're fine, dude. Just...sit down for a minute. We don't want to make it worse.

[ TAKING A BREAK IS FINE. Nanashi offers Cloud a bottle of water. ]

Here.

[quiet_storm]

[Sit down? But he's already lying down?]

Thanks.

[He rests the bottle against his forehead.]

What's that ringing noise?

[reaquila]

[ Don't get too comfy over there. They still have a job to do. ]

Ringing noise? Oh my god, did something break when we weren't looking .... ?

[Time to go see what's up. Nanashi looks around and tries to pinpoint the source of the noise.]

[deathboss]

It wasn't me!

[Michel holds up his hands defensively up like he just got accused of underaged drinking.]

[quiet_storm]

Oh. Never mind. I think it's just inside my head.

[Cloud picks his head up to look for any shrapnel, maybe embedded in his body? No, not this time.]

Did I just get an electric shock or something?

[reaquila]

[Nanashi slowly nods at Cloud but he looks at Michel in disbelief.]

Hey, if any of you feel some electric shocks don't touch anyone. That shit's annoying.

[Not harmful, but just irritating.]

[quiet_storm]

[Cloud snickers, still looking up at the sky.]

If I have to build us a Faraday cage and grounding tethers we're going to be here for a VERY long time.

[deathboss]

You know despite it all...this is pretty nice, right? Doing all of this together...it's kinda like a circle of friends.

Also I am not going to touch anyone...I'll just keep cheering!