Hivemind nodded and placed the boxes on the floor. Then the rest of him also placed the rest of the boxes on the floor and walked out. "Should we move on then? We'll head to Steelhaven Street, and I'll introduce you to a few of the new Champions."SeanWolf wrote:"Sounds good," Hawk replied as they re-entered the room, placing the cases he was carrying on the bed, "Oh, you can place those on the floor, I'll attend to them later."
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Mr. C shrugged. "They did say they were in Heaven. The family showing up could help validate that!"Welsh Halfwit wrote:"They'd've prob'ly nevv'r bought tha' as real, sir," Sarah explained, "an' I liked th' little thing Conall add'd. 'Elps prove y'were th' real thing."
"Of course they can! You can see them, and so can the computer. Once the recording gets back to your grandmother, I believe she would want to see your parents and her granddaughter as well! Don't you?"Hlaoroo wrote:"Er, sorry, Mr. C. Ah wasnae ready an' Ah panicked a bit... Ye mean they can see th' others?"
Mr. C smiled apologetically. "Sorry, Aggie. Didn't mean to interrupt. But it's not quite too late. Your brothers got here, and they're going back. And they can take anything you wish to say back with them."Hlaoroo wrote:"Accept what?" Aggie asks before answering Dabry's question by initiating the kiss. It's a sweet moment... Until Mr. C butts in.
"Oh, er, *ahem* Sure, there's things Ah'd hae loved tae hae said. Tae late naow though, isn't it?"
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Hivemind chuckled. "I'd think that if all ten billion people on my ship slept for a full 24 hours at once, I wouldn't be resting. THAT would be a weird day for me." At the second question, he looked down a bit. "There's nowhere I want to go. Nothing I really want to do or want to possess either. Power plus desire is a dangerous combination that leads to corruption, abuse, and tyranny. To avoid that, and still have the power to help people, I had to effectively get rid of most of my wants. Maybe at some point, I would have had an answer to that question, but now... where I go and what I want is based only on the desire to help people, since that's one of the only desires I have left."Welsh Halfwit wrote:"What would you do," Saffy asked, "with a boring day? I mean, around here, this is the first big thing to happen in years - I know there's an invasion happened most everywhere else but they didn't even come near here - which I'm thankful for, of course. But, for you, it's another day. I heard you run everything on a giant space city cruiser and I get that the name means there's a lot of you but - I can really talk at ties when I'm nervous as people have said - but what would you do on a day where everyone just, like, slept in for 24 hours or whatever a day is there? Sorry, you probably get asked that every day. Um, to be more original... Is there any place you've not been you want to go? Is that any better?"
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Gadgeteer likewise had to suppress his instincts when he saw the wounded animal, but doing so caused his stomach to groan loudly. He gripped his gut when it started cramping. Right... forgot dinner... Going to be hungry later. Maybe Hive'll let me hunt, he thought to himself. "The mutant creature's around here somewhere." He said. "Keep your eyes and ears..."Welsh Halfwit wrote:"It's about a mile that way," the deputy said, not looking into the cave as those rocks were weird and would probably give him a third arm or something. He pointed to the south east and led the way to where it looked as though nothing had happened bar someone sticking a little flag in the ground to mark the spot for future use. "Chief's idea," he said, "in case documentary crews ever needed to find the place for filming." He sniffed the air and crouched to follow the tang of recently shed blood to its source, a wounded little creature some hundred yards distant. It was almost missing a leg as it struggled towards it's hole in the ground, looking like a cross between a Rabbit and a Feline. Overcoming his natural instincts with the opinion that there was a very large Champion who might not appreciate the mercy killing, the Deputy tracked the blood trail back to the rest of the leg. "Reckon that confirms it," he said, indicating the glistening red spike of ice. on the ground.
CRACK!
As he was speaking, a large spike of ice flung right at him and hit Gadgeteer between the eyes. The ice shattered and Gadgeteer barely flinched. "Found it." He said, pointing to a tree branch from where the ice spike came from. Sitting on the branch was a small creature, chittering angrily. Gadgeteer pulled out his pistol and fired a shot of amber straight at it.
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"Believe me, I know that feeling." Gear said, leaning against Hannabelle as well. "Governments'll hide the bad they and the people they support do and exaggerate the crimes of people who don't have an interest in protecting their interest. They'd rather have a tyrant they control then anyone they don't. Victory feels kind of hollow when ya discover the people ya tried to help're bein' brutalized by the garbage yer bosses put in charge." He shook his head. "That's why I left. Started workin' for the people themselves. Not for rebel armies. Not for governments. Not for politics. For the people. Settled in a town on a colony in the outskirts, and I started usin' my gun to bully the bullies and humble the arrogant. Started getting bounties on me, and I had to keep moving. I started takin' down the guys I put in power, and the price on my head just got bigger. Eventually, I helped counter the first Varanian invasion of Earth, and got a pardon for a lot of that. Joined up with Hivemind when he first founded the Champions, and I've been a champion ever since."Welsh Halfwit wrote:"Hmm," Hannabelle mused, "to be honest it's a little disconcerting. There are places you can't go, of course. Because they've got a termination warrant on you for one reason or another but that's not half as annoying as the places you can go." She leaned against Gear slightly without really knowing she was doing it. "You get treated like a hero in the places you have been before because most of them have people in power who owe their being in power to you and you find out they're just as bad as the one's you executed to put them in power in the first place! So you're just left with the boring, insular, places... like Earth," she finished, grinning slightly.
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"Thank you." Mrs. Nocturl said, shaking the hand. "Now, I should get to funeral planning while my son is still distracted. I hope you have a nice evening, Chief."Welsh Halfwit wrote:"I'll see if I can put a word in for him with the guy running the shop," Corp offered. "I imagine he has a thousand uses for a ghost who can type. It was nice to meet you properly," he said, actually offering a hand to shake.
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A hive droid stepped up from around the corner and confirmed that Hivemind had indeed been listening now that she wasn't in a private residence. "None of the Steelhaven passengers have specifically requested to see you, though I did get a few questioning if I knew how you were coping with things and if you were alright. However, there is someone not from the Steelhaven who it would probably be good to meet, if you were interested. He's a new recruit, likely to be working with you in the coming days, and it might be good to get to know him."Legotron123 wrote:”Very well. I hope you have a wonderful evening.“ Liz said, as she and the others walked outside. Once outside, she looked up to the sky expectantly. ”Have any other Steelhaven passengers requested to see me?” She asked, fully expecting Hivemind to be listening.
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The waiter nodded and went into the kitchen, returning with the dessert and giving it to Jaken.Welsh Halfwit wrote:Jaken quickly ordered one of the desserts with strawberry sauce that doesn't look at all like blood' for dessert.
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Buster wrote:the twins find spots far enough to the side that they wont trip over 'themselves' on the way back in, and lie down.
the small controller on the back of each's neck displaying a list of short messages.
Back aboard predator, what had previously appeared to be an inanimate entirely silent decoration in the corner of the bridge, uncurls and stretches, letting out a yawn. shaking his limbs a bit as they revert from camouflaged metallic grey back to their natural pink. meanwhile a mass of floating code in a vaguely crab-ish shape condenses.Code: Select all
[Shutting down interface...] [Transmitting logs to Remote Drone operator...] [Drone offline.]
"I think hive forgets 'remote piloted' means we're not actually in the thing."
"Yeah, why waste the hardw... wait, when did we get company?"
"Huh? oh! Hi!" the giant cephalopod says while waving at the steelhaven duo...
Welsh Halfwit wrote:If it had of been possible, Keeva would have jumped out of her skin at the sudden speech. As a feline, she merely hopped a few feet upwards and twisted around to face them before signing in relief. "Sorry," she said, putting her real hand to her chest, "I didn't see you there!". She looked a little confused at the newcomers. "I...I'm Keeva."
"The population of the ship is approximately ten billion, not including Hivemind. The power load of this ship is measured in PetaWatt Hours, but that is as precise as I can get at the moment. It's not just one city in this ship. There are a lot of different cities called districts here. The Capitol District is just the biggest."~\Rook/~ wrote:"For real!? That's crazy!! No wonder Hivemind has so many of himself!" Dan exclaimed. "What's the propultion? Is it Ion thrusters or something more powerful? What's the power-load like? It has to be in the Jules or something to power an entire city and a ship of that magnitude.." He added, thinking hard.
Dan looked over to the newcomers after seeing Keeva jump. "Oh, uh, hey there.. I'm Dan." He added flatly after Keeva spoke.
"Welcome back." Predator said. "And yes, that is correct. The Beacon accelerates using a principle similar to that employed by an Alcubierre drive. If the Beacon used thrusters, it would be crushed under it's own mass. The Beacon's drive allows it to accelerate every particle of matter within the drive's radius of effect at the same rate. That is why you don't feel it move."Buster wrote:"Ah, no, that's my fault. Trying to coordinate moving and piloting a remote drone simultaneously is really disorienting, so I took a nap. I probably looked like a rock just sitting there." the cephalopod explained, as the floating mass of code seemed to laugh. "I'm Kobor, the disembodied one is my sister Talya."
"i can answer the engine bit. the schematics didn't seem to have any conventional engines last I looked at em. Apparently someone on this side came up with a variation of the Alcubierre drive that solves the power usage problem. pretty sure it jut uses that for everything." Talya chimed in over hearing the discussion.
Speaking now to the twins, Predator said, "I've stabilized your physical forms... sort of. Talya, I was able to create a sort of temporary synthetic substitute for the bio-gel that keeps you functional. The downside is that it's a very basic and... not very good copy, not the real thing. Once I upload you, you will have ten minutes before this patch job fails and your body shuts down. I suggest you move quickly. Kobor, since you were less on the verge of death, you have more time. When you are ready, tell me and I will send you back to the physical world.
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Recon had been drinking her soda in order to wash down the soup after she nearly choked on it. Apparently, this was a bad idea as well, since at the mention of Tatiana actually playing with and beating Diligitis at Frisbee of all things, there was another round of coughing, sputtering, and painful liquids shooting out of the nose. "You *cough* you played frisbee with a demigod? Am I the only one who thinks that's both the most incredible and awesome thing ever?"Neon Icy Wings wrote:Tatiana spoke to the man behind the counter first. "Hmm. I suppose a soup and sandwich would be nice." It sounded nice at the moment, if the sounds of pain were any indication. She turned back to Kolt and tilted her head. "I am aware of TV programs, but never really tried 'em out before. Too busy and usually not really available before. Video games I haven't heard of, though. He said you would enjoy talking about your interests, culture, a super squadron thing and that I should introduce you to Telekinetic Frisbee. It's quite fun. I beat Diligitis at it."
Meanwhile, the person behind the counter, once his jaw was back in place and no longer dropped, started fixing Tatiana her soup. He handed it to her through the window.
"Ow..." Recon said, somewhat answering the question. She picked up a napkin and blew her nose, trying to clear out any soup or soda still in there. "Yep. That hurt." She said. "Tasted good. Smelled good. But it smelled less good when it burned my sinuses. You might want to wait a minute on the soup. Ow..."~\Rook/~ wrote:After taking her tray of food from the truck, Traci headed over to Recon just as she spluttered soup out her nose. "Whoa, easy there Recon! The food is supposed to go in your mouth, not out your nose!" She said jokingly as she hurried over and sat beside her. "..But seriously, you okay? That looked, and sounded, like it hurt.." She added, putting a hand on her shoulder.
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"I know, isn't it great?" Nocturl said, grinning. "It was especially good 'cause he was still to groggy from sleep to realize it was me, so he freaked out! It was priceless!" he laughed. "When his brain started to wake up and he realized it was me, he chucked his pillow at me. Of course, it just went through me."Buster wrote:"Thats just evil." she points out after hearing about the prank.
"Oh?" Nocturl said, smirking. "What would you have done? I'm always open to suggestions!"Legotron123 wrote:Lewis gave a silent nod to Corp before heading back inside, walking in on the two discussing pranks. ”Eh, 7/10.” He said, alerting them to his presence. ”The truly great pranks are the ones where the prankee does half the work for you.”
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MT looked away thoughtfully. Then he turned back to Chris. "I think I understand what you are saying... still, it would be nice to be able to experience the sensation of it to see why organics enjoy it so much. Or why many seem to dislike the kinds of foods that are most beneficial to one's health and survival."Deske wrote:"Hmm..." Chris thought as he bit into another tentacle, "That's a tough one. Imagine if you enjoyed recharging. Not because it simply provided you with power or whatever else it does for you, but because each and every time it could be different. Different ports gave you different feelings, different sensations and practically no two were alike, even if they followed the same build schematic. It's not something to look forward to just because you have to do it, but because each time you do it there's a chance it'll be different." He bit off another piece of tentacle and followed it with what passed for a soft drink. "Sometimes you find you have a favorite station because it has just the right frequency, it's just a bit faster, just a bit cleaner. It's just perfect. Or you might find you like another station at other times because it's a little slower, a little dirtier, maybe the 3 phase inverter is just slightly out of phase and that makes it special. You could find a power station in a remote corner of a station that few people use so it's quiet with the background noise of the station itself and that makes it special. You find one that gives you the best feeling most of the time and you try to replicate it, but it's just different, so you give it your own spin. Now it's not just different, it's yours." Chris paused to wipe his mouth with a napkin, "I may have delved into a bit of cooking near the end, but I think I got the gist of it."