It’s not a game. We walk through the fire.

[relentless_sentinel]

Who: Nephenee and Donatello
What: Helping Donnie sort through the feelings of being in his first messy battle
Where: Flotsam docks
When: Shortly after the first mission
Warnings: Talk of death, war, blood, the things you'd expect when dealing with this sort of thing.

First mission, down. They'd succeeded in their objectives, and they hadn't had any deaths on their end, at least that she knew of. The prisoners were safe, and the Imperials had gotten messed with. By all accounts, they'd won a victory.

But even a victory could come with loss, and in the case of Donatello, there was a loss of some innocence this night. Nephenee'd seen it before, and Yune knew she had dealt with it herself her first real battle...but seeing it real-time this long after the wars and, frankly, apocalypse, in Tellius just reminded her that she'd stepped into a warzone all over again. She was glad he wasn't physically injured, but...well, she'd seen the blow he'd taken to his spirit, and her own ached to see it. It's why she'd offered to talk with him after they got done with the mission.

As much as the events and having to wear that awful outfit at the party in Elysium had unnerved her, she could shove them down for now into a corner and deal with the internal squirming that caused later. Donnie needed her to be strong, he needed someone to talk to about what he'd dealt with.

After just enough time to clean up and bake some, because Yune knew showing up soaked in blood wouldn't help the teen and she needed some time to focus her own issues so she could help others, the Sentinel sat on the docks in a clean shirt, hat, and shorts. Her long, bare legs swayed over the waters as she absently fiddled with a sprig of yarrow, watching the waves and trying to let them wash over her restless spirit as she waited for the turtlekin.

Comments

[purplexing]

"Yes! Those are considered machinery. Manually operated for the most part, but they've likely inspired the use of cannons. Just think of all those gears and how they move with each other to make something work with minimal effort, like pulling down a catapult head or bending a ballista."

Donnie actually looks and sounds excited as he tries to explain. This is truly where his passion is, after all. "It's like building complex puzzles. When you get down to the root of it, an armor is just made up of many parts that work together to make its limbs move, and a pilot at its center to control those movements without having to be strong enough to bend or lift one of those huge limbs."

[relentless_sentinel]

Aw, it does her heart good to see him excited. Even if it might be just for a bit, it's better for you than staying in your funk for too long...

Nephenee ponders that for a moment. She understands the core principle of "one thing does a thing that makes another thing do a thing" and on, but going past that she can't imagine something terribly complex without seeing it actually doing its thing. (Also, she wonders, in her lack of self-knowledge, how strong the people are here that they need some of these machines. Neph, not every one can bench dragons...)

"Ah think Ah can see how that's useful. How do the folks inside control stuff, though?" She's not really seen them in action, honestly.

[purplexing]

Having been anticipating the question more or less, Donnie launches instantly into his explanation, growing more animated with his gestures.

"Well, essentially at its core, it really is still armor like the sort that people wear," he says. "Inside one of the armor suits like the Schwert, the pilot controls all the movements in some extent through their own movement, and the armor echoes that movement, if that makes sense."

[relentless_sentinel]

It sort of makes sense... "Ah...think so?"

Clearly Donnie knows a lot about these, which is great, and she's glad. But she does have to ask, "So...how big are these? An' how do ya take one down?"

It's an important question, since she's barely seen them, much less faced them. "They sound...hardy." Granted, she knows how to take down things, but...she wants to understand where this is going to fall in relation to other things she's faced, if it can even be compared. Maaaaybe something like Brom's armour?

[purplexing]

"We took one down in Hesaeth. I think another team took down one more closer to the camp." Donnie remembers that moment, the big metal form looking equal parts incredible and frightening. It had been the first time he'd seen one in combat. It was just too bad it was on the wrong side.

"You want to basically take out the pilot. The cockpit is pretty well shielded, and once the armor's operational, it's sealed pretty tight. There's a manual release for emergencies but it's hard to get to if the thing is actively fighting against you. It'd be hard to get a hold of while it's moving," he says.

"If you can't force the pilot out, then going for the joints in the limbs is the next best bet. Everything is protected but in between, only so much because it still needs to move. Disable one or two limbs and you've already got an advantage, so long as we're talking about the non-flying models. If you're dealing with the flight-capable ones, disabling their ability to do so would be the easiest way to take it down."

I thought I hit this...oops

[relentless_sentinel]

Nephenee scratches her head, rustling the hair under her hat a fair bit as she thinks about that for a few moments. Hmm, that sounds...annoying, but doable.

"Kinda makes me think o'some o'the generals back home, or someone like Ashnard or Zelgius, with all their armour...Not sure what sounds harder: takin' out a dragon laguz or one o'these Armors." Given she's only fought the latter, there's no way for her to make a real comparison there.

"So what Ah'm hearin' is go for the joints to start, or at least disablin' the ability to move 'round as much."

[purplexing]

The turtlekin nods. "The standard models aren't as fast. You can usually tell what might be built for speed by the weapons they're wielding if you don't notice the differences in the armor styles right away. Definitely don't try to tackle one alone, either way."