[cue poor unfortunate souls, or something]

[rebells]

Who: RECON TEAM ASSEMBLE
Where: the toxic seaweed Uvi lair
When: backdated to early Day 33 (8/9)
Open/Closed: if your character can fly and would gatecrash, go for it! otherwise ping prospit and I'll see what I can do for you.

[The flying fish were not precisely expected, but at that sign that the Uvi are preparing to head back to their base, it's time for TEAM RECON to assemble. Members would at least vaguely know one another and may have made tentative ride-sharing plans, but people have undoubtedly gotten mixed up during the night of fighting and there may also be one or two late additions . . . .

Either way, Jay can act as telepathic intermediary if you can't fly and need to hitch a ride. Time for a fishing expedition . . . ?]


((INK IS DECLARING THIS POST THREADJACK-FRIENDLY BY DEFAULT please be courteous and ping if people are off in their own extended thread but otherwise go wild!))

Comments

[deem]

[It's very different from using a flight unit indeed.

9S had naturally anticipated this, but the reality is still a surprise. He flattens as best he can against this sometimes-dragon, a hand pressed to his goggles lest the wind resistance tear them from him.

He'll steal a glance at the landscape below while he's at it]

This'd be like the desert zone... If not for an ocean in the sky.

[It's something he can't help but reflect on, watching the world below recede]

[oneandmikleonly]

That does make a big difference doesn't it? You don't see water in the sky where I'm from either...did you come from a desert, or just visit?

[telepathy fortunately doesn't require breath, he can labour them towards the sky and chat a little at the same time]

[deem]

My home base was the orbital Bunker, but I've been dispatched to the desert a few times. Usually, I've been there to gather data on some ruins, or pursue enemy units. That sort of thing.

[It certainly is convenient, being able to converse with just a thought. 9S always has been a talker, so he doesn't mind elaborating at all.

But he's also curious]

What's it like where you're from?

[oneandmikleonly]

I grew up in a small village on a mountain. Glenwood's pretty big, though -- forests, desert, some human settlements, big cities and large towns. A lot of ruins, too.

[wistful...]

[deem]

[Human settlements...now that he'd like to see. But ruins are a point in common, so he focuses on this first]

Do you investigate too then?

["gather intel" comes more naturally to him, but do sometimes-dragons really think in such terms? Probably not...]

[oneandmikleonly]

Yeah. Sorey -- have you met him? -- and I grew up exploring them. It's kind of a hobby of ours. We want to learn more about the people who came before us...

[which is intel gathering in its own way, but not entirely as intristic to what they do normally...]

[deem]

That's the kind of thing I was built for, in a way. Gathering data on the Old World, and all that...

But I haven't met a Sorey yet. That means your family's here too though, right?

[If they grew up together, it stands to reason, at least in 9S' view.

Not that androids understand the concept of family terribly well, but he explored with 2B as well, and he sees her as family]

[oneandmikleonly]

Something like that. Most of our friends didn't come here with us . . . and I haven't seen Edna in a while since we came here, so I'm kind of worried . . . but hopefully everyone's okay. Hm, if you spot a young man with yellow feathers on his ears, that's him, though.

[they're very close to the looming ocean now; Mikleo hovers just underneath it briefly, considering]

[deem]

Feathers on his ears? That sounds pretty...distinctive. [9S pauses as he looks up to regard the impossibly skybound sea] What's your other friend look like? Maybe I'll spot them somewhere.

[He's trying not to ask how they're going to deal with being underwater. Or maybe just in it is more appropriate, he supposes. Knowing he'd sink like a rock under normal conditions, he can't help feeling a little nervous]

[oneandmikleonly]

She looks like a small girl, dressed in white and yellow with flowers. Carries an umbrella. Her name's Edna...

Okay, brace yourself again. This is gonna be a bit rough until we're further in!

[a hole...opens up in the water above them, some invisible force pushing the water to either side; Mikleo gives another furious beat of his wings, pushing them up into the emptied space.]

[deem]

[9S doesn't know how it was possible, and yet the water seems to part around them. He glances around, taking this phenomena in and trying to make sense of it. This must be more magic, he supposes...

It's a dissatisfying conclusion, and yet there's no other explanation]

...I'll watch for someone like that. Scanners are pretty good at finding things.

Do you mind if I ask your name? If I do find her, I should know who I'm alerting...unless you're okay with dragon-guy, that is.

[oneandmikleonly]

No--no, sorry. I guess this conversation went a little backwards from normal, huh? It's Mikleo.

[hesitates a moment, but covers it up by pressing further into the ocean; his wings still as water floods in around them both. eventually there's a largish single bubble that happens to include Mikleo's head and most of 9S's upper body, filled with air; other large bubbles hover around them as backup, since they don't know how long they'll need to go chasing the Uvi.]

...and, thanks. It's really -- I appreciate it. I know Edna can take care of herself, but the whole situation is pretty worrying. We don't know what things are like back home right now.

[deem]

Oh, you're Mikleo? You're one of the people Jay told me to look for, since I couldn't fly on my own. The flight units here are really primitive...

[He's grateful for the air, knowing as he does that he needs to breathe, even as an android. They were meant to emulate their creators, after all. And without his pod around, there's no one to fish him out of deep bodies of water should he topple in.

...It's a thing that happens sometimes]

Seems like people ended up here regardless of what they had to contend with back home. Do you think things'll be alright?

[oneandmikleonly]

I...hope so. The situation's complicated, but basically things get kind of precarious if my friend is here instead of there and there's nothing, uh, compensating for his absence. I would hope someone so concerned with balance as Qri sounds would take that into account, but we just don't know...

[honestly they still can't be 100% sure their last boss hasn't somehow been misplaced into the space ocean around the hub island they were originally brought to. jeez, qri.

he folds his wings entirely, doing his best to streamline his body, and there's a sudden rush, cold current pushing against them both; the water itself starts to propel them forward, the air bubble traveling along with them. not the absolute speediest method of travel, but it will certainly do.]

What about you? What's your home like...?

[deem]

Hopefully someone with the power to bring us here is able to do something about that...

[9S can imagine that must weigh heavily on Mikleo's mind, and surely his friend's as well. He's never been the deciding factor in the war, though he'd committed himself to destroying as much of the enemy as he could before the end came...

What were the results now, he wonders?]

I guess, compared to a world where human settlements exist, mine would seem very empty. We've been fighting a war for thousands of years against the forces of an invading race, and there aren't countries or towns the way you must know them.

[oneandmikleonly]

Hopefully...wait, thousands?

[sounds a little startled; very few of the people he's met so far have talked of long, long historical events, or lifespans]

What's the invading race trying to do? That sounds...rather bleak, I'm sorry...

[deem]

Invade, though their reasons haven't ever been clear. I don't know what planet they came from to begin with, only that this war's gone on for as long as it has.

[Which bespeaks some persistent interest, or rather...

It says much about the programming of their creations]

Androids like me were created by mankind, and machine life-forms were created by the enemy, and we fight for those who made us. Well, androids do. The machines turned on their creators.

[And there's a certain contempt that seeps into his tone with that final thought. It's unthinkable to any android]

[oneandmikleonly]

[softly, after some thought]

Did...humans make you, then? And...how does that work? You yourself look and seem very human, just kind of heavy.

[though he guesses he can't talk much. seraphs often look human too.]

[deem]

Androids like me are made in the image of our creators, so that's why. There might be some more efficient or powerful form than this, but I'm glad to be this way.

[Doubtless, that sentiment stems from a variety of sources, one among them a reverent deference toward the race that gave rise to his own]

As for how I act, I guess it could get pretty involved if I were technical about it. But while the letter in my unit designation is my type, the number refers to my personality data. Any 9S unit would start off more or less like I did, but I...

[He trails off into pensive silence]

I think it's my memories that make me who I am. I'm not sure about comparing myself to a human, though.

[oneandmikleonly]

Humans...are really resourceful in every world, it looks like. They must hope from a lot from you, if they made you look like them.

[the others are ahead of them, a little, bright shapes in the gloom, but inside their air bubble it's just them, and quiet, oddly personal]

Were you subject to experiences a...a regular 9S unit wouldn't be? Is that why memories make the difference? I'm trying to understand...

[deem]

...Something like that. The life I've lived is mine.

[There are other 9S units, and they all take pride in their ability as high-performance models. But his time with 2B, the things he's seen and the things he's endured, those are his alone.

And maybe that's why he preferred to suffer anything rather than lose them again]

I guess you could say I know the difference between having those memories and being without them. So I've come to think it matters.

[oneandmikleonly]

You've lived a rough life, huh? But you're right, memories are terribly important. I hope Qri never tries to ask for something as personal as that.

[he doesn't even know how he'd react to that sort of thing. badly, he supposes. but surely they're not in for that? qri, for all her apparent eccentricity and inefficiency, seems to mean well.]

[deem]

Even if she did, I'd refuse.

[There's a sharpness about those words that he doesn't intend, for all his determination. He'd chosen a fate worse than death rather than lose his memory, although he can't expect some mysterious figure who gathered the lot of them together to understand that.

He supposes with 2B here, his decision might differ, because he has and always will place her well-being before his own. But he knows it would hurt her if he forfeited his memory for any reason... It's a choice he hopes he's never confronted with]

...Sorry. For androids like me, it's not our body that matters, so much as those memories. That's the part we can preserve, even if we're destroyed, with the right measures in place.

[oneandmikleonly]

I didn't mean to imply it would happen. I'm sorry, too...

[he shivers a little, 9S might be able to feel the movement, rolling under his scales]

...you sound a little like you're speaking from experience.

[deem]

I know you didn't mean anything by it.

[He pats what approximates Mikleo's shoulder in this form, in some effort at reassurance]

I've...dealt with some things. [A true understatement, but they're weighty matters he hasn't truly discussed, or even gotten so close to broaching, before] You okay though?