Application for Destiny Strings

[photonicfighter]

Out Of Character Information
Name: Lampdevil | [lampdevil]
Age: 30
Time zone: GMT -04:00
Contact: AIM: geenacorbell | Plurk: lampdevil
Anything we should know?: You guys are so cool T_T

In Character Information
Name: Dakki Sigal
Series: Original Character (Phantasy Star Online/Universe)
Age: 4 and a half years active uptime; appears to be in her early-to-mid 20s.
Birthday & Astrology Sign: Not from Earth, and operates on a somewhat different calendar. Converted to Earth time, September 24th, Libra
Arcana: Magician

AU | Previous Game Backstory:
In the wake of the deterioration and destruction of their home planet Coral, the inhabitants of colony ships Pioneer 1 and Pioneer 2 set off across the universe in search of a safe new planet to settle on. Pioneer 1, the initial scout ship filled with scientists and elite soldiers, arrived at the planet Ragol and set about with the first steps of colonization. It was the perfect place; lush and green, rich in natural resources. All messages sent to the still-incoming Pioneer 2 were positive. Everything was coming along on schedule, including Pioneer 2's arrival. But as the landed Pioneer 1 facilities attempted to sync with Pioneer 2 in preparation for landing and mass teleport to the surface, a massive explosion rocked the planet. Sync was disrupted, and Pioneer 1's signal was lost.

Investigation teams were immediately dispatched to the surface. Primarily mercenaries from the Hunter's Guild, these Hunters, Rangers and Forces found the Pioneer 1 settlement abandoned, devoid of people and overrun by wild beasts. These teams fought for months, chipping away at the secrets kept behind the Central Dome's walls and beneath the planet's surface.

Dakki was part of a second wave of investigators, sent to fill out their much-depleted ranks. As an experimental new female robotic Hunter-Type unit, a "HUcaseal", she was designed for many forms of close combat and high accuracy with a selection of ranged weaponry. She was first activated on Pioneer 2, provided with simple orientation and a briefing on the situation, and assigned to a team at the Hunter's Guild. They called themselves "Red Vortex" and were an upbeat and friendly crew, happy to have a newbie along to help with their work. It made an impression on Dakki's still-forming personality, that she would be so warmly welcomed and so encouraged to be a part of things.

On a mission to infiltrate the lowest level of Ragol's subterranean ruins, the team was shattered. Wave after wave of horrible abominations, "D-Cell Creatures", threw themselves against them, dropping the members one by one. Dakki was the last one standing, and the weakest. She ran, narrowly escaping destruction by triggering a teleport back out to headquarters on Pioneer 2. This news was taken with grief and dismay by the Hunter's Guild staff, but Dakki was to be reassigned immediately. She was a CAST, after all. A machine with artificial parts and artificial personality. Tragic as it was, it was assumed that the failed ruins mission would simply be a learning experience rather than a source of prolonged trauma.

This was an incorrect assumption. Dakki refused reassignment to a new team, and instead opted to take solo missions. The Guild was perplexed and irritated, but policy dictated that all Hunters could choose their own missions and associations. She honed her skills and built up her resources, becoming a highly competent independent Hunter. Her rank within the Guild rose, as did her reputation as a cool and composed professional. The guild was soon sending her requests to assist some up and coming trainees. Dakki initially turned them down, but the Guild was persistent. She gave in, "on a trial basis", figuring she could get away with handing out some of her spare equipment and dragging the fresh meat along on some basic runs to get them up to speed, before going off to do her own thing again.

It lasted much longer than that. The two new assigned teammates grew on her immediately. Baal the drunken FOmar and Kanone the pint-sized HUcaseal reminded her of herself when she was just starting out. The two argued constantly, and engaged in slapstick antics. It was a joy to hunt up new equipment for them, and to bring them through new challenges. Working in a team, they could collectively accomplish more. With Baal's healing and combat Technics and with Kanone's expertise with massive melee weaponry, they were a force to be reckoned with. They showed her what she had been missing the entire time that she was off fighting alone, and she resolved to never isolate herself from others again.

Their missions eventually took Dakki back to Ragol's ruins. Little progress had been made in mapping and clearing them, as teams regularly failed to return to the safety of the surface. The three-member team was assigned to a clearing mission, along with several other groups. Dakki would have refused, if not for Kanone's enthusiasm. "But this is IMPORTANT! There's a MYSTERY down there! And loot! LOTS OF LOOT." Convinced that the diminutive Caseal would simply go without them if they refused the mission, Dakki resigned herself to it. She approached the mission with the worst case scenario in mind, intending to take any measures necessary to keep her partners safe. And they were successful for the first two layers of the underground structure. Monsters fell beneath their blades and bullets and Technics. However, history repeated itself on the third level. An overwhelming wave of creatures rushed forth from apparently nowhere, overwhelming the combined force one team at a time. Stubbornly refusing to let it end like it had before, Dakki drew the majority of the creature's attentions and ordered the pair to flee. The last she saw of them, Kanone was hauling Baal's unconscious form back the way they had came.

The last moments of fighting within the ruins are unclear to Dakki. Heavily damaged and with malfunctioning sensors, she staggered to a stop in a small room with an apparently deactivated teleporter. Horrible creatures clattered and gurgled behind her, with only a few inches of collapsed door to keep them away. Her leg servos finally quit, sending her lurching across the surface of the contact pad... and the rest is static and light and bit rot.

Dakki's next completely logged memory was of a fresh startup from cold boot, where she found herself staring out into a clean, well-equipped, completely unfamiliar lab. Her damage had been repaired... in that a large percentage of her original parts had been replaced. Several weeks were spent in that lab, lapsing in and out of sleep mode as additional repairs and upgrades were performed, carrying on disjointed conversations with the staff. They recognized none of the names she referenced in conversation, and knew nothing of "Pioneer 2" or "Central Dome" or "Ragol". They were kind enough to inform her that she was on Parum, one of the planets in the Gurhal system. They were in a facility owned by General Resource Manufacturer, or GRM. She had been retrieved from a RELICS site by an archeological team, and they all found her systems to be quite a mystery. They were similar to those of GRM's own CASTs, but with subtle differences. In adhering with the laws governing sentient life, they were to bring to her basic functioning and re-integrate her to society. As far as the repair team was concerned, she was simply a damaged CAST with custom hardware and corrupted memory banks.

At the very end of the repair process, she was ushered away from the friendly team that had tended to her. In a series of small offices, stone-faced GRM executives and Tripartite Alliance officials quizzed her intently. And once she had divulged all of the information about Coral and Ragol and the Pioneer Project that she could, they clarified her situation. Wherever she had come from, there would be no returning to it. The trip was one-way. Her knowledge would go into classified records, and she would be allowed to peacefully integrate into Gurhalian society. She was ordered to not tell anyone of her origins on the threat of legal action, as this entire matter was highly sensitive. (The team that had repaired her had been unfamiliar with all but a tiny fraction of it.) They informed her that others like her had also been uncovered and repaired, but due to the classification level of this issue, they could not divulge any names. Aware of her time as a Hunter, they offered her placement within the GUARDIANS, Gurhal's own security organization.

As before, Dakki refused. Or at least asked for time to make a proper decision, before choosing one way or another. And this time, she argued, presenting her reasons why, rather than simply stating her decision and leaving it at that. She had lost everything familiar to her, she had been given a new and unfamiliar body, and she was now apparently up to her artificial armpits in government conspiracy. This was upsetting, and she wished to spend some time processing it. The simple act of arguing left her in tears. Real tears. They had installed something akin to tear ducts during the repairs, much to her surprise. On Pioneer 2, such an outburst would have been impossible. Something about her upgrades had jostled something loose, emotionally. She had never been so consciously, deeply, non-functionally distressed. The officials capitulated to her demands. She was assigned housing in Holtes City's residential district, and given a simple job working in a GUARDIANS supply shop.

She came to love Parum immediately. Her day job in the city was mostly undemanding, and put her in contact with countless numbers of other CASTs. CASTs of a multitude of designs and temperaments, simply going about daily business, no expectations placed upon them to serve humans. Every weekend was spent taking a shuttle to the countryside, where she hiked through the hills and fields. Dakki was certain that this new peaceful life was the right one for her, and that this new world was as ideal as it was beautiful. But the polish began to wear off the apple several months into her stay. The concept of "CAST Supremacy" became clear, the more she interacted with her customers and the others in her neighborhood. CASTs composed the planet's entire ruling body, and non-CAST sentients were codified, in law, as second-class citizens. They could be arrested for spurious reasons and detained for excessive periods of time. Social custom considered it unacceptable for a non-CAST to directly speak with a CAST. This ideal world that she had come to love contained a terrible corruption at its core. Dakki resolved that she would do... something, that she would quit her job and strike out to make some sort of difference... but after the celebrations for the 100th anniversary of the Tripartite Treaty were complete. The shop would be overrun with visiting Guardians coming to enjoy the festivities. She had no ill will against her employer, and leaving them in the lurch would be unacceptable.

That day was chaos, but for a different reason. Terror rocked the entire system as the initial SEED Invasion struck. All three planets and the orbiting GUARDIANS Colony were assaulted by wave after wave of bizarre alien creatures. Holtes City was hit by a small portion of this SEED-fall, enough to be a threat to the entire city's safety. Her neighborhood was within the area of the main impact site, but she refused to evacuate. Instead, she lifted a basic line shield and photon saber from her shop's stocks, and set off to take apart as many alien creepy crawlies as possible. Dakki hadn't lost her knack for combat, even with so many new parts installed. When the creatures were beaten back and the situation was being mopped up, one of the assigned Guardians approached her and asked, in his Old Coralian drawl, who the heck she was and why the heck hadn't she signed up with them yet. That was Falk Gatt, another "castaway" like herself. It took very little discussion between them both to settle the matter. She'd sign up with the GUARDIANS, and he'd sponsor her registration.

The following year was one of intense training, to bring herself up to speed with Gatt and his team. Dakki was eager to get out into the field and start carving up stray SEED-forms, but there were tests and training to be completed. She was initially impatient, and found many of her instructors to be patronizing and boring. Her original hardware had been built for battle, and she had known nothing but fighting up until her arrival here! It was an insult to be taken back to the basics. But she had to eventually admit that the basics were useful, with so much new hardware in her system. As a HUcaseal, she had been built for the highest level of accuracy and speed that technology could allow, but those paled to what her new body could do. She had incredible flexibility now, allowing for impressive stunts and flips when coupled with Photon Arts training. SEED-forms were strangely similar to D-Cell creatures, but they had different behavior patterns and vulnerabilities. She trained herself diligently, eventually ranking up to Fighgunner and earning the right to use complicated and dangerous double-ended sabers out on the field. Having proven herself to the GUARDIANS administration, she was granted Guardian status, and immediately went to work with Falk Gatt and his team. Together they fought the SEED, and investigated strange happenings that seemed to be related to other Ragolian refugees like themselves.

(Actual "canon" history ends here. Mayfield history is below; Mayfield is a jamjar game set in something like 1950s America. More information is available on the profile page.)

After a long day out on a routine clean-up mission, Dakki returned to her apartment and went into sleep mode. When she awoke she found herself in an unfamiliar bed, in an unfamiliar house, and human. Next to her was Falk Gatt, in a similar state of humanized non-CAST-ness. Disturbed and confused, the two rose and began to explore this strange, alien town that they had found themselves in. It was apparently in a country called "America", on a planet called "Earth". The houses were all the same, in neat and tidy little rows. The sky was blue, the weather was warm, and the vapid, smiling children in the household and the neighbors in the streets all declared that it was "the happiest little town in the good ol' US of A."

It took less than 24 hours for the pair to realize that the happy face the town presented was a lie. The milk delivered to the house was poisoned and spiked with razor blades, and Dakki nearly died from drinking it. When Gatt dumped the next day's milk delivery down the sink, a maligant force within the town "droned" him and made him attack Dakki. And so it went for a full week, until the "event" finished, the milk-related mayhem abated, and the town settled itself into its usual state of dormant wrongness. The pair had been given a crash course in how Mayfield town worked, and resolved to find a way out and to keep as many others safe and secure as possible.

Mayfield could be a pleasant enough place, when the administrators weren't tormenting folk and the neighbors were well-behaved. Dakki and Gatt were hardly the only odd imports. The town was full of sentients from all kinds of worlds, ones just as stuck and just as desperate to leave as they were. Dakki was quick to make friends, eager to make friends. It was mostly a practical matter at first. In a hazardous situation, people with the same goals and interests ought to stick together. But she was still in a human body, and prone to much stronger, wilder swings of emotion. She fought alongside others, and she died alongside them as well. She formed a rivalry, and felt the strongest anger and strongest determination that she had ever felt. She developed a crush on someone. She had her heart broken when he was permanently droned. And while regaining her CAST body evened her emotions back out to something more considered and manageable, she couldn't forget those six months spent as a fragile, volatile human being. They gave her the context for some of her future relationships with others in the town. They helped her realize, towards the end, that there was someone that she liked, like-liked, and that she ought to tell before it was too late.

The town had also seen fit to make her a mother. The house contained two drone children upon her arrival, but shortly afterwards one of them was replaced with a real girl by the name of Aurica Nestmile. While most Mayfield residents didn't take the arbitrary family assignments seriously, Aurica did. She immediately took to calling Dakki "mama" and Gatt "papa". It was awkward at first. Really awkward. Gatt may have been an appropriate age to be the girl's father, but Dakki wasn't. But Aurica was quiet, and timid, and fragile, and very much in need of a loving family to take care of her. If it would make the girl happy, then Dakki was happy to play the part of the girl's caretaker. Even after Aurica was permanently droned, Dakki continued to treat the Aurica-shaped shell like family. It was an easy habit to fall into, and if there was even the slightest hope that Aurica was still in there, still able to perceive what was happening... well, it would be wrong to do otherwise. When Aurica was un-droned nearly a year later amidst a particularly terrible period in Mayfield's history, their relationship picked up almost where it had left off... complicated by the fact that Dakki had regained her CAST body, and Aurica didn't immediately recognize her.

After nearly a year spent in Mayfield, the town began to break down, little by little. The drones malfunctioned and reality started to become even more faulty than it already was. It was becoming obvious that Mayfield wasn't a magical place or another dimension, but a computer simulation. A simulation that there would be no escape from, as there was no way to return home. The residents were all data copies of their real selves, taken to populate Mayfield with real people, so that Zemeckis, the administrator and absolute ruler of the place, could prove that his "town" was perfect. But a "ghost" in the code unlocked the way to letting one of Mayfield's few remaining true residents remember herself, and Annie the Librarian began to work on a way to free the captive residents. But Zemeckis had merged himself with Mayfield's code and was absolutely mad, and was having none of it. He forcibly brainwashed everyone. He deleted anyone who resisted. But he couldn't hold out forever, not with resistance from the residents and not with Annie and The Postman working against him. And not with Mrs. Johnson, another original resident, intending to step in and usurp his position as absolute ruler of the simulation. Mayfield rapidly descended into chaos and violence, but Annie used the last of her influence to open a way out for the residents. Dakki fled with the other members of her household in a hastily-obtained car, cruising down the highway and hanging out the windows shooting at the various violent and warped drones that tried to stop them. And when the drones finally faded away, and Mayfield was far, far behind them, something new opened up. Something better, a half-finished town where all of the escapees could rebuild. They had all been granted the same powers of creation that only the administrators once had. Perhaps they couldn't go home, but they could live somewhere better. They could make the most of what they had been given, and they could try to live happily with each other.

Previous Game Differences (List form):
-Dakki has spent six months as a human, and has (or likes to think she has) a better understanding of what it's like to be human rather than CAST.
-Dakki has died several times, often in messy and traumatic ways. Having gotten used to death being both constant and impermanent, she's become a little reckless and is having to learn to hold herself back.
-Dakki has fallen in love, and had her heart broken.
-Dakki has come to see herself as a caretaker again, rather than the one being taken care of.
-Dakki was, on several occasions, zombified/possessed/overridden and otherwise made to kill those she cared about. She has developed a fear and hatred of being controlled or manipulated in such ways.
-Dakki has learned how to cook acceptably! It's all rather bland, and very 1950s-ish, but perfectly edible.

Canon Standing: Dakki was taken from her world somewhere before the start of Phantasy Star Universe's Episode 2, Ambition of the Illuminus. She had been an active Guardian for some time, and would have been most of the way through the side-story/fic that she and Gatt were characters in.

Personality:
Dakki is an artificial human designed for combat, and her approach to life has been formed with this in mind. Fighting is what she was made for, fighting is what she's good at, and fighting brings her personal satisfaction and joy. She approaches most missions with confident cheer, anticipating the challenge ahead and relishing the chance to show off her skills. While her usual assigned role in a team is one of front-line fighter, she makes an effort to keep tabs on her teammates to ensure that none of them are falling behind or having undue difficulty. As much as she enjoys demonstrating her own skill, she acknowledges that co-operation and collaboration in the field is invaluable. And she does enjoy demonstrating her own skill. She's very proud of her capabilities, and something of a show-off when given the chance. When she encounters someone that's stronger than her, or someone that can outright beat her, she becomes almost foolishly competitive. And she can be taunted and goaded into rash actions in combat far too easily.

Off the field, Dakki is warm and personable. New people are approached with politeness and kindness, and she's quick to warm up to them. Her first impression of a person is one that she finds hard to shake, and she'll often assume the best of someone before she assumes the worst. This has come to bite her in the behind more than a few times, but she refuses to change. She would rather be too open and hurt herself, than too closed and hurt someone else. She's generous by habit, from when her cash flow was considerable and her personal storage was crammed with spare equipment. Even when she has less to give, she's happy to share whatever she has on hand with those she knows. Friends are of considerable value to her. Having lost so many good friends in the past, both on her world and in Mayfield, she clings tenaciously to the ones she has now. She's doting and protective, "volunteering" herself to tag along on their missions, "just to make sure you have enough firepower!" Threatening or harming her friends is an excellent way to find yourself with a black eye, a bloody nose, broken bones, or worse.

Dakki seeks novelty and excitement in her life. When offered the chance to visit a new region or attempt a new simulation, she throws herself at it with enthusiasm. Her world was once no bigger than a colony ship and the few restricted areas that she could explore when on mission. Presented with a big, wide world, she wants to explore every inch of it. When her mobility is restricted, she chafes against it. She loves to learn new things, too, whether a new style of combat or a hobby. Her remodeled Gurahlian body is a never-ending source of amusement. Food holds a mild fascination for her, as her Corallian body never needed to consume it. Technically, she doesn't have taste buds. Mass spectrometry of some sort fills the gap. She'll eat nearly anything as a result, and assess it rather objectively. She would be quite content to live off of protein shakes and nutrition bars, but isn't averse to new dining experiences. Her various misadventures have left her with a bit of limited cooking skill, but her range is limited.

Dakki can be almost painfully earnest. She understands sarcasm just fine, and can grasp the subtleties of conversation. It's more that she's very emotionally earnest, very optimistic, and very confident in stating these things. If she likes something, she'll say so in very plain terms. If she doesn't understand something, she'll express her confusion in much the same straightforward way. If she's learning something new, she'll insist upon learning about it by the book. Its important to her to be using the "proper" method to do something.

She has some difficulty in expressing distress and upset. While she's great at letting people know when she's angry, she's much less willing to let on when she's sad. Crying makes her uncomfortable. Just as some people hate to throw up, Dakki hates to weep. She tries to dodge unhappy and uncomfortable emotions, repressing them and putting a smile or a snarl on her face, as the situation may require. Her self-image as a strong capable professional Hunter is one that she wants to maintain to herself, and one that she wants to maintain to the world. She absolutely does not want anyone to catch her at a vulnerable moment. When unable to hold her sadness in any longer, she'll try to withdraw from public and work through it alone.

Key Personality Differences:
Dakki had previously been somewhat more closed off towards new acquaintances. She's much faster to try to befriend people, as in Mayfield, people could vanish at any time. She may come across as overly friendly, instead.

In addition to her troubles processing and expressing sadness, her time in Mayfield has also made her aware of matters of romance. Her life until then had been either focused on combat or adapting to new circumstances or both. No one had ever expressed interest in her, and she hadn't met anyone that she felt any of that sort of fondness for. Mayfield made her spend six months in a human body, however, and being subject to human hormones and impulses made her very aware of what it was like to be infatuated with someone. Even after regaining her CAST body, she carries the memories of these feelings with her, and they inform her interactions with others.

Dakki had been somewhat religious by CAST standards, but her time away from home had strengthened her faith in the Holy Light to the point that she'd likely be regularly attending Communion of Gurhal services back home. She attended church every Sunday, mostly for Aurica's benefit, and is both fascinated and respectful of the Christianity that was demonstrated there.

Canon Powers:
Not strictly a power, but... Dakki is a CAST, an artificial humanoid composed of synthetics and pseudo-organic substances. CASTs can grow stronger over time and can be healed by methods that would work on living creatures. They are capable of eating food and breathing air, and can go for extended periods of time without sleep. Most have various forms of onboard networking and processing, and some are more visually robotic than others. In Dakki's case, her head has several antenna/microphone protrusions, and her eyes are glassy and obviously artificial. Her skin is also seamed in several places, and her skin tone is a pale lavender.

Canon Weapons|Items:
Nano Transformer - Powered by a miniaturized A-Photon reactor, a Nano Transformer is a form of "hammerspace" or "warped space" where a Guardian's equipment is held and managed. Military-grade Nano Transformers can hold much more than civilian units, and Dakki's contains (or did contain, at one point) six separate photon weapon sets, a full compliment of medicines for use out in the field, a small stock of ice and burn traps, an S-Rank line shield with corresponding units, and several changes of clothes. This technology allows for weapons to be switched out on-the-fly while in combat. High-grade Nano Transformers can also automatically deploy medicines in critical situations (I.E. Scape Dolls).

Photonic Weapons - Coralian and Gurhalian physics are a little off from regular ones, in that "photons" can be used for a variety of useful effects. One of these is the creation of photonic weaponry, where a small photon reactor charges or forms a weapon's surface. These glowing particles react to and amplify the power of the user's soul, and can be quite dangerous when swung around carelessly. Essentially? LASER SWORDS! And laser guns and laser daggers and laser rifles and laser whips and laser wands and...

Dakki's weapons are as follows:

"Masamunera" A-Rank Photon Saber - A one-handed sword with a green energy blade. Neutral element. (Physical)
"Double Saber" A-Rank Photon double saber - A double-ended weapon, held in the middle, with energy blades at either end. Ice element. (Physical, Ice)
"Deathmaker" A-Rank twin handguns - Balance-linked twin handguns that fire bullets of photonic energy. Light element. (Light)

Line Shield - Similar to photonic weapons, line shields are transparent armor composed of photonic energy. They are weightless, and manifest as glowing lines along a person's body or clothes. Dakki's is yellow, which signifies lightning elemental, giving her resistance to lightning and electric attacks but a vulnerability to ground and earth elemental damage. Hers was custom-crafted by a friend, and it is S-Rank in quality. Line shields provide a buffer against aggressive contact, and can occasionally entirely deflect a hit. (Strong Lightning, Weak Ground)

Canon Allies:
N/A

Canon Baggage:
-Knitting bag (needles, yarn, unfinished pair of socks)
-A 50s cookbook, annotated in her own handwriting
-A slightly dented cast iron frying pan
-A children's picture book of animals
-A pale blue 50s style dress
-Swimwear
-4 x Dimate (Heals moderate wounds)
-2 x Trimate (Heals major wounds)
-5 x Antimate (Purges toxins)
-1 x Moon Atomizer (Revives "incapacitated" people)

[HUCASEAL KANONE]
LVL (1) | THE MAGICIAN

Fire	Lightning	Earth	Water	Ice	Wind	Dark	Light	Physical	Mind
-	-	-	-	-	-	Wk	Str	-	-

COMBAT SKILLS
► Gale Slash (Inflicts a small amount of Physical damage on all enemies.)
► Kouha (Inflicts a small amount of Light damage on one enemy.)
► Sukukaja (Doubles an ally's Agility. (1 turn))
► Recarm (Wakes up an ally with 50% HP.)
▷ Mighty Swing (Inflicts a medium amount of Physical damage on one enemy.)
▷ Mahama (20% chance of instant KO from the power of Light on all enemies.)
▷ Masukunda (Decreases all enemies' Agility by 25%.(1 turn))
▷ Mind Slice (Inflicts a medium amount of Physical damage with a 10% chance of Confusion on all enemies.)
★ Photon Blast Pilla - Unleashes a burst of photonic energy, causing medium light damage on all enemies.

SUPPORT SKILLS
► Reinforced (Lessens instances of succumbing to Down, Exhaustion, Sleep and Petrification attacks.)
▷ Survive Light (50% chance of surviving instant KO one time from a Light attack with 1 HP.)
▷ Physical Amp (Increases Physical damage output by 50%.)


Writing Sample

It was a new place to explore, a bigger place to explore, and Dakki was intent on exploring every last inch of it that she could. Which was why she could be found wandering about the shopping ward even though she had no significant amount of money to spend. Window shopping was an entirely valid passtime, and one she hadn't had the chance to do for quite a while. It was interesting to look at the clothes, and the electronics, and the big displays on screens... it felt a bit like being back on Parum. A little.

It occurred to her as the day wore on that she ought to eat something, and began to slow the pace of her wandering and consider the possible dining options. It was cool out, so perhaps she should have something warm, and not too expensive... and oh, was that a food stand? With little tables out front, and hanging curtains? That said...

"Oden? Aah!"

That word, that word, she remembered it! It was a food from Date's home! One that he had yet to get around to letting her try. So she'd try it here. Even if she didn't have a fully human sense of taste, she'd still get the benefit of the warmth and the texture and broad flavor profile. With a spring in her step, she wove between the tables and ducked beneath the curtain. "Ah, hello! I'd... ah, I'd like to try your oden, if I could!" She... wasn't quite sure how this all worked, with all those simmering things in pots of broth.

Additionally, the older gentleman behind the counter didn't immediately seem to know what to make of her for those first few moments. But the surprise soon faded from his face. Ah. Another stranger. He smiled politely. "You could, if you want. What would you like, then?"

An excellent question, and one that made Dakki lean in closer to see what there was to see. "Oh, I... I'm not sure. What's that, there?" And she pointed.

"Konnyaku."

"What's konnyaku?"

His eyes widened. How to explain that? "...it's jelly. You eat it."

"Oh!" The answer seemed to satisfy the CAST. But she had additional questions. "And what's that?" she said, pointing again.

"Chikuwa."

"What's chikuwa?"

The man laughed, shook his head, and then took a bowl from a nearby stack. "Why don't you see for yourself, miss?" And some broth was ladled up, along with a bit of chikuwa, and some konnyaku, and a bit of this and that and the other thing...

"Ah, I see, I see!" How exciting! She was getting the chance to try a bit of everything. She clapped her hands together once, and left her fingertips touching. "Experiencing it would be the best way to know, wouldn't it? Thank you! I'm sorry if I'm being a bother." And she was, though not too sorry. This was exciting! Now she'd finally know what Date was going on about.

(Also, here are two examples of her threads from Mayfield.)