"Woah! THIS IS AMAZING!"
Bow and Glimmer brought Entrapta and Hordak over to the planet the outpost was on, about a week after the event occurred. And of course, Entrapta didn't bother waiting for any of them. She rushed right into the portal room like it was the warmest place ever. Hordak chuckled at his girlfriend's antics as they all followed her in at their own pace. He watched her run her hands and hair-based appendages over the First Ones tech in the room and said "She seems to be taking to this place well." as the Techie Princess began roaming around, giggling like a child in a candy shop at the consoles and the portal device itself.
"When doesn't Entrapta take well to tech?" Bow quipped, smiling.
"True. So..." Hordak hummed "This is it? Was this not meant to be some sort of sealed vault with dozens of pieces of advanced First Ones technology?"
"I mean... Yeah?" Glimmer shrugged "Adora opened it by speaking the poem outside. First Ones and their code-phrases." And she saw Entrapta already taking notes of the stellar cartography on the Portal. The symbols were, of course, constellations, many of which they couldn't see from Etheria. Glimmer approached the researcher Princess, took a knee and asked "What'cha got so far?"
"So far, I'm just figuring out the alignment of the writing, constellation-wise." The girl smiled, jotting down data in a notebook, before pulling out her tapecorder and saying "First Ones Study Journal Number 654, outpost on the world of Solace. Day 1:The strange portal through which Catra and Adora vanished seems to be lined with the standard iconography of the First Ones. As is normal, I cannot translate the words on it, but perhaps... Hmm." She clicked pause on the recording, then looked to Glimmer, her attention divided between writing data on the notepad and as she asked "Did Adora happen to say anything? A phrase, a codeword? It could probably help me figure out a few things."
"Uh... Aside from the Poem, not really?" Glimmer hummed.
"I see, I see... Any chance either you or Bow remember it?" She asked calmly. The two Bright Moon citizens looked to one-another, then shrugged. Entrapta tapped her chin with her pencil, then said "You mind racking your brains a bit and trying to figure it out?" as her eyes lit up. An idea seemed to come to the girl "I'll go check the consoles! Maybe they'll provide some sort of insight!"
Before Glimmer could say anything, Entrapta was already on her feet... Hair? Hair... Running toward the consoles themselves. She pulled out her toolset and all others present were soon reminded that when Entrapta wanted 'insight', she meant she was gonna take anything apart until she understood everything. The queen of Bright Moon let a chuckle slip at her friend's antics, before hearing footsteps, stumbling and the sound of tools hitting the ground. Followed by a loud cry and a loud apology.
"Sorry! This thing's stuffed with tools! I couldn't close the lid!"
"It's fine, Scorpia! It... Only fell on my big toe..."
While Glimmer, Bow and even Hordak winced at the exchange, Entrapta worked on tirelessly... Stumbling in with a box of tools wrapped in her claw-arms, Scorpia stepped into the massive antechamber, trying not to drop more of the wrenches, pliers and other such items before she reached their intended recipient. And limping behind the tall, buff girl of the squad, Perfuma waved to all those inside, a forced smile on her face and tears in the corners of her eyes.
"Are you girls okay?" Bow asked, crossing his arms.
"Oh, yeah, absolutely!" Perfuma spoke through gritted teeth "I'll go find a spot to sit myself down... Preferably out of the way of tools."
Scorpia sighed and sagged her shoulders at that, causing about three more tools to fall out of the overfilled box and hit the floor. She yelped, while Bow walked up to her, then offered "How about you let me take this stuff to Entrapta?" before he picked up the three tools and tossed them back in the box. A nod was Scorpia's silent thank you as she dropped the box into Bow's hands. He winced at the weight and walked off, with Scorpia tailing close behind.
Glimmer sighed, crossing her arms as she approached the working Tech Geek princess with the two. The young woman hummed a joyful song as she fiddled with the consoles' processing units, trying to bring them together and read them. She then motioned to the toolbox, more specifically to one item, a disk. She was quickly handed it by Glimmer...
And with a spark and deep hum as feedback, Entrapta cheered loudly, her voice strident "YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSS! IT WORKED!" as the Consoles powered. She smiled at the girls and at Bow, then said "I bypassed the internal security system that forced it into a mode it could only be accessed by First Ones! We have access to the Consoles!" And she pulled herself back in to work.
"Nicely done!" Glimmer smirked "That should give us an idea of where to start looking." And she poked her head up, to see that, indeed, the holographic displays had powered on.
"Uh... Does anyone speak First Ones? Aside from Adora, I mean..." Scorpia scratched her chin.
"I asked Mermista to bring me that little dictionary Adora made for us." Entrapta said absentmindedly "The hope is that we can translate at least 10% of what's here, but, you know, baby steps!"
"Huh. Alright." Scorpia smiled "Smartest of the group, as usual."
"Ugh... Don't encourage her." They heard the tired voice of Mermista echoing from the door "She can't keep anything neat and tidy aboard that ship... Seriously, it took me too long to find this damn diary."
Entrapta looked to Mermista, slightly confused, then shrugged "Eh, fair enough." before turning back to work. She extended her hand, then said "Give me the dictionary, please. I wanna see something."
The sea princess rolled her eyes, giving the girl the book as she sat herself at the console. She opened the notebook and started parsing through words that she could find, ever-excited to find one word or another in the lines of code that were now rolling on the screen in a repeat pattern. She sighed, finding few words that had received proper translation from their resident First Ones Linguist before her disappearance.
"So?" Glimmer asked, leaning onto the console.
"Hmm... I got a few of the words in the dictionary here, but Adora did say there was a lot of stuff still missing that she needed to add... And the fact that this outpost barely matches any other ones you found on your outings doesn't help either... Any chance you remembered the Poem?"
"Still working on that." Bow noted, approaching with Perfuma, who still had light limp.
"Well, do let me know if you remember it. I'll just keep working." Entrapta smirked, putting her welding mask on and diving back into the guts of the consoles. She added "If you could go out to scout the rest of the outpost, maybe we'll get more info! Maybe even words we can actually translate so we can get the bigger picture!" and she started again "First Ones Study Journal Number 654, outpost on the world of Solace. Day 1, continued:Made minor progress with First Ones consoles in the Portal room. The data is also in standard First Ones words, though unknown to us... Maybe we could-"
Glimmer tuned her out for a moment, then looked around and said "I mean... We really went only as deep as this. Maybe we'll actually find more info with all the other First Ones tech in storage here?"
"Please, tell me you don't plan to have us split up and cover the whole place? That's textbook Horror Movie cliche." Mermista almost pleaded. And Glimmer's guilty smile urged a groan out of the woman. She shook her head, then said "Fine... I'll go get Seahawk off of Darla before he sets her on fire. We're taking the top floor! No going down for us unless you really need help!"
"I and Glimmer will take the next floor over... If this place has multiple floors." Bow suggested, a smirk on his face.
"And I and Scorpia will scout out the floor following that one." Perfuma added, smiling.
"We'll alternate, depending on how deep this outpost goes." Glimmer spoke "And we'll always meet at the top of... Either the stairs or elevators we find."
"Sounds good to me." Scorpia shrugged "Just stay safe, alright?"
"We don't plan on doing anything stupid. Right?" Glimmer smiled. She looked back to Entrapta and winced "Who do we leave with Entrapta, though?"
"I can do it!" Frosta piped in, poking her head through the door. "Or you can leave Seahawk here while I and Mermista scout the place out. Ya know, ice and water synergy and whatnot."
"Not a bad idea, Frosta." Glimmer nodded, much to Mermista's unspoken chagrin. She watched Mer and Seahawk stumble in, then she nodded to them "Let's get moving."
Adora and Catra stumbled out of the room, with the latter's hair puffed out and with electricity coursing through it, tail included. Adora offered a thank you for the... Enlightening... Lesson on the utility of Dust in weapons, before dragging a still-stunned, electrified Catra out of the hallway. When they reached one of the balconies, Adora sat Catra down on one of the benches, then went to try and fix her hair.
Touching an electrified strand of the feline woman's hair proved to be a lethal mistake, however, as a rather substantial percent of the electricity stored in Catra's hair switched its vessel, barreling through Adora's finger and coursing through the rest of her body, fast enough to actually cause a similar hair sprawl to that of Catra's. The blonde and her kitten looked to one-another, eyes wide...
Then they burst out laughing.
"Oh, my God, you look ridiculous!" Catra barely breathed through the laughter, much less spoke.
"You're one to talk..." Adora shot back, holding onto her gut. She snorted between bouts of laughter as she tried to breathe. The two continued laughing for several minutes, before they calmed down and stepped off toward the dorm. There, the girls entered the room, only to notice a pair of strange, colored cards with an L that had a double cut through it, on the table.
"Huh..." Catra mused "Payday, already?"
"Well, it's the end of the week." Adora shrugged, picking up the card. She smirked, then said "So... Should we head into town and buy some supplies for the trip?"
"Sure... Hell, I could use a bit of Dust myself." She smirked, then slid the item into her pocket. Moments later, the two girls slid out of their apartment, locking the door behind them as they marched to the landing pads. The Bullhead ride still managed to provide an impressive view of the city for the two girls. The sun was high in the sky and no clouds showed themselves.
Yet again, the bird landed in the same square and the two stepped out. Both waved to Argent and, upon spotting them, he smiled and waved back, but let them go on about their business. They walked down Main Street, looking through the glass of every store they walked past, ranging from clothing stores to jewelry stores and even bakeries(Catra had developed a sweet tooth while in Beacon).
Adora had to admit, it was nice to just walk along with Catra, side-by side. So much so that she didn't even hesitate while taking her hand. And Catra didn't reel or pull back, simply giving the blonde a happy smile as they walked. Both blushed, happily strolling forward with the Lien cards safe in their pockets. The people around them, walking or not, stopped to look at the two maidens and neither of them was sure why. Could have been Catra's traits...
Or it could've been the fact two beautiful women walked hand-in-hand. Depends on the perspective of the third party looking at them.
The two girls walked on, past Tukson's book store and into another square and, much to their surprise, they found it occupied by several stands and food stalls, selling various items seemingly not of Valeian origin, including rugs, scarves and other clothes, including robes with floral designs and beautiful colors on them. Women and men alike worked there and some stands even sold drinks, both soft and alcoholic.
But the main attraction, that which seemed to garner the most attendees, was a raised part in the center of the square, almost resembling a stage in the middle of which resided an obelisk. Four young women with ginger hair played instruments that the girls hadn't seen before. Their voices were almost angelic as they played along to the enamored crowd.
They were speaking a really weird language, though, and interlacing it with verses that the girls understood well. Now, one would easily find these four girls unassuming, what with being quadruplets that played for a crowd as musicians. It wasn't that weird to see families playing together, much less so sisters. Remnant's music industry was fairly female-dominated after all, sans bits and pieces there like 'Rock'. The two things that set them apart was them interlacing that weird language with their music and the fact each had a weapon by her hip or on her back. Weapons worthy of Huntresses.
"They've got great voices." Adora mused, looking to Catra.
"Eh." She shrugged dismissively "Doesn't sound too bad. Could do without the semi-alien language though."
"I think it actually sounds good..." Adora hummed "Almost entrancing..."
"Don't start fading out on me, Adora." Catra smirked. The two leaned in closer to one another, listening to the singing and watching the seeming faeries continue their choir. After two more songs, the four fair maids ended their singing and bid goodbye to the folk gathered 'round to listen to them, before stepping off to the side. Catra smirked, then dragged her blonde along after having a few minutes to process the weapons on the girls. "Catra!" Adora yelped "What're you doing!?"
"Just gonna go ask our singer pals what the deal with their weapons is." she answered with a grin. She waved to the four redheads and said "Hey, girls! Nice concert back there!"
"Oh..." The one in the lead, with amber eyes and what looked like a broadsword on her back raised a brow. She answered in a rather thick accent "Thank ya. Dinnae think folk in Vale would like ta listen to South Mistrali music, but here we are."
"Yeah, well, your voices are soothing enough that I don't see why anyone wouldn't wanna listen." The catgirl smirked "I and Adora wanted to ask about another thing, though."
"Oh?" The amber-eyed sister raised a brow, smirking "What'd that be, gal?"
"You girls know any good Dust stores nearby? Going by the kit you're hauling, you're Huntresses." Catra asked, surprising both Adora and the redhead.
"Huh..." She paused, dumbfound "Not what I expected, but alright... Yeah, there's a store nearby, called 'From Dust 'till Dawn'. Just o'er yonder, past that corner." And she pointed out toward it. She crossed her arms, then said "Wait a moment, lass... Aren't the two of ya suppos'ta be from Vale?" which got both the blonde and her catgirlfriend to pause for a moment.
"... Yeah?" Catra said "Well... Not really. We aren't from around the bend."
"It's a long story..." Adora murmured.
"Oh, the blondie talks." The redhead smirked after getting a rise out of Adora in the form of a blush. She continued "Right, I'll believe ya on that and not press it further... For now. Though ya both owe me and me sisters drinks. Name's Ómra. Ómra Géar. I and me sisters are huntresses, aye, but we're also musicians... An' ta be fair, we prefer the latter to the former."
"Helping people in two different ways, huh?" Adora smiled "Nice."
Now, it was the redhead's turn to blush "Well, thanks. What's yer names."
"I'm Adora." The blonde nodded "Adora Spinner."
"Catra Clawdeen." The kitten nodded, giving a catty grin.
"A'ight... I knew ye were weird. Names just prove that." Ómra murmured to herself "Anywae, pleasure to meet you both and we'll see ya when we see ya... Hell, maybe we'll meet during the Vytal Fest. We'll be performin' there as well."
"Vytal fest?" The two Etherians raised brows.
"... Yer focken' wi'me, ain't'cha?" The redhead returned, taken aback. Shaking heads and confused looks told her that these girls were a little more than 'not from around the bend'. And she'd damn well press'em when the time came... She sighed, then said "The Vytal Festival is a pretty big deal on Remnant. It's an international festival held every two years and it's kinda meant to symbolize the peace we achieved after the Great War. Celebrates culture, tech, peoples an' whatnot. Ooh, there's also show fights between the world's best huntsmen and huntresses-in-training going on too."
"Right..." Catra nodded, a grin on her face "That sounds awesome."
"Thanks for telling us. See you girls around?" Adora offered. The redhead nodded.
"Aye. With that drink." Ómra then quipped, shooting a pearly-white grin and a cheeky wink the girls' way. She tilted her head to the right and she and her sisters stepped off, walking in the opposite direction to the girls. The two looked to one-another, then shrugged and turned toward the 'From Dust 'Till Dawn'. Dust seemed pretty straightforward in its uses. Both of them hoped it wouldn't need to be used for tomorrow's expedition, but if push came to shove...