Electra
-
Posts
11,284 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Freedom City Guidebook
Freedom City PBP: A How-To Guide
Gallery
Events
Everything posted by Electra
-
Jessie nodded in Nightscale's direction, but didn't correct his misapprehension. She had spent several years at Claremont, sort of, in another dimension, in a sealed iron box in the basement that she now had no firsthand memories of. That sort of thing took too long to explain. She was not great at making polite conversation in social settings, but several Project Freedom seminars and a lot of internet articles had at least given her the bare essentials. Not taking fifteen minutes to talk about your tragic and convoluted backstory wasn't expressly stated, but it was implied. "Thanks," she told the kid. She turned to the adult chaperone as he approached. Raising a brow at Sadler's extended hand, she waved her own wet, oily arm in a sort-of apology. "Dimensional doppelganger, but it's easier, you know? AEGIS, that must be exciting work."
-
"Mr Lon," Danica began, and suddenly her entire demeanor seemed to shift a little. The put-on childlike air was gone, and now her hands were folded neatly across her shell, her face calm as she looked at him. "You're a person who sees a whole lot. You've seen more about us in five minutes than anybody else on this ship knows. I think that means you're also somebody who can make a lot of connections very quickly, and work the angles just as fast. If you take us up to see the captain, it's not going to end up going well for anybody, but especially for you." She went on without giving him a chance to comment or object. "If you take us up to the captain, there are two options. One, we're going to take control of the ship, but we're going to have to do it by fighting. That's going to be dangerous for us, for the crew, and for the ship itself. You've got a pretty nice ship here, and you've got innocents on board. We'd do whatever we could to make sure that people didn't get hurt, but we couldn't promise anything. See, we can't just allow ourselves to be taken the way maybe some other metahumans would if it would save lives. Which sort of leads to the other option, incidentally." Danica shrugged and spread her hands. "Humans value their kids really highly. Any threat to a kid is taken more seriously than a threat to an adult. Metahuman kids, like us, that's even another level up. See, human heroes tend to have metahuman children. If they don't make it totally clear that messing with their kids is out of bounds, their kids would be constantly under threat. So any threat to a metahuman kid by any villain is going to be met with instant overkill force, so nobody ever wants to do it again. If we don't get back to Earth pronto, a lot of very powerful superheroes are going to hear about it and they're going to get really worried. They already know we are here and who has us. If they get a call from Captain Kraken saying that he wants to ransom us like some two-bit villain of the week who got a super bad idea, they are going to come down like the wrath of a way angrier god than me, you know? Like, no brick left standing on top of another brick sort of situation." Her look was level, her eyes older than her purported age in this moment. "There is no situation where you take us to the captain and things turn out good for you. Even if we won easily and nothing got destroyed, your ship is in the hands of a bunch of teenagers who are super mad at you for blackmailing us. But if you help us get back to Earth before anything bad can happen, you've got some powerful people who suddenly like you a whole lot more than we did."
-
Danica is going to spend an HP to use Ultimate Check: Diplomacy, and add that to her +20 score for a total of 40 to convince Lon to get them back home.
-
Jessie somehow had no appetite for fried fish and especially not for the sushi rolls, but she did grab a couple bottles of water before retreating to the edge of the gathering to at least wipe her hands and face clean of ceremonial fish oil. She was a little ways away from the knot of students, but her enhanced senses meant she could hear them perfectly well. She thought about just letting it go, but no reason for people to have to wonder what Wander was doing in the belly of a dead sea creature. "I'm not Erin," she called over brusquely, scrubbing her arms with a wad of paper towel. "I'm her sister Jessie. Singularity." 'Sister' was so much easier than trying to explain all that she and Erin were and were not to each other these days.
-
Jessie, who was somehow cold and wet even despite her superpowers, dutifully consulted the folded up scrap of notebook paper in her hand. "Oh great Belopa," she intoned, "we remember your beneficent sacrifice and honor the holy deliciousness-" she tried not to wince "of your kin's flesh and blubber." She tucked the scrap back in her pocket and pulled out a harmonica, providing an appropriately tuneless accompaniment to her roommate's important ceremony. It was going to be worth it, she reminded herself, for three months of guaranteed live-crustacean-free living in the apartment.
-
"Did he say what he wants you to do?" Danica asked nervously. She was still keeping one eye on Lon and the kids, all of whom would be very vulnerable if things started getting shaken. "And are you sure he's talking to you? Could you maybe be overhearing somebody else's radio conversation? Or, like, maybe a space TV show?" She poked the picture on the computer. "Computer, can you tell me more about this person?"
-
Danica touched a button that showed a person with sound lines coming out of his mouth, not too dissimilar from a symbol that might be on a human computer. "Can you show me a list of all the things you can do?" she asked politely, then watched as her words turned to symbols on the screen. "It does seem to know at least simple English," she agreed. "That's helpful, I don't know any Lor at all. How come you know how to use this?" she asked Ashley. Noticing Pan over by the minder, she tried to get his attention by jerking her head in a "come here" sort of way.
-
"We sit tight," Danica said firmly, keeping her voice low. "We don't know the layout of this ship, we don't know how to work their transporter or whatever, or how to pilot their ships. Even if we got loose, we don't have a way to get out of space, right? As far as they're concerned, we're civilian noncombatants and they've put us in what's probably the safest place on their ship. I mean, situations like this are why we _have_ the Freedom League, right?" She turned to Lon and gave him a smile that showed no teeth. "We don't want to cause any trouble," she promised. "But I don't need a nap right now. Are there any educational computer games I could play?"
-
Got an eighteen
-
"Go ahead," Miss A told her, busying herself with the tablet again. "I need to do some quick design work before I can do anything else. I'm not going to bag on your parents for poor design choices if they were doing the best they could, but you deserve a body that works well all over. Getting upgrades doesn't mean you don't love them," she pointed out, her voice gentling a bit. "And it's all still your choice, what you want or don't. But I do strongly recommend at least letting me come up with an easier way to do backups for you." She glanced over to where Eira was working her way through her backup and maintenance chores. "Everything good?" she asked.
-
"I think he means syndicate," Danica offered helpfully. "These guys are trying to get into some space criminal organization and have to steal enough of Earth's gold to impress the leaders so they can get into the gang. I saw a plot like this on Miami Vice once." She took another bite of giant strawberry and flipped open the phone. "I used to have a phone like this! I wonder if this gets signal all the way to Earth." She tapped in the country code and area code, then her mom's phone number. "Hi, Mom? Yeah, I'm still on the field trip but we kind of got stuck on a detour and I can't remember the phone number for the school. Can you get hold of the headmaster and ask her to call the Freedom League so they can negotiate with some space pirates for us? They're treating us fine, they put us in their daycare, but I want to get home so we can watch The Voice tonight."
-
Miss A's eyes widened slightly as Shift described their backup process, but her voice was smooth and confident. "Definitely something we can fix," she agreed, "if that's something you want. Integrated Dynamics' designs tend to use a lot of reverse-engineered ArcheTech designs, so it shouldn't be difficult to find compatible hardware even with your integrated nanotechnology. Which is very interesting, by the way, and if you have docs on that I'd love to see them." The blue light finished its journey up and down Shift's head and shoulders and the machine lifted away, back towards the ceiling. Miss A went to another screen to look at the results. "All your functions are in the green right now, that's good. And if you have had a fairly recent backup it might be better to wait and do both the backup and a dataport installation all at once, so we don't have to shut you down twice."
-
Danica was happy enough to roll along with the group, looking around curiously as they traveled through the ship. She'd been on lots of strange field trips but she'd never actually been to space before! It was kind of too bad that there was enough gravity to keep anything from floating around, but if she wanted to feel a zero-g environment she could always just ask Pan. She was more amused than annoyed at being escorted to the daycare, and a little relieved as well. A room full of the ship's own children was not a room where the pirates would come if they had violence on their minds. And there was fruit! Huge fruit of a sort that Danica had never seen before! Looking covetously towards the big plate, she offered "Can you give us a way to communicate with Earth? If we can tell them what you need, it'll probably help." Unable to resist, she wheeled over to the group of kids and picked up one of the giant berries. "It's the biggest strawberry in the galaxy," she murmured reverently.
-
"That's exactly how it happened!" Danica agreed. "One minute we were cleaning the old elephant statue, the next minute it was pouring rain from a clear blue sky! We ran to get out of the rain, and suddenly 'zoop!'" She enthusiastically mimed an elephant statue and a team of young superheroes being teleported into space. "I'm not sure why you wanted the elephant; I mean it's definitely cool and it's an historic landmark, but I'm not sure it's, um, actually _worth_ very much." She made an extremely winsome apologetic face. "But like I said, if you can put us back before anybody notices and gets mad, we can help you get whatever it is you're actually needing to get."
-
The scanner apparatus descended smoothly from the ceiling, stopping just a foot or two above Shift's prone body. "Just hold still," Miss A instructed as she walked over to a wall of screens and tapped in a few commands. "You can talk but don't move." The scanner came to life with a quiet whirr, beaming a blue bar of light onto Shift's forehead. "Do you have a dataport or do you back up wirelessly, or both?" She tapped out adjustments on the screen. "Also, not for nothing, but have you thought about telling the school about your problem? The faculty is full of literal superheroes, isn't it? I assume they could find someone to help your parents."
-
"Let's not overload Shift on the first day," Miss A suggested to Eira. "If there are beneficial upgrades that we can make, the scan will turn them up, but the backups are the most urgent thing." She turned back to Shift. "I won't do anything to you that hasn't been fully explained to you and that you haven't agreed to first," she promised. "The autonomy of artificial life forms is very important to everyone at ArcheTech." She looked interested but not startled at the nanobot transformation, making a few quick notes on her tablet. "Go ahead and climb up on the table and just relax. You may feel a slight humming sensation but it won't hurt at all. Do you remember when your last backup was?"
-
Miss Americana's demeanor visibly shifted when she saw how nervous her new visitor was. "It's nice to meet you, Shift," she said with a smile, coming around the table. "I'm Miss Americana, or Miss A if you prefer. I don't mean to be short with you, I've just been in the lab for a lot of hours in a row." She laughed, an amazing laugh that invited others to laugh along, and slid off her lab coat to set it aside. "Eira did mention that you don't have any backups right now. I know Claremont's staff does their best to take care of their students, but things can get awfully rough and tumble over there. And of course there are some dangers unique to artificial life forms. I think we should be able to set you up with some solid backups, just in case anything ever were to happen." She opened a cabinet full of well-maintained tools. "Have you ever had a scan and backup done before?"
-
"Well, hopefully that wasn't one of the crew," Danica said dubiously, observing the very deceased remains of the robot. "Probably not, right? I mean, do robots go to space? I don't think we're supposed to kill kidnappers unless it's like... really important." She looked relieved to hear voices and see humanoid shapes in the doorway. "Okay, nevermind, we're probably good." Climbing onto her Segway, she rolled towards the trio of newcomers. "Hi!" She called, keeping her hands in view on the handlebars. "I think you picked us up by mistake when you grabbed our tourist attraction. It's okay though, if you put us all back right away, the adult superheroes won't even get upset and I bet we can help you get some gold."
-
The laboratory was obviously on the bleeding edge of technology, brilliantly lit and stuffed with fabrication units and large 3-D printers in every corner. The center was open except for a pair of metal lab tables under a baffling array of ceiling-mounted sensors. One of the tables was occupied by a partially assembled robot form, anonymous and unskinned, with one arm partially disassembled and a half-dozen holographic schematics in the air around it. Working on the robot was a woman of startling physical beauty, even with her blonde hair pulled back in a messy bun and a white lab coat tossed haphazardly over a simple blouse and slacks. She didn't look greasy or unwashed at all, but the lab coat was wrinkled and stained as though it had been worn steadily for several days at least. A pattern of scorch marks liberally decorated one lapel. She looked up when Eira and Shift walked in. "Oh good, you're here." she said crisply. "Get on the table. Eira, have you backed up and checked your input sanitizing this week? Go do it."
-
"It's awfully humid for a spaceship," Danica remarked, "and pretty hot, too. So they might be from a planet where atmospheric conditions are like that, maybe?" She shrugged. "All we really know is that they're capable of some kind of stealthing and they're like, super dumb. Who comes to a planet without even doing their homework and steals an elephant statue because they think it's a god? And if they wanted gold, why didn't they just ask a matter creator for it? Mark Lucas came to my class one time at Nicholson and turned a desk to gold so we could use it for a science experiment. It's not even hard!" She looked more put out at the idea of being kidnapped by stupid aliens than afraid.
-
Okay. Chelone gets a 14 on Notice but may redeem herself with a 28 on Life Sciences
-
"Close enough," Danica assured Pan, staring around in awe. "And nice job on the cultural reference anyway. I'm thinking maybe 'we're gonna need a bigger boat' for a followup." She reached into her shell and pulled out a fluffy blue towel, quickly scrubbed off her face and arms, then held it out for anybody else who'd gotten too wet for comfort. "At least they were nice enough to bring my wheels with us. Anybody want to lay odds on us having at least one running chase coming up?" She was grinning, trying to project confidence despite the nerves of yet another field trip gone awry. It wasn't as though she wasn't used to it after all these years, but ending up in space was a bit further from home than normal!
-
"Oh, it's not so bad," Danica said cheerfully, finishing off her last elephant toenail with an oversized toothbrush. "Usually the rain that comes in off the ocean is cold and nasty, but this is nice." She tipped her head back to feel the rain on her green-tinted face, then frowned a bit. "Really nice, actually. It's like bathwater. Does that seem weird to anybody else?"
-
"The school would probably tell us to wait," Danica admitted, "and I have about a week's worth of food and water and a couple sleeping bags in my shell. But if we did set up camp here, it would be a bad idea to do it without knowing what's going on right under our feet, right?" She rummaged around in her shell again and pulled out a little flashlight with a bright LED beam. It wasn't totally necessary with the light Heroditus was already putting out, but it did make her feel better. "You wanna take point? Just don't go too fast."
-
"Welcome to the club, Utsuwa," Raina said briskly, actually picking up a handful of the papers Erik had pretended to send her after. "School typically foots the bill for students," she told him, sending a quick look Erik's way for confirmation, "but you've got to fill out a buttload of waiver forms so nobody can sue us if you or somebody else gets hurt. It's a whole American thing, you'll get used to it." She snapped the papers into a clipboard, attached one of the cheap pens with the dojo's name and phone number, and passed it to the kid. "You'll need a session for el viejo to place your training standard, but after that if you mostly want to work out by yourself, that's on you. There's also classes, personal training, small group, yadda yadda. It's all in the brochure."