It wasn't technically an official ferry, not really. Viorar didn't have one that regularly ran that route, but there was always someone willing to go; or in this case a freighter of sorts that was already headed that way anyway. Some extra gold from someone who is known by the dock-operators to not be a fugitive on the run meant you could fairly easily get a ride.

So it was that a particular moderately sized trade ship set sail for Shrike sometime after eight-thirty in the morning, with an extra passenger.

Staying safely out of the way at the aft of the freighter was the Hylian passenger in question. He'd never really been in a position to hang around ships much prior to the Cleft; and while Tamin had ensured Sunflash had spent a fair number of days on and about various ships (Rangers need to be comfortable in most situations, after all), he'd never been one to take to bobbing along the ocean.

Why ride when you technically fly, and all that. So it was he was occupying his time with idle thoughts and considerations, paying little heed to the going ons of the ship except to be a good passenger and stay out of the way.

It didn't take long for the Viorarian coastline to vanish from sight, as the ship headed southwest at a fairly quick pace. It would take several hours to get to Shrike even on as direct a path as it could manage, so Sunflash settled down in a corner to relax and at least pretend to sleep. He still wasn't anywhere near tired somehow, but he figured it'd at least be good to shut his eyes and fake it for some time.


Which seemed to work in some fashion. He wasn't able to fall asleep, but he could at least go through ideas and plans while resting. Chew on everything that'd gone wrong in the last twenty-four hours, and how to avoid at least some of it going forward.

It had been an hour or two(who keeps track when you're zoning out while riding a boat) when it happened.

Something big was happening back on the mainland, and it cut through his senses like a lightning bolt on fire. Sunflash popped up with enough curses to make the crew(were they in range of hearing) to assign the Hylian honorary sailor status. His one hand gripped the railing with enough strength to turn his knuckles white as he stared out at the apparently empty ocean, waiting.

...And, its job apparently done, the sensation vanished. That had to have been Ambience doing something wild again. Last time he'd noticed that was during the shadow attack, but not to that degree. Probably because he'd interrupted it, or maybe being at ground zero gave it a different feel?

Either way, he'd spend the rest of the trip glaring back towards Viorar; hoping he'd made the right call in this damnable trip.

With thankfully little else of interest occuring (we'll skip the bits about Sunflash throwing icicles off the aft end towards Kakkara when they passed by), the freighter arrives in Shrike to little fanfare. One of several throughout the day, it simply pulled into its allotted port and tied off. The Hylian passenger gave his thanks again to the captain before stepping away and into town.

His destination? Nakajima Robotics.

The entry of one Sunflash into the lobby of Nakajima was pretty low-key, all things considered. Open the personal door(skipping the cargo door like the first time), walk up to the desk, and wait for someone to notice him.

It took a few minutes, busy as they ever were, but eventually a far too chipper human lass popped over from behind the employee door.

"Hi! How can I help you?" Yup, way too chipper.
The far less chipper yet still polite response of "Hi, I'm here to see Dr Cossack for an overdue appointment. Should be on his VIP list as Sunflash?" got an enthusiastic "Okay let me check!" before she vanished into the back again.

Well, at least someone here was having a good day.

After what seemed like far too long, the young lady comes back out with an envelope

"I'm sorry, Dr Cossack is out for the week. However, I do have a standing order that any VIPs coming in while he is out can go visit someone he has been working with here in town. Their address is on the outside of this envelope, along with the Doctor's notes he left. It seemed he anticipated your arrival before he left."

Sunflash took the proffered envelope with a grimace. "Clearly I've become far too predictable, based on this and the note he left for me last week. Be sure to leave a note telling him I said thanks."

He gives a nod to the chuckling lass before turning and walking back out to read the name and address in the street.

Alphys, huh? Well, if they're suggested by Cossack, what's the harm? This address wouldn't be hard to find. Hopefully they had time for him today, otherwise...

Sunflash being busy with his own problems left him wide open to other peoples' problems that had, at that moment, intended to make those problems his own. One such problem happened to come in the form of a small, fuzzy, flying body that came veering down toward him from somewhere high above, but it wasn't without its own announcement. "Suuun-niii~!" came a familiar, somewhat high-pitched voice that sounded way more excited than anyone probably should be, especially when falling from such a height.

This address was just past the Engineer's Guild. Not far to go really, and probably a convenient location if he somehow had to run some sort of supply errand for this contractor, and WHAT IN DIN'S FIRE WA---

THUMP.
He'd only managed to get turned around and ensure he presented a non-armored side to his ballistic assaulter, but failed completely to get his gravity brace up. So it was he managed to wrap his arm, letter and all, around the furry missile; but still fell backwards in a crumpled heap.


"....Ow. Lyll? You okay?"

"That was close!" said missile squeaks out, and crumpled heap or not, hugs him tight around the neck. "It's me! I saw you go in, then I saw you come out! I was waiting the whole time on the roof! I didn't know you were in Shrike, Sun-nii! How lucky can you get?" She seems quite obviously unharmed, given that she didn't actually answer his question in any way.

Well, that was something. What exactly, he wasn't sure yet.

Sunflash kept his position on the ground, somewhat awkwardly patting Lyll on the back and attempting to return the hug. His one-handedness is probably fairly evident at this point.

"Pretty lucky, apparently." groan
"What, uh, what are you doing in Shrike anyway?"

His tone was that of a suddenly very resigned but attempting to be chipper individual. Who also happens to be in minor amounts of sore pain. Lyll at least was softer than the ground he'd hit yesterday, but....

Ever-observant as she was in spite of her limitless energy and frenetic charm and disposition, Lyll allowed herself a quick hop out of Sunflash's arm so she can stand on her own two feet and regard him. "You don't look like you're having a good morning so far, Sun-nii," she helpfully states, reaching up to adjust her feather-accented headband just a smidge. "Mama and Papa needed to come get a few things that they don't have back in Viorar. And we had to get a replacement part for our stove, 'cause it broke!" She sounds thoroughly appalled at the notion, like she couldn't believe machines would just break down at some point. "Our stove is pretty old so we had to come here for the part." She glanced about her surroundings briefly. "Mama and Papa and Roas-nii are out doing other things but I told them I saw you come this way, and they told me I could come hang out! Oh, but, uhm... they said that if I was a handful, you could send me back. So I needed to be on my best behavior. Which is lucky, 'cause that's my normal behavior, too!" The modesty is hit or miss sometimes, it seems.

Sunflash continues to simply lie on the ground, if somewhat less crumpled now that he was free of the added weight. After Lyll's explanation is finished, he levers himself up to a sitting position with his good hand and gives a grin.

"I've had better mornings, but good company makes it easier." Damn girls energy was infectious, he had to give her that.

"Well, I am here to visit an Engineer about my arm." Here he glances down at the offending limb before looking back up. "Did your parents say how long they were expecting to be? I'd be okay with you coming along, so long as they don't end up waiting on us."

The beastman girl looks down at Sunflash's mechanical prosthesis for a moment, then back up at him. It takes a second before it registers, and when it does, the shock just kind of slaps itself onto her face. "You broke your arm!?" she blurts out, a bit louder than she probably intended. "How did you do that? Did you slap another robot and they were just too strong? You shouldn't just go around slapping people, that can get you into a lot of trouble, Sun-nii." Her scolding tone holds a slight implication that maybe it's a concept she has some familiarity with.

Lyll puts her hands on her hips, taking a commanding(?) tone and presence. "I'll have to go with you and make sure you get it fixed, then, since you obviously can't be trusted. Mama and Papa told me not to worry about time, and I think we might be staying one more night before we leave, anyway. If I can't find them in town when we're done, they will probably be back at the hotel."

"Oh, I didn't slap anyone; but I'll keep your advice in mind." Sunflash pushes himself to his feet with some magical assistance before dusting himself off.

"Well, sounds like you've made you decision. Guess there's nothing else for it. Shall we be off then?" The Hylian takes another look at the somewhat battered and bent envelope, shoves it in a pocket, and then offers his hand to Lyll.

She grins up at him, letting her arms fall to her sides with an obnoxious and somewhat forceful slap of her hands against her hips, and at the offered hand from Sunflash, she grabs on tight. "Yup!" she chirps. "We did plenty of shopping and boring standing around today already, so I was okay with going to bounce around the city for awhile." She beams. "Lots of people gave me weird looks, but I don't spend a lot of time anywhere except the woods and sometimes Viorar or Kakariko. I bet they're just not used to someone jumping around on their roofs everywhere, but it's the easiest way to get around, 'cause you're not gonna run into people up there." She thinks for a second, still peering up at Sunflash. "Some of the pigeons weren't too happy, though."

"Those poor pigeons. Yer right tho, traveling across the rooftops is a good way to get about."

Sunflash gives a wink. "Hang on tight to me, okay? Don't wantcha fallin!"

With those clearly mysterious and mischievous words, the Sorcerer rescures his grip on the lass and jumps up and towards the roof of Nakajima, similarly to how he'd moved out on the Highway. Just, far less engergetic and calmer. Passengers, right?

If it wasn't already evident in her personal-adventuring descriptors, Lyll really liked jumping. By proxy, heights did not provide for her any issues or problems, either. She giggles loudly and happily as Sunflash takes off into the sky with her in tow, the act of this delighting her insofar that she doesn't actually know anyone even capable of doing what she can do in the first place. The air whipping past her face sends the host of mini-braids in her hair and the two feathers in her headband fluttering about, but since the latter go nowhere, a pretty-strong adhesive is obviously keeping them in place. "I'm like a cat, though!" she calls out over the rushing air. "I always land on my feet!"

"That's good! I landed on my feet last time too, still broke my arm. Gotta be careful!" And honest, and try to turn things into lessons. Apparently.

As they started to descend again, he gave himself a gentle push towards an intersection he recognized as being near the address he was hunting. The downward trip would be somewhat odd to Lyll, consisting of a few light-but-noticeable 'pauses' in the descent. Almost like someone was pumping the brakes or something.

Lyll gives Sunflash an odd look at the mention of landing on his feet but still breaking his arm. "I know having a robot arm is pretty weird and all," she yelled out over the wind coming back during their descent. "But I don't think that's how physics work!" That statement sounded really weird coming from someone of her size and stature, actually, especially if one were to forget that she were actually almost 14 years old. "But whatever, just as long as you can get it fixed. And since it is a robot arm, it must not hurt as badly as a real broken arm, right?"

Sunflash just laughs as they come into a fairly gentle landing.
"I'm teasing. I did technically land on my feet, but I was moving too fast and had to roll. Busted my arm at the shoulder when I screwed it up, since I was in such a hurry."

The intersection wasn't a true one, more of a spot where one of the main thoroughfares is joined by a smaller side street.

"As to my arm, it should probably be hurting more than it currently is. Which is none." He gives a shrug. "But it's been out of maintenance for several years, so I'm not really surprised. Regardless, the address I'm looking for should be near here."

"Oh oh, okay," she said with seeming agreement. "So you just got lazy with it and it was rusty. Things break pretty easily if they get rusty or don't get fixed when they should." She gives herself a moment to see where they are, but still keeps yammering on. "Papa had that happen with his axe once when he was splitting logs. Almost took Roas-nii's head off when it busted off the handle and went flying!" Ever the inquisitive one, she doesn't stop there, either, as she pointedly looks up at Sunflash. "What were you doing that was such a big hurry that you landed hard enough to break your arm, anyway? We played a lot on the last day of the Festival of Lights, and you did not seem like someone who was ever in a big hurry to do anything."

The address given on the envelope points to a independent laboratory building that, rather fittingly, simply has the word 'LAB' printed over its doors in red lettering. The outside looks boring and utilitarian, being a blocky, metal construction with some exterior plumbing and a couple of large, red, circular lights (currently not lit) on either side the only details that break it up. A double sliding door faces the street, with a callbox to the right of it. It's not the biggest or most impressive building to be found in Shrike by a long shot, but it does look like it is reasonably spacious on the inside.

"Oh, that's easy. I was chasing someone who ran off in a panic. I thought they were hurt, so I needed to move quickly. Got distracted and paid the price." He shrugs, answering as they walk.

Arriving at the aforementioned LAB, he pauses for a moment.

"....Okay, this looks like someplace Cossack would send me, sure. This'll be interesting. One moment, Lyll."

Stepping forward, he activates the callbox beside the door if the door itself doesn't open when he approaches.

Lyll looks up at Sunflash questioningly, her little eyebrows furrowing slightly at his brief and nonspecific description of the incident. But she doesn't say anything audibly on it, and instead turns to face the same LAB. "They fix robot arms here?" she asked.

The door does, in fact, remain sealed, but fortunately there's only a slight delay before an answer rings out through the speaker of the callbox. The voice is a bit nasal in quality and its owner sounds a touch nervous, though it's not clear whether that's due to anything in particular or just natural neuroticism. "Um, h-hello? Who is it?"

"Hi. I'm Sunflash, I was sent here by Nakajima Robotics. Said you're seeing VIP clients of Dr Cossack while he is out of town this week. Is now a good time to get some help from you?"

Never one for beating about the bush, the Hylian could only hope it wouldn't scare off whomever it was...

Lyll blinks in surprise, not really knowing what she expected. "Is that box a robot?" she asked, looking up at Sunflash. "It's talking!"

Before Sunflash gets an opportunity to respond, the possibly-a-robot-box is talking again. The voice sounds more excited, now. "Oh, you're Sunflash! I knew you were coming, b-but I just didn't know when!"

There's a brief buzzing noise, and then the doors open.

The inside of the lab is, quite possibly, not what either of the two of them were expecting, especially given its ultra-bland exterior. The tiling of the floor is light aqua in color, and the walls are mint green. There's a large console of some sort embedded into the wall near the door, where the sole current inhabitant is standing. The walls nearby are covered in posters that seem to mainly depict various magical girls from a variety of series. Beyond that is a desk, which seems to be piled with papers, sticky notes tacked onto the monitor of the aging PC, used bowls stacked on each other, a figurine of a catgirl from some anime or another, and a novelty coffee cup shaped like a lizard.

And speaking of lizards...

The individual standing near the console appears to be an anthropomorphic lizard with bright yellow scales. They're about five feet tall, with three thick spines extending from the back of their head, and wearing the lenses and rims of a thick set of glasses which seem to be mysteriously secure in spite of anything obvious to hold them in place. A white labcoat is her sole garment, with even her feet left bare (though it doesn't look like anything standard would fit on those big lizard toes, anyway). She has an air of nervous energy, two buck teeth sticking out under her snout as she smiles at her two guests.

"Come on in!"

Lyll hops back a couple feet at the sudden opening of the door, mostly because she doesn't know what to expect in all of this. She's a girl who lives in the woods with her woodcutter family and their general-use concept of technology is way lower than most other peoples', so seeing Shrike for what it is, in only the second or third time she's even been here, is amazing on all fronts. But now she was hearing a box say words at them, and that was fascinating by itself. But then the door opens...

She doesn't see the lizard-person. She doesn't see the console on the inner wall. None of those papers or sticky notes jump out at her in any way.

Those magical-girl-themed posters, however, might as well have a golden outline surrounding each and every one of them. Lyll's already-large brown eyes get huge when she sees them, and she issues an obnoxious squeal of approval. "OH MY GOSH!" she chirps, bounding forward ahead of Sunflash so she can go up and see them better, whether she'd been invited in or not (and she was, which meant she wouldn't have to be scolded later!). "This is just like my room! Just without a bed!"

Sunflash had begun to turn when the robot-in-a-box responded and opened the door.

Any thoughts of his in related to commenting to Lyll or Alphys or really anything get derailed by the blur of beastgirl rushing by.

"Lyll! Make sure you don't touch anything without permission!" He gives a pained look toward Alphys and quick "Sorry, she's very excitable." before trying to follow her quickly and maybe perhaps possibly limit the chaos.

The poster Lyll has stopped in front of is very, very pink and features a girl with cat ears posing with double victory-signs and winking. Her one open green eye is the only real non-pink or non-neutral splash of color and she is surrounded by hearts.

Alphys perks up at Lyll's interest, and quickly proves her to not be the only one here who's excitable. "Oh! That's, um, from my favorite TV show. Have you seen it? It's called Mew Mew Kissy Cutie, that's the main character, Mew Mew, she's a human girl but she has cat ears which humans don't normally have, and she has mind control powers and the series is all about... um... about..."

She stops, looks at Sunflash, 'coughs' into her hand to clear her throat and changes track, slightly. "But, um, you're not here to h-hear about that."

Now the the two of them are in the door, there is a conveyer belt visible that apparently ascends to a second floor of the lab. The console screen shows a greyscale, low resolution feed of the street outside -- the camera must have been pretty well hidden.

It's hard to tell if Lyll heard Sunflash's warning or not, but that aside, she does keep her hands to herself. Looking is okay! Her grin gets real big as she gets to hear about details she already knows, but that's okay because it means there's other fans besides her! "Yeah!" she bubbled with no small amount of glee. "Mama made me a Mew Mew costume for Halloween when I was ten! She's really good at sewing and did a super good job, and I got the wand and the ears and everything to go along with it!"

Her eyes dance between the other posters, but she remains rooted where she is, thoroughly enamored. "We had to go to a special store to get the wand, because it wasn't just something you could find in a toy store. I remember seeing alot of really cool stuff but it was kinda expensive and we just live in the woods so there's not a lot of money to go around. But when I get older and can get a job, I already know what my room's gonna look like!" Some people have loftier goals than others, but Lyll is content to just keep things simple, it seems. "This is still amazing, you're the first person I've met who likes this kinda stuff!"

She pauses, and only then seems to realize where she is amidst everything else around her. "...Oh," she said. "I'm glad mama and papa aren't here, I would probably be getting scolded again for, uhm, 'taking liberties'."

Sunflash doesn't try to help the grin on his face as the exchange happens, having stepped just inside enough for the doors to be able to close.

"So long as I don't end up leaving in a Mew Mew outfit for my arm, I'll be able to handle some excited conversation. It's a nice change from my more dreary thoughts by myself lately."

He goes through his process of unclasping his travel pack with his one functional arm, before looking around. "Hrm. Lyll, can you hold this and my cloak for me while we're here? Easiest to keep it out of the way for whatever work we end up having to do with this stupid arm."

"Yup!" Lyll yup's, pulling herself away from the fascinating memorabilia such that she can be a good helper. She takes the pack dutifully and drapes the cloak over one of her shoulders, and doesn't even take it upon herself to look inside the former! Her behavior and respect for other people's property truly is exemplary. "I'll keep 'em safe while you get your 'stupid arm' fixed. Just lemme know when you want it back!"

Behind the thick lenses of her glasses, Alphys' eyes widen and a buck-toothed grin splits her face as Lyll continues talking. Clearly, they are kindred spirits. She doesn't seem the slightest bit offended about the tiny teen making herself at home in their surroundings, though it helps that it seems any sort of heavy-duty equipment likely resides in a different room.

"Amazing? It's incredible! You're actually the first person I've ever met who's already seen Mew Mew. N-normally I have to go through this whole spiel and t-try to convince people that it's worth watching so we can nerd out over it together." She looks, very knowingly in Lyll's direction. "I'm so glad they never made a second series. There is only the one."

A scaly, clawed finger comes up to adjust her glasses, and then she turns in Sunflash's direction and shuffles towards him, eyes on the arm. "Now let's see here..."

She sets her hands on it, very lightly, and sends a very slight, seeking wave of mana through it. Though she'll need to lay eyes on the innards to tell anything more, she can immediately tell something is very, very wrong, and she looks up at the Hylian with an expression of utter dismay. "Oh no no no no no no no NO. What did you do?!"

The Hylian manages to look somewhat embarrassed. He'd hadn't even gotten the armor off, and it was already seeming that bad?

"Ah..lots of things, probably. I was involved in a high-energy, um, event about five years ago that probably didn't do it many favors."
Sunflash starts fiddling with a few clasps up near his collarbone, where the armor ended. Clearly parts of this were attached to extra connection points, or something.

"But the worst of it occurred yesterday. I came down from an assisted jump and misjudged for the first time in ages. Had to roll to prevent breaking my legs, and ended up landing directly on this shoulder. It uh, promptly stopped responding when I landed. Doesn't hurt somehow, tho; which is weird."

After a few more clicks and fidgeting, Sunflash moves his hand down to his right wrist and starts messing with something on the underside.

"In my defense, I also had some pretty severe memory loss after that event a few years ago; so I'm behind on my actual maintenance visits with Cossack as well."

This probably becomes quite apparent as he slides his gauntlet off, placing it on the ground nearby before sliding the rest of his arm's armor down and off his arm.

The arm thus revealed is a very rough affair; some mix of ugly 'this just has to function as an arm and not look good' combined with 'oh this has been highly stressed and worked over the years' resulted in an arm that just did not look pretty.

It's extremely obvious at this point exactly why Sunflash always kept it covered. The armor itself wasn't pretty, clearly a combat-and-fear focused piece; but it looked miles better than the arm underneath.
He lets out a sigh as he stares down at it. "Uglier than I remember, every time I look. Sorry."

The small beastman listened eagerly as her new friend described her own nerdgasm over the series, but then blinked and tilted her head considerably to one side in apparent confusion at that ending bit. That confusion rapidly turns to elation, though, when Lyll realizes she has an opening to be the one with more knowledge that she can share! "Actually," she pipes up helpfully, "they did make a second season of Mew Mew! But, uhm... it was really bad. Like, they took the first season and just said 'okay, this and this and this and thiiiiiis doesn't matter anymore' and threw the whole series in the trash up to that point. They tried to make it too edgy and that wasn't supposed to be what mew Mew was all about. It kinda ruined it, honestly." This could have been what Alphys was implying with her final comment and that very-knowing look, but Lyll is kind of averse to overt implications sometimes. "I watched it anyway 'cause I wanted to see where it went, but you'd almost have thought a new writer stepped in for the second season. It made almost no sense."

Fortunately, Lyll still seems to be invested in all of Alphys' neat stuff and unaware of the proceedings going on with Sunflash's arm, because she's really not a squick-kinda person. Or spiders. Especially not spiders.

"Five years...?" Alphys squints at Sunflash, with a probably-not-hard-to-discern-accusation that surely he hasn't gone that long without regular maintenance implied in there. She pulls back from the arm for now, letting him work on removing the armor. The judgementality seems to recede somewhat as he explains a bit further, at least.

"That makes sense," she concedes. "Better the arm than the r-rest of you, right?" The lizard monster full-on grimaces when the rest of the armor goes as she eyeballs the innards. "Oh g-gosh... I'm not sure how this has been working at all... I mean, maybe..."

She looks up at Sunflash. "You're a mage, aren't you?" she questions, in more of a confirming-what-she-already-knows tone.

Seeing what she has to work with seems to have brought her into a slightly more serious mood, but not enough that she doesn't look back at Lyll with the most exaggeratedly forlorn look she can muster. "I see you've been to the 'they made a bad sequel to Mew Mew' dimension. You have my greatest sympathies. I try to spare my friends from it, but unfortunately, we've only just met, so I didn't get the ch-chance."

The question gets a blink and a somewhat embarrassed looking-elsewhere as he answers.
"Yes. Depending on who you ask, a distressingly talented one at that. Is it really that bad? Its always looked varying shades of 'This is stupid that its working', according to Dr Cossack; but I always understood it as, uh, professional frustration than an intended description."

The comments between Lyll and Alphys does draw a faint smirk, thankful for something going right at least.

"Well, um, maybe that was the case five years ago, but..." The neurotic-natured scientist flounders for a moment, unsure how to finish that statement without sounding more insulting than she means to. In the end, she opts to continue without completing it. "W-well! Dr. Cossack sent me the schematics, and I had some time to look over them, so it shouldn't be too hard to figure out what needs to be done, I think! My equipment is upstairs, if you'd like to follow me?"

Alphys glances over at Lyll, with a small grin, apparently still elated to have met someone with similar interests. "You can come too, if you'd like. Or you can stay, up to you! You can play with my Mew Mew figures if you want, j-just be gentle with them." She gestures at the desk where they sit.

Without further delay, the scaly monster shuffles over to the rising conveyer belt, and steps onto it. Apparently it's the means of reaching the next floor, rather than anything more traditional.

"I suppose that's fair, and of course, of course. Lyll, holler for me if you need something please." Sunflash leans down to pick up his gauntlet, carrying the arm section under his left armpit and the gauntlet in his hand.
It doesn't take long for him to catch up with Alphys and stand behind her on the conveyer as well.

Lyll actually looks up as she notices that Alphys and Sunflash are moving on elsewhere, and kind of looks like she's about to follow along... but then gets immediately distracted by a figurine sitting on a desk, blinking in surprise as certain details about it recapture her attention. Still, she looks up again for just another moment. "Okay!" she calls out. "I'll, uhm... I'll be up in a minute! I'll be super careful, I promise!" The tone of her voice, at the very least, sounds like she means it. "I won't even pick anything up! I'll just look, and maybe poke if I see buttons! It's so cool seeing someone else with this stuff, I didn't even know anyone else liked Mew Mew!"

The second floor of the lab differs only from the first in the kinds of furniture and tools that fill the space. It's relatively cramped in here, though not so much that there isn't as much room is needed for a couple of people to move around. Shoved up against every wall are workbenches with various tools strewn out over them, along with some machines with a purpose that is not easy to discern. There are also several bookshelves that are crammed full of books on a wide variety of scientific and technological subjects.

Alphys leads Sunflash (and Lyll, should she follow quickly enough) over to one of the workbenches, next to which sits a computer (newer looking than the artifact downstairs) that is currently displaying what looks to be... Sunflash's arm, or a model of it, anyway. It's rendered with bare-minimum texture and more of a focus on form. She stands in front of it for a moment, scratching her head, before looking back at him. "So, Dr. Cossack didn't tell me, who did the original installation of the arm, anyway?"

Sunflash takes in the room with an apperictive eye. He may not really understand most of it, but he can deems it as a layout similar to his own chaotic madness. It works, and that was good enough.

Her question drags his attention to the display, and elicts a sigh. "Well, long story short, an actually crazed reploid technician scientist. She found me after a particularly rough fight that had mostly ruined my arm, and decided to help by replacing it for me when I was passed out."

He has a kind of resigned look on his face as he examines the model before continuing.

"It gets somewhat complicated from there, but basically she was insane enough that she hoped I'd somehow eventually be changed to a version of her dead husband, from who she got the arm. Or something. It was hard to get much sense from her." Here he pauses before giving a one-armed shrug and a weary smile.

" She did do a good job retrofitting the rest of the combat armor, to her credit. Got the rest of it back in Viorar."

"... Oh. I was going to say I'd have a few words to say to them if I ever met them, but maybe it's better if I never do if they're that kind of unstable, eheh."

She taps at the keyboard in front of the monitor, which results in the displayed arm rotating until it roughly matches the angle that she has of the real thing right now. "Let's see..."

Clearly already distracted, the lizard monster does have a realization when she looks over at Sunflash again. "Oh, um. Let me get you a seat. We might be here for a little while." The chair in question is borrowed from a different workbench nearby and set in front of the Hylian. "I don't know how obvious it is to you, but there's been a lot of wear-and-tear on the internals. The thing is, um..."

She turns back to Sunflash, setting one claw to his exposed Reploid wrist and sending another analytical mana-wave through it. Her eyes close as she concentrates. "The um... the built-in power source actually isn't working. See this corrosion?" Eyes opening again, she taps a specific spot where the damage is more obvious. "There's a blockage underneath that that you can't see. The flow is interrupted and it isn't reaching the rest of the arm. That's p-probably why -- you said it didn't hurt, right? That would be why."

"What's more confusing is that it's working at all in this state. That's why I asked if you were a mage. You're, um, using your own mana to supplement the -- well, it's basically being powered by your own magic. Are you... even aware that you're doing that?"

Taking the offered seat, Sunflash raises an eyebrow at the question. "I...am not, no. Probably shouldn't be as surprised as I am, considering how often I've been told what kind of oddity I am in regards to magic in the last several years, but still."

He shifts a little in the seat. "I presume that while that's somewhat interesting, it's probably not been good for it long term? What with it not really being designed for it, and all that. I'd heard stories growing up about magic-powered devices, but never really dug into them. Certainly not once I got to the Cleft..."

Alphys brings her arms in close to her body and fidgets her claws together. "Well, and um, not to beat a dead horse, but... no, that's not very good for it. But! There's a positive to that. It's rare to see someone who has such a natural excess of power. I could -- well, how much of a hurry are you in?"

Sunflash gives a somewhat nervous-sounding chuckle at the comments before responding to the actual question.

"Well, I do have places I need to be sooner rather than later; but I will doubtlessly need my arm working when I do make it. If we need to spend a little extra time with it now so it doesn't fail again in a critical moment, I'm not against it."

He pauses to peer at Alphys with a slightly raised eyebrow. "Or were you needing a hand from a Sorcerer with something? Cossack and I have a deal already arranged, but I'm not opposed to assisting with something if you need it too."

"Okay, so you are on a bit of a time crunch..." She shakes her head slightly, to his question. "The reason I ask is because I think with some alterations I could make it so that you can actually safely keep doing what you're doing. That would open up a few questions about what to do with the excess energy given that the arm is already powered through its own mechanisms. But that, um, definitely isn't a one day kind of job. It sounds like that doesn't exactly align with y-your priorities right now, so I'll focus on repairing the existing functionality for today."

She grins a little. "Though I do appreciate the offer to help, and I'll keep it in mind for the future. I'm a little envious, actually..." While speaking, she leans down and picks up a toolbox sitting nearby. "See, monsters from my world... um, monsters like me, magic is as much a part of our bodies as flesh and blood are. But even, you know, almost living and breathing it, I'm not that gifted. Nothing so flashy or impressive as shooting huge lightning bolts from my hands or dropping meteors from the sky, eheh."

Again with the minor squirming. It was one thing to make boasts when he was trying to intimitate someone from a fight, but to get referred to as gifted by a stranger would never feel right. Damn his childhood.

Sunflash nods regardless of his inner feelings. "It does make some things interesting, having magical options open to oneself. But yes, I'm quite interested in those further modifications you were speaking of. Perhaps once I finish my more urgent business...assuming I don't do something stupid again and just lose the arm outright, ehheh."

"It'll take me some time to work everything out, but I do think I could r-retrofit the arm to suit your needs better, personally, which sounds like it wasn't something on the mind of the original technician," she muses, sounding a little excited at the prospect. "Well, something for later."

After setting the toolbox (which contains a number of perfectly recognizable tools, as well as some devices with less obvious utility) on the workbench, she opens it and grabs a set of pliers, which she uses to carefully pry some wires in the arm to the side until she finds whatever it is she is apparently looking for.

A high-pitched yelp sounds from downstairs, followed by an obnoxious giggle, and then accompanied by a "That's so cool!"

Alphys glances over her shoulder and sort of squints in the direction of the downstairs, but ultimately neither comments nor moves away from what she's doing, apparently not that concerned about whatever Lyll has gotten herself into. The scientist falls silent as she begins to work in earnest. She's efficient about it, but not rushed at all, ensuring that the quality of the work is at least likely to hold up until she can take another look. Between looking at the nearby monitor, sometimes tapping at the keys to adjust the display in some way or another, and the adjustments and repairs she's making to the arm itself, she occasionally mumbles to herself, but most of it is fairly unintelligible.

At one point she does have a bit of an outburst as she pokes around in there, blurting out an "Oh my god, are you serious? No, no, it's fine, I can work with this..." This is apparently mostly aimed at herself, because she doesn't elaborate at all on it before she continues, slightly flustered but no less focused.

There's no obvious time piece in this room, so it's hard to say how long it is when she finally looks up at Sunflash. "Okay, so, this might hurt a little bit," she warns, barely waiting for a response before she re-connects a mechanism that she'd taken apart while she was cleaning and fixing it.

The Sorcerer seems to quickly get lost in his own thoughts as the work is performed. How quickly his week's plans got sunk, and the manner in which it happened, still weighed heavily. He was going to have to make up a lot of lost ground quickly, but in retrospect that was nothing new. He'd been working from a deficit his entire life, why change now?

Alphys' warning, such that it was, managed to bring Sunflash back to reality just in time to almost start at the sensation. He mamaged to keep himself from twitching too hard, but couldn't hold back the "Gah!". A frown escapes to his face for a moment before he erases it again.

"You weren't kidding, hah. Sorry."

The lizard actually grins at that reaction, taking a step back from Sunflash. "That's a good sign, actually! I wasn't one hundred percent sure it would work. I mean, I was pretty sure, but there were a few... quirks I'm less familiar with, so I was just taking my best shot at it."

In spite of the very self-deprecating mode of speaking, it does seem like she's done a pretty decent job of the maintenance. With the thorough cleaning she's given everything, it all looks almost as good-as-new, and more importantly -- "Okay, try moving it a little, and let me know how it feels. I applied a c-conductive coating that should reduce the risk of the components having another problem that leads to loss of feeling for a few months, at least. As long as you don't apply your entire gravity-propelled weight to it again, I think you should be in good shape!"

A good natured chuckle returns the quip as Sunflash starts moving his arm around cautiously. "Well now! That feels far better than I was hoping for. I'd about given up hope this old thing would be functional, nevermind as comfortable as this!"

There is a little wincing as he starts to stretch the rest of his limbs out, but it passes quickly. Not quite completely over his spill from yesterday, clearly. "Well, while we're here and if you don't mind, I'd like to do a quick test of running some magic through this thing. Just in case, would rather it go badly here where we can fix it rather than out in the woods or something dumb." His look at her is simply inquisitive. Clearly doesn't really expect something to go bad, despite that also being completely and totally par for the course so far.

"Oh, um, go right ahead, no problem at all!" She takes a step back, giving Sunflash ample room to do any moving around he wants to do. "You don't have a phone, do you? If you have things to do I don't want to keep you for longer than necessary, but we should talk about future plans for your arm -- that is, um, if you're still interested in that."

There is a pause in the middle of stepping up, as if he'd just realized something, before continuing his motion to find a little cleared space in the middle of the room.

"I actually don't, no. Haven't been in a position where its use would be needed for some number of years. I should probably fix that before I leave Shrike, I'm sure I can find one. Do you have a business card or something with your number?"

As he speaks, Sunflash's attention seems also taken by something he is doing with his arm. There is a pause after his question, followed by a ring of multi-colored light flickering into existence around his upper shoulder. It encircles his upper arm for a moment before sliding down to rest into a small orb in his palm-up hand.

"Well, that much works at least. Good! I'll have to run it through some paces before I leave town completely, but usually if something is going to give me trouble, it'll happen when I run pure Mana through it light that." His face is a study on conflicting thought processes, some grim but mostly a satisfied one.

"Oh! Yes, I'm sure I do... somewhere..." She trails off as she begins patting down the various pockets offered by her labcoat. "... Not here, though. I think I remember where. Do you think anything else needs, um, adjustment, or should we head downstairs?"

Perhaps noticeably, it had gotten pretty quiet downstairs over the last ten to fifteen minutes or so. While Lyll isn't exactly the loudest person in the world, she's no small chatterbox when going on about things she enjoys, and there's been none of that within the aforementioned timeframe.

With a non-audible pop effect, the orb vanishes from Sunflash's hand as he shakes his head at Alphys.
"No, everything feels great, thank you. Let's go see what trouble my young friend has gotten herself into, shall we? It's gotten somewhat quiet, which is uncommon."

Not that he was worried or anything, Lyll's capacity for actual trouble was surely no worse than Ambie---okay, bad example. But still.

"... Oh. Right!" The very blatant 'sudden realization' tone in Alphys' voice makes it very clear she hadn't even thought about the fact that someone else was currently in the lab in some time. On the plus side, there wasn't a whole lot in the downstairs that she should get into that would cause any problems, but it's probably a good thing nobody is calling on this lizard for babysitting duties.

"Okay, let's... let's go!" The method of returning downstairs that she leads Sunflash to is, apparently, another conveyer belt on the opposite side. As they're descending, the scientist fidgets just a little with what seems to be some mild anxiety, but doesn't comment on it. Riding this down deposits the two of them on the far side of the main floor. There's actually a door of some sort that must lead to another part of the lab that remains unseen close by. Otherwise, there's not much of interest that wouldn't have been seen on the way in.

Upon one of the desks, Alphys in particular (and perhaps only) would notice that a couple of figurines are moved out of place and set side-by-side, as if someone had been admiring or comparing them together, but beyond that, very little else is moved or disturbed in any way. On that same desk, though, is a piece of scratch paper that looks like it was ripped off a notebook found from somewhere else, in whatever capacity it could be found, with a hastily-scribbled message upon it:

"Sun-nii and Tokage-nee-san,

Mama and papa were calling for me, so I had to go. Sorry! I didn't break anything though, I promise.

Thank you for letting me hang out, it was fun!

-Lyll J. Worzen"

Alphys' desk may be in complete chaos, but it's also a very specific chaos that she knows like the back of her scaly hand, so she immediately notices the note and makes a beeline for it. After picking it up and reading it over, she offers it to Sunflash. "That explains the q-quiet."

A glance over the note (and a short grin at the name-spelling) gets a short sigh before he nods. "I was hoping to be able to see her home myself, but ah well." He goes ahead and puts it in a random pouch somewhere before peering around.

"It's late enough I should be going shortly, I'm afraid. Do you have that contact information handy? I'll be picking up that phone tonight, if I can find one sturdy enough for me anyway."

Always a risk of fire or water or electricity with him, probably kind of a dumb idea for a phone but maybe they weren't as fragile as he'd thought. Maybe.

"Oh, um, yes!" The lizard starts moving aside some papers on her desk, which seem to be a mixture of blueprints, diagrams, and a drawing of an anime girl with enormous sparkling eyes. She finally finds a single, slightly bent business card and hands it over to Sunflash. "There you go! I'll, um, have to do some cleaning up later, eheh."

It's worth noting that Sunflash's pack and cloak, which he'd given to Lyll for safekeeping, are currently sitting on a chair and draped over the back of it, respectively, at the desk where her little departure letter had been left. The former doesn't even look like it's been rifled through! Truly an exemplary caretaker, that one.

Sunflash takes the card gingerly and places it in another pouch. He'll have to organize soon at this rate.

"Well, many thanks again. I'll be sure to give Cossack a glowing recommendation, I feel you've done good work." He walks over and starts re-armoring as he speaks.

"I presume he's made arrangements for compensation? I know he and I have a deal worked out but I'm unclear how that might transfer for your work..."

"Given your current arrangement with Cossack, I'll be squaring with him this time, yes!" she confirms. "So you're good to go -- oh, right." That statement actually reminds her to step over to the controls near the door and unlock it so that it will actually open automatically and allow him to pass once he's finished getting his belongings together.

It didn't take much longer, lots of experience in wearing this blasted armor led to lots of practice with it. The arm at least was always the fastest anyway.

"Good! Thank you again, I'll be in touch!" He pauses as he slings his cloak over his pack, considering something else before continuing towards the door. "Good luck with your other projects!" He gives a half-bow before slipping through the door.

Too much to do before everything closed for the night, and he still had to decide how to handle getting to Ambience.....

Still. The R&R had been nice.