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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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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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