Issue 1 Downtime

Mom probably wouldn't be happy about this, she reflected as she wander up on down the aisles of 'swords through the ages' that she'd asked the Danger Room to recreate. She hadn't seen 'her' sword yet, but maybe, if she could find it, it would tell her something about herself. Since she was a student, and a relatively new one at that, the room was not locked, but the status panel indicated the name of the occupant and that it was a non-training-related simulation.

((Open))

"Ooo... sword museum," came a voice over the intercom.

"Sort of, I suppose," Miranda said without looking up.

"Or is it Crazy Gilgamesh's Sword Emporium?"

"I don't even know where that is," she said, no indication that she'd gotten the joke.

"Well I made it up just now, so neither do I."

She moved from a section of Middle Eastern versions to Southern Europe. "You are welcome to come look. I'm just browsing myself."

In a moment, he was there.

"I'm partial to the spada da lato here myself," he said as he lifted what appeared to be caught between short sword and rapier.

"I'm looking for something specific," she said, "Something I've seen before but don't know the name of."

"Huh..." he said, scratching his head, "Can you... describe it?"

"Largish. Big enough to wear on my back, but small enough to still wield in one hand," she said, reaching up to tug her hood down lower.

"Computer, sort by Oakeshott and move the racks to type XX," he said. The racks whizzed by in Matrix fashion and stopped.

"God I love that," he grinned.

"That close?" he asked, pointing a hand-and-a-half claymore.

She reached out and picked it up, attempting to hold it out to her side. This didn't work very well and was particularly wobbly.

"... is bigger than I thought..."

"Or I'm smaller than... the person I've seen it on," she said, putting the sword back up.

"Hmm..."

"Computer, type XVI please."

Whizz whoosh.

"Try that," he said, holding a shorter sword out to her.

She looked at it, "No, nothing like that. The previous one was a better match for what I've seen. It's an Astral thing though, so the normal laws of physics probably don't apply."

"Not looking for an actual one then, just a reference, gotcha."

"Hoping finding it will teach me something about the person wielding it."

"So it was like the Scottish Claymore before this sword?"

She nodded, "Similar. The hilt was different, but the overall size was similar."

"Computer, show us a few variants of the Scottish Claymore." It did so.

Miranda looked closely at the swords, frowning the entire time. Finally she picked one with a very short cross-guard. It looked like the oversized love child of a claymore and a gladius. "Something like this."

"Nice," he said, whistling. "Mean looking too."

"You have no idea," she said, lifting the blade and looking it over closely.

"So... a figure in the Astral had that?"

She nodded. "I'm hoping that finding it will help me understand them a bit more."

"Well I don't think anyone wielding that in a dream-ish place is safe to be anywhere near."

"Probably not," she said. "Not like I'll have a lot of choice if she shows up though."

"She huh?" he wondered aloud.

Miranda considered the slip and then seemed to dismiss its importance. "Nothing to worry about in the short term I suppose."

"You sure? I hear the Astral can be dangerous for the inexperienced."

"I feel kind of at home there most days."

"Eh, not my place to say. I'm not a telepath."