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Who: John Sheppard & Rodney McKay & Ianto Jones
What: Magda's Disappearance: transmitter hunting edition.
When: Last week of September
Where: Nadril
Warning(s): None at kick-off!

Magda has vanished.

Magda has vanished and John doesn't like that, because anyone who assists someone in raising an undead dragon to attack everyone based on an old grudge is not someone he wants out of sight. That's someone he wants to keep track of at all times.

Magda has vanished, and John is tired of tracking pretty much anything related to Ysverai but at the same time he can't let it go. He can't let any of it go, and so here he is back in Nadril. Back in Nadril, offering his help to Nurray in this man-hunt of sorts. All he can do is hope that at the end of it there isn't another undead monstrosity, patiently waiting to burn him to a crisp again or to eat him.

Based on Rodney's previous inability to even realise Nurray was a woman, John carefully suggests Ianto wait with Rodney in Central -- where there's food, and things to drink, and Rodney doesn't have to be in the cold. Nice and comfortable! The hesitant eyebrow raise he shoots Ianto also suggests maybe there is a diplomatic reason behind this, which he doesn't think needs too much enlarging.

It doesn't take an especially long time before John re-appears, tugging off the sunglasses he'd been wearing to guard against snow blindness and unzipping his outer layer now he's indoors. He spots them quickly and, checking nobody is immediately going to throw him out just for walking through, approaches their table with his best over-friendly smile.

"So, kids, how do we feel about going transmitter hunting?"

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Nobody had to twist Rodney's arm to get him back to Nadril, ice and snow aside. After enough time in Olympia with all the ghosts (ugh), he's more than enthused to play intern researcher and fetch boy as long as he can be around technology more complicated than a toaster.

"So the thousands-of-years-old terrorist-funding recluse fled. Surprise surprise," Rodney says as he, Ianto, and John leave Central and the temptation of the ship's systems that he's not allowed to touch. He's been on his best behavior. Which means only surreptitiously scribbling down everything relevant to Natha and Natha technology on his Atlantis-issue tablet and not trying to hook into the systems and grab what he can. Ianto can vouch for him. He's been very good.

"I don't like it, though. 'Cooperate with the Natha' instead of what? Die?"

Ianto finds it just as unsettling as John does that Magda's disappeared. He's already proven himself incapable of making sound decisions, while at the same time he's clearly one of the most advanced beings in the entire land. The message he leaves behind sounds like something along his usual rhetoric, and he may have warned people off of looking for him but he can't have disappeared off the face of the planet. Can he? Which begs the question what is he up to now.

There are a handful of questions are swirling around Ianto's head as John returns from where he'd left Ianto to mind Rodney (and make certain he didn't get himself into too much trouble -- yes, he has been very good) and shares what Nurray's told him. Searching for a transmitter that Magda has left behind. It sounds easy enough. Search and recovery for an object at least shouldn't get them into too much trouble. He hopes.

"Well," Ianto replies, glancing aside at the other man's question. "I don't think it would be that extreme. Especially not now that Darma's..." A statue. He looks to John for assistance. "I can hardly see how going after this transmitter he's abandoned for Nurray is in any way 'Cooperating with the Natha'. Unless he feels as though the only true and righteous path is to chase after him to wherever he's gone now."

John nods, because yes -- he did explain the statue thing to Rodney. You know, in a very... mild and roundabout way.

"I'm pretty sure Magda believes the true and righteous path is to loudly declare our belief that the Natha are all frauds and that Magda is forgiven for his acts of terrorism, and seek him out so he might bestow untold truths on us. Unfortunately, I'm more in the mood to seek him out so I can stun him and drag him back for questioning."

You know, and hopefully sentencing for all the lives that were lost to Ysverai after he enabled Rasyc with his fancy gadgets.

"Oh, because clearly we're going to do just that. Let's go find him and kiss his boots. Just what we need." Just because he was on good behavior doesn't mean he isn't itchy with examples of new technology all around him and grumpy at denying himself. He liked it better when it was his job to snoop and someone else's to be diplomatic. But diplomatic equaled toys equaled Rodney was willing to play ball for now.

But, "This transmitter couldn't be that important, not if this guy just dumped it and ran. What does he take us for? Like we wouldn't be able to find something literally announcing it's location." He totally misses the looks and undercurrents between John and Ianto, focused more on complaining about the problem in front of him. "All we need is a tracker. Any idiot with half a brain can mock one up out of spare parts."

"Magda had to have thought it was worth something to have put in the effort in the first place," Ianto points out. "It's only because he couldn't silence the thing that we're assuming he got rid of it in the end. Magda might be a ridiculous person and a poor judge of character, but he does at least know his technology. We have to assume that much."

He glances aside at Rodney, raising his eyebrows at the idea of mocking up a tracker out of spare parts, before he suggests, "Why don't we at least start by checking out this junkyard that Nurray suggested we look into?" He looks to John for support. "If Magda really has been through there, there might be a chance someone might have even seen him come through. Narrow down the area to look?"

John takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly, turning over their options.

"Both options are good," John says finally, "McKay, if you can get something working that can pick up the static sound it's making and pinpoint it that'll help. Just tell us what you need. If anyone is hanging around the junkyard, Ianto and I can also see if they saw anyone fitting Magda's description recently -- but we should be careful, there's a chance some of them might not be friendly."

The last thing they need is to begin a conversation hey did you see Magda here and end it with gunfire. McKay doesn't even have a weapon -- although, on reflection, that is not necessarily a bad thing. Saves him shooting any rats.

"Not necessarily," Rodney tells Ianto. "If I were trying to keep advanced technology out of the hands of the plebeian masses, just having it and being a super-high-tech terrorist would probably be enough. But--well--"

He pauses. Reevaluates. "Okay, maybe." It's a grudging maybe, but still a maybe. "Not important enough to try and take with, but still important enough to hide."

Which means they need to go trudging through a junkyard? Great. Then they absolutely need to have some sort of tracker because he's not just going to dig. He purses his lips as he listens to John's plan of attack, already composing a shopping list in his head before that derails and he demands, "Not friendly. What do you mean not friendly? What kind of not friendly?"

There's the 'not friendly' he's already experienced being ejected from Nadril and the dramatic understatement 'not friendly' that usually ended in a hail of bullets that he was more used to than he really wanted to be.

Ianto has a feeling he might be better at questioning native strangers than his companions -- or certainly better than Rodney at any rate. He's grateful that John at least recognizes that he does have better people skills and that they should be putting them to good use, if they stand a chance of getting any important information out of whoever they run into.

He glances aside at John at Rodney's question, before deciding to attempt to answer it himself. "Anyone who's hanging around a junkyard is going to be there for a reason," he points out. "And I'm sure that most of them have much less noble causes than we do ourselves. We can't be too curious about what Magda was doing, or about this device itself for that matter. If we make it sound important, it'll sound important to them as well."

"Yeah, I mean Magda himself I already wouldn't categorise as friendly. Scavengers at a junkyard may be not exactly there legally, and there's always a chance some folk who were friends with the guy are there and might figure out what we're doing. For all we know, he's actually hiding out there."

Which means it could be that they track it down and walk into a trap. Always a good option. John loves a good trap! Who doesn't? If nothing else, it gives you people with potential information to get hold of and question! Right? Right! Perfect.

"Great. Scavengers," Rodney's thrilled with every variation of that idea, really. "So we have to go in, make sure nobody knows what we're actually looking for, and avoid both the natives and the guy who hid the thing, just in case any of them are lurking."

He pauses.

"And avoid tetanus."

He's so glad he agreed to this.

Ianto quirks an eyebrow at the other man at the tetanus comment, though he supposes that Rodney does have a point. They should be on their guard not only for the people who may be lurking inside but also the things as well.

"Comforting," he muses aloud. "That sounds about right. Though I doubt Magda's anywhere near here anymore. He doesn't seem the type to waste a dramatic monologue, and he seemed pretty intent on ridding himself of anything to do with Thesans in general."

He glances to John, raising an eyebrow in curiosity -- he isn't the one to have spoken to Nurray after all, as he continues, "I'd be interested to see what it was that suddenly had him decide to abandon this city of his, though. I thought the point of this place was that they were living independently of the Natha. I mean. He was the one to found it, wasn't he?"

"Well it's not strictly a waste," John says, "it could be bait. You know, 'don't you dare follow me into my underground volcano lair where my laser is pointed directly at the door'."

Something like that? Anyway --

"Also, I'm pretty sure the reason he jumped ship is that too many of us Natha-loving folk decided to turn up and complain about how he nearly murdered us all with a dragon. Which, personally, I think is a pretty valid complaint."

Nobody really enjoys having a dragon turned on them, surely? At least, nobody John would categorise as sane. Still! John squints around the area, trying to turn over all of this.

"Anyway, we'll need to gear ourselves up under the assumption this may take a while. So if you have any shopping you need to get done before we leave now's the time."

You know, for spares, bigger jackets, anything that might help them find a fiddly radio thing.

Edited (repetition ) 2018-10-16 16:06 (UTC)

"A trap. Great. One of you is going first," Rodney says, a little peevishly.

"I'll be--oh!" and he's diverted, just like that. His favorite thing is pitting his own cleverness against others. "I'll be trying to track the thing, but I'll need, ah, something that reads radiation, and maybe some sort of density-surveying equipment." He rattles off a handful more bits and pieces of technology that he's confident he can cobble together into something that'll at least get them in the ballpark, based on John's initial sketch of what they're looking for. It'll be messy, since he doesn't have a lab, but it should get the job done.

Unless they just walk by a staticky pile of junk and it ends up not mattering.

Tacked on the end of his shopping list, he add, "I really would like to know more about this dragon. Magda's howevermany years old, so why now abandon the city? What'd the dragon do?"

Going first. Ianto can't help but look to John at that one. He is the security, soldier type on this venture, after all. Of course, his gaze doesn't falter from the other man as Rodney (once again) focuses on the topic of the dragon. He's going to need to tell him sooner rather than later. Ianto doesn't know Rodney personally, but he has to assume that all this dancing around the topic is only going to become more suspicious, not less.

"You've been to Olympia, yeah?" he asks the other man, off-handedly. "The city didn't always look like that. It's been -- partially rebuilt. It's still being rebuilt, really. And that is all thanks to the dragon."

You can step in here at any time you know, John.

"It was raised from the dead by King Shanrian's estranged son. He thought his father was going soft, making peace with Olympia and he thought he could use it to create a war between the two peoples again." Ianto shrugs, doing his best attempt at nonchalance as he continues, "But of course the thing came back from the dead insane, as you do. So it killed him and then proceeded to run rampage across the country. And because it was not only an undead dragon, but an undead High Dragon besides..."

He glances between the pair of them again, hoping this is enough of an explanation to stop Rodney asking his questions while not sending John down his spiral of guilt. "It was rather difficult to get rid of, in the end. It's why there's the giant statues of Darma and the dragon out on the battlefield. She sort of, ehm. Sacrificed herself, in order to save us. And that's what's become of them."

Oh is this a dragon conversation? Look at the time, they're far too busy to continue it obviously.

"That's your Cole's notes," John says brightly, "dragon big, dragon bad, dragon undead but now probably maybe dead or at least a statue for now."

See? All explained! Nothing else to talk about -- which...

Is probably suspicious considering John would normally be the first person to be interested in a dragon, but, maybe not dead ones? Maybe not undead ones?

"Anyway, the key takeaway here is that Magda armed Rasyc with the technology to allegedly control this undead dragon to... I guess, take over, do whatever it is estranged royal prince's do when they decide they're the best person to rule. So he definitely holds a good portion of the blame, as arming terrorists is bad when they're not our terrorists."

Oh look, a political joke! Is that a good distraction?

"All of that?" Rodney says, his face twisting in disgust. "Well that's horrible. Olympia's a mess."

The long-story-short is almost good enough for him for now, since he's thinking about circuitry and kludges. Almost. "High dragon? There's a difference? But oh, no, no, I think I knew that about the statues. Well, not both statues, just the one statue. Of what's-her-name. Their goddess-lady. That seemed relevant." Because, wow, he's been hearing a lot about her since they hit Olympia earlier in the month.

"You can tell me what you were up to the last six months while a giant undead dragon rampaged when we get back to Olympia"--because that's what's happening here--"but right now I don't want to leave a broken radio just laying around where anyone can get it who's not us." He then breathes out in a disgruntled huff and waves a hand toward where there may-or-may-not be shopping. "Nearest electronics."

"There's a difference," Ianto confirms. "There are still some of the lesser dragons about in Wyver. For riding, and I suppose they might keep some of the littler ones as pets." He glances to John for confirmation on that one. "Think horses but -- not. It's where they've gotten the name from the city from, I'd imagine. Wyver. Wyvern? Or maybe that's just a coincidence."

Ianto's pretty sure that John's just going to skip over the question of their whereabouts (and what-abouts) for the last six months so he decides to forego answering it for himself as well, focusing on directing them towards the shopping district at Rodney's gesturing.

"You're in luck," he points out. "Despite being in the middle of a frozen wasteland, Nadril is practically a mecha of electronic bits and bobs."

Sure, when they get back to Olympia, sounds like a good time which is not now that he can conveniently forget later on.

"Ianto is right, as always. So, electronics shopping it is. We'll need a list, divided into 'necessary' and 'nice if we can get it'. We're on a budget, so let's try to be conservative. Anything that is pure materials we might be able to scavenge from the Natha crash site for free but that involves walking all the way over there in the snow and back, so I'm guessing a last resort."

John shoots Rodney a sideways look and lofts an eyebrow. You worked in Antarctica, Rodney, and you're Canadian. It's amazing you still complain about the cold this much.

"Excellent," Rodney says to Ianto, focused away from the undead dragon talk and back onto their task. The way to his heart is definitely through miscellaneous bits of tech. He drags out his tablet from where he'd stashed it on his person, half paying attention as he starts flicking his fingers across the screen, a list blooming in his note-taking application in his disaster of a short-hand. "You can't beat being able to acquire your own without having to worry about someone having had their greasy little fingers all over the thing, but tromping across the tundra sounds awful. And tedious. And unnecessary. How long has the wreckage been there?"

The list is a few smudges short of complete when Rodney stops, glowers at his tablet, and sighs. "It's really too bad we don't have a life-signs detector."

"We don't have a precise timeline exactly..." Ianto hedges, glancing to John with a raised eyebrow at the life-signs detector comment. Not that he wants to offer up the other man's tech for him -- he's got no idea what Rodney might do it, if he's going to frankenstein it into something else entirely, never to work as it should have again -- but John knows the other man better than Ianto does himself and if there's a chance that he actually does know what he's talking about and it might help...? Is he willing to risk it?

Well?, the look seems to imply, grateful that for the moment Rodney is so utterly engrossed with his lists.

John rolls his eyes and digs the scanner out of his pocket, approaching Rodney at an amble and waving it until he gets his attention.

"I would prefer to get it back, don't have any spares. What else is on the list? Ianto likes lists."

Lists also keep them on this topic, and stop them meandering on to ones he's trying to avoid. John's a fan of them, and specifically in this instance too.

With a gasp just shy of indecent, Rodney snatches the LSD out of John's hands. Politely. Mostly. "Where did you--? How did you--?"

Ah, Ancient tech, how he's missed you. Juggling the device and his tablet for a moment, he uses a thumb to cross off half a dozen of the scrap and electronic doohickeys he'd listed out before fumbling the tablet itself toward Ianto to (hopefully?) catch.

"There, that should...that should be everything we need and then some, if we can't find everything. Couple of redundant--" He cuts himself off, then gives both of them a bright grin. "We just might have a chance to find it, despite everything."

Ianto struggles to catch the tablet, not having anticipated that Rodney would throw it at him. Luckily for all of them, he's had practice dealing with a team of people who had similar levels of respect for the technology they worked with (which is to say little to none), so he manages to save it in the end.

Pursing his lips, he gives Rodney a look before turning to the tablet itself and glancing down to what he's typed out in full. Able to follow along with just about most of it, or at least getting the general gist of what the thing is if not exactly why Rodney's looking for one.

"I should hope so," he gripes as he scrolls. "I certainly didn't travel all this way for the company." Sorry, John. He's just grouchy.

Wow Ianto, play nice with the other kids!

"Why don't we," John says, in his best 'soothing mom' voice, "get the rest of the things on that list along with some coffee. McKay can hole up in Central where it's warm trying to reconfigure the detector, then we'll meet up with him and head out. How's that sound?"

Is everyone happy with this plan? Please say yes, because it's going to be a very long fetch-quest if nobody involved is happy the entire time.

Rodney respects his technology roughly in inverse of how far he can throw it, usually, but this is an Atlantis tablet. It's not indestructible, but it is over-engineered within an inch of its life. It'd be fine. Whatever look Ianto's leveled his way flies right by him, though, not something that Rodney would catch unless someone held his chin and maybe shook their finger along with.

"Neither did I," Rodney says, blithely agreeing with Ianto, but for none of the same reasons. "But Murry's good graces are important, unfortunately, and I think we can all agree on that. We'll be out of the cold soon, though."

At John's proposal, however, he visibly waffles. "The reconfiguration won't take--and if you're going to technolo--" Stopping, he reconsiders. Hrm. "Fine. It'll be faster if I get to work now and don't waste time poking at tech I can't afford yet."

So he's on board. The coffee better be still hot. The snowy wastes are not for him.

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