Vroom Vroom

[dee_lorean81]

[There is a DeLorean, heavily modified, doing laps in an empty, paved part of the Nexus. One might wonder what the driver is doing -- practicing for a race? Working on their turning? Just burning rubber because they're bored?

And then one might get a little closer -- and see that there IS no driver.

. . .perhaps it might be fairer to say that the car is bored.]

Comments

[palmerthing]

*That does look fun, so Palmer joins her.*

[dee_lorean81]

[Dee paddles out and surfs in again] Wheee! Fun, huh?

[palmerthing]

*A nod.* I really do like swimming. Something about the ocean having so many living things in it.

[dee_lorean81]

Appeals to your instincts?

[palmerthing]

Yeah. Lots of prey, lots of things to learn. Water is usually the best for that, most life starts out in the water.

[dee_lorean81]

Yeah, and most life ends up staying in there too. Or so we think -- like, apparently, on any given Earth, people know less about what's going on on the sea floor than they do about what's happening on the surface of the Moon?

[palmerthing]

Well yeah, there's not much between the surface of the Earth and that of the Moon. The bottom of the sea has a couple miles of water blocking it.

[dee_lorean81]

Heh, yeah, but I think the point of that little factoid is that we should really be figuring out our own planet before looking at others. Like, there's still so much to learn about Earth.

[palmerthing]

Yeah, but you know how people are.Fools rush in and all that shit, I mean.

[dee_lorean81]

That's true enough. Plus I bet years of Star Trek and Star Wars means everybody thinks the future belongs to space travel. Which, I'm not saying space travel isn't cool, I've just -- read a lot about pollution and climate change too.

[palmerthing]

Yeah, and I think those are a bit more immediately important.

[dee_lorean81]

Yeaaaaah. Space is great, but having a planet to come home to is even greater.

[palmerthing]

By a lot, yeah. Admittedly I tend to be a negative influence on the likelihood of that. *A wry smile.* Coming back to my Earth would be an unpleasant event.

[dee_lorean81]

So I have heard. Though I gotta ask -- if Things did take over humans, would you try to clean up the planet?

[palmerthing]

I mean, we'd take over everything else too. As soon as you have a few infected animals you're in a situation with no good answers, because wild animals are bad at long-term consequences. You're gonna have a hard time freezing everything, burning everything just kills indiscriminately, we're as good as immune to normal tissue damage . . . I think you'd end up with a planet that looks dead and is coated in the virus as soon as everything's been taken over. Aside from things sleeping in the ice, anyway. Not a place worth living, though.

[dee_lorean81]

Sheesh, that's -- kind of depressing. Is that what happens to most planets Things take over? Since you're taking over everything, not just the sapient life?

[palmerthing]

Mostly, yeah. *A sigh.* Whatever kept us in check on our homeworld obviously didn't come to the stars with us.

[dee_lorean81]

Really depressing, then. . . [brow furrows] What does keep a -- you're kind of a sapient virus, right? When you get down to brass tacks?

[palmerthing]

Yeah, essentially. I imagine creatures that evolved with us had immune systems designed to deal with it, though. Better at detecting us, too.

[dee_lorean81]

Yeah, anything that evolved to live with you would HAVE to be. . .does make me wonder if it would be possibly to vaccinate against you. I'm guessing no, since vaccines usually get built around "weaker version of the virus," but. . .

[palmerthing]

I find myself instinctively hating that idea, so it's probably a good one if you can figure it out. *Palmer knows that his instincts are leading in a dangerous direction, after all.*

[dee_lorean81]

[Dee chuckles] Anything your base instincts hate is something we should work on?

[palmerthing]

. . . yeah, probably. Aside from wanting to hie from danger, that's just sensible, but otherwise I have this really fuckin' annoying desire to eat everything.

[dee_lorean81]

You think any other Things ever find it annoying? The desire to eat and take over shit? I mean, you can't be that unique, right?

[palmerthing]

Probably, but those ones aren't likely to get far for that exact reason--they don't take over, so no one ever hears about them.