Setting up Camp

[in_the_cracks]

Nexus warehouses are useful things. Some are constantly heaving with alien beings and still more alien wares; others stand sealed and silent, never offering a hint of what lies within. Many are visibly (probably) abandoned, the doors left open and the paint peeling, refuges for litter and Nexus-goers seeking a shadowy corner.

Someone has recently laid claim to one in the back alleys of the Nexus. The gaunt shell has been cleaned out, doors replaced and reinforced (and a few unobtrusive security systems added). Until now, Telrim herself hasn’t been near the place.

But the job is in her hands now. A stack of boxes has been delivered to the entrance. They look hefty, but the only markings are plain labels in tiny text you’d have to get close to read. Whatever they are, the Controller is shifting them inside with a cart at a quick pace. The next delivery is due soon. She has to be ready to receive and store it – not to mention guarding against nosy Nexus-goers…

Comments

[punk_wily]

Punk doesn't really care about someone moving in around here, or even about what's in the boxes. Curiosity's never been one of his stronger traits.

He's here looking for one specific thing, and it seems to have moved on him again. "Hey, you seen a door around here? Big heavy one with a lot of latches and an I-beam holding it shut?"

[in_the_cracks]

She stops as soon as he does. The Controller leans easily on the stack in front of her, studying the stranger with cool eyes and a closed expression. Despite her calm there's something possessive in her stance, hunched over her charge.

"That way." If it gets him moving. She nods to the far end of the alley. "Round the corner and left for a few hundred meters. That's where it was earlier."

Should she care? Blast. Perhaps she should. "...Why do you want to know?"

[punk_wily]

"Cause it moved since the last time," Punk replies, somewhat unhelpfully.

He briefly debates if he should tell her anything else at all, before adding, "It goes to some zombie apocalypse world I like to mess with when I'm bored."

[in_the_cracks]

"When you're bored?" Habit has her raise her eyebrows a little before she reconsiders him. "Ah. You're one of the robots, aren't you?"

The question is almost deliberately neutral. She has no particular hate nor fear of sapient machines - but no great love of them, either.

[punk_wily]

"Yeah." Punk makes no real secret of it, and had only really been out of armor because his is particularly heavy and bulky and slows him down when he's looking for something. Now that the door isn't so far, he'll trigger recall on it.

"Nobody makes a fuss about wasting zombies, and the field doesn't protect 'em either... or hasn't so far."

[in_the_cracks]

"Another universe, distant consequences." Her eyes pick over that armour for a moment. "It has advantages. I suppose it's a good way to let off steam."

Something the Yeerk could use, perhaps, but she wouldn't think of it for herself.

[punk_wily]

"It works," Punk says. Despite the name and appearance, he doesn't argue much with what works.

"Just have to remember to keep the door shut when nobody's picking the things off, or they'd wander into the rest of the Nexus. Probably couldn't infect anyone here, but if they get from there to the portals? Some stuff you just don't wanna have follow you home."

[in_the_cracks]

She snorts. "Tell me about it. If anyone around here had proper quarantine protocols..."

[punk_wily]

"We try to for stuff that's gonna be taken back to our universe, but..." heh.. "... in this place, I dunno if it's even possible. Something's bound to slip through someday, and we'll be lucky if it's just some kind of LOL."

[in_the_cracks]

"Your technology seems reasonably advanced. I assume you run all the basic scans." She makes an effort to sound polite. "The risks must be lower for you anyway."

[punk_wily]

"Yeah, and you oughtta see the string of decon procedures I'll have to go through when I'm done playing." He seems to consider them worth it, though.

"Not necessarily," he adds after a moment. "Yeah, there's a lot more things a squishy could catch, but almost all future versions of our timeline we've heard of had some kind of viral computer plague that made 'bots go nuts. Our timeline doesn't because we wiped the original out before it spread. And we'd like it to stay extinct."

[in_the_cracks]

"Should be simple. Just avoid universes with sufficiently intelligent machines."

((sorry for delays, computer problems))

[punk_wily]

"For playtime, yeah," Punk says. "Not so easy the rest of the time. Sometimes we've had allies in worlds like ours, and other times..." He shrugs, "It'd be like you avoiding all universes where there are squishies because there's a chance that reality has ebola."

((no worries, things are very slow here too))

[in_the_cracks]

Her mouth quirks. "Or humans too primitive to cure it. But I take your point. It would be a severe inconvenience."

She straightens, resting a hand on the top of those nondescript boxes as she shifts her weight back. "Of course, if need be you could recruit organic help here. There's always someone willing to take an interest."

Re: ((no worries, things are very slow here too))

[punk_wily]

Punk looks puzzled for a moment. Recruit squishies to... what? Check portals? "You mean send em in to places where there might be some version of the Omega Virus, since they can't catch it? Heh. There are a few at home that might do that."

((Bad computer problem, still resolving, but trying to catch up))

[in_the_cracks]

She nods politely. "If there's no danger of their being recognised, of course. I understand the politics in your universe can be... difficult to avoid."

[punk_wily]

"Not much of one," Punk says, and shrugs. "Some of em ain't from our universe to start with, so they wouldn't even have alts or anything."

He just snorts at the mention of politics. "I never got messed up in that stuff. I'm a combat 'bot. Enker's in charge of things, and I go tear apart anything that needs scrapped. 'Course, that's a lot shorter list now that Weil's dead and the war's over... Which is why I was looking for that door."

Because when there's nothing else to fight, zombies are a good way for Punk to avoid being bored.

[in_the_cracks]

"Oh, it's over?" She lifts her eyebrows with momentary curiosity, filing that away for later. She wonders if the others know. She can't guarantee that they'd tell her. "Sorry- I don't keep up with other people's wars. Politics aren't my thing either."

[punk_wily]

"Yeah. The guy behind it got himself blown up and scattered in bits around almost two-thirds of Earth. Left a mess, but at least he's history."

[in_the_cracks]

Maybe she shouldn't look amused. But there's a twitch of a smile from her anyway, a stifled chuckle. "Ah, a happy ending. That's always nice."

She glances at the boxes still to be shifted. "Well, I won't keep you from your fun. Try not to bring the mess indoors, won't you?"

[punk_wily]

Except for all the Ragnarok fragments that can cause insanity, but the cleanup is Somebody Else's Problem as far as Punk's concerned. He's off the lists to help with that due to his temper - a factor that can make one vulnerable around the stuff.

"Heh, course not," is all he says, as he'll head off to that door.