"Touch me and I'll punch you in your throats."

"Lady, I can't promise you I'll be alive next morning to smell the coffee. This is a prison ship full of dangerous people. And our missions? I mean, roughly a third of these guys don't survive their first."

Bod realizes he's being harsh, but he continues anyway,

"Ten missions. Ten to get out, and half of us won't survive the first couple. This is nine-tenths of a death sentence for you, for me, your sister, those people at that table over there... you get the idea."

"Now, me? I'm a professional coward. I'll keep your photo as safe as I keep myself. That's all I can promise anybody right now."

If she's still willing to hand over the photo, Bod takes it and tucks it into his jumper.

"Now. I'm going to show this photo around and see if I can't track this girl down. Just... hang tight for now. Okay?"

If Bod now has the photograph, looks around for someone to ask about the girl

Jugjugmleep likes this lady. Jugjugmleep asks if he can help her with her cleaning.

Rosh happily hands over the PDA. He goes over some of the flaws he's already identified and shows Annalea the wiring he's been fixing in the suit.

((sorry for the delay - busy day))

Unit 4965 "Touch me and I'll punch you in your throats," you say, glaring at them.

Your words stop them short - they freeze where they're standing, and then take a step back, looking at you.

"See Jens? Told you it had speakers," Carl says triumphantly.

Jens is looking at you curiously. "So it does - you're right... It can't be a T-100."

"I still think it is. If it isn't, what is it then?"

"It seems to have some form of rudimentary AI..." Jens waves his hand around in front of your face for a moment. You follow it with your eyes, and then look back at him glaringly. "Well, maybe a little more than rudimentary - Carl, I think it's intelligent!"

Now it's Carl's turn to be skeptical. "That's ridiculous. Even our most cutting-edge technology can't imitate a human."

"Carl, no, listen to me for a moment. I think -"

"You think what? That this outdated model from hundreds of years back somehow has better AI than our best supercomputers?"

"No, that it has a human brain inside it somewhere."

Stopping short, Carl looks back at you hesitantly. He and Jens examine you together for a moment, before Jens steps forward a little and asks, "Do you actually have a human brain? Are you an inmate here?"

"Why the hell are you asking it that? What if it lies to us?"

"Why would it? If it has an AI, it'll only be able to answer truthfully that it has an AI. If it can lie, then it has a human brain, and we can't take it apart - which it would know. My money's on the cheap AI."



Bod Pol You try your best to explain to her that you're on a deathship, not some pleasure cruise spaceliner. You lay it out in as straightforward a manner as you can, but she doesn't seem too put off by it. "Me?" you say, "I'm a professional coward. I'll keep your photo as safe as I keep myself. That's all I can promise anybody right now."[/b]

She nods. "I know where I am..." she says cautiously, a little more firmly than before. "If you're at least willing to ask around for her, I'd very much appreciate your help." It's clear there's something she isn't telling you - something big - but she hands you the photo, and you tuck it in your jumper.

"I'm going to show this photo around and see if I can't track this girl down. Just... hang tight for now. Okay?"

You take the photograph and start looking for someone to ask - specifically, someone who's been on board the ship for a while. And... it isn't long before you find someone - a group of people sitting in a corner of their own, with somber faces. Most of them look as though they'd seen a fair number of missions: some have cybernetic or synthflesh limbs, others have robotic eyes, and one of them sits in the back wearing a permanent mechsuit. Feeling somewhat intimidated, you walk up to the nearest - a middle-aged, grizzled mountain of a man, and tap him gingerly on the arm.

The mountain swings his head over rapidly in your direction, a hand flying to his belt almost as a reflex - but he stops short as he realizes you pose little threat. "Haven't seen you around here," he mutters in a low rumble. "If you're looking for a friendship or handouts, you're not getting anything, so you can buzz off." He starts to turn back to his food.


Jugjugmleep As she starts to mop the floor again, you peek your head out of your shell and take another look at her. She seems to actually enjoy the work - she's not just wiping a cloth over everything and saying she's done with it. "Can I help you clean?" you ask cautiously.

She nods, seeming to be okay with it. "Yeah, grab a sponge or something from the kit and knock yourself out." The woman points at a little box near one of the corners.


Rosh You quite happily hand the woman the PDA, and begin pointing out some of the things you're dealing with. She doesn't give you a chance to finish, instead shushing you and poring over the designs. After a couple minutes, she says, "This looks like... well, I'm not certain, but it looks like it would cause the person to flatline before the suit even finished initializing." She glances at you briefly in what is almost horror, and you nod. "That's about right, yes. Let me show you some of the other things."

She lets you take the pad from her, and you scroll to the separate areas of the suits where you've identified issues, showing them to her one by one. She continues shaking her head in shock as you do, unable to comprehend why anyone would bother testing something like this out yet. "It never should've been manufactured - it shouldn't even have left Development," she points out.

Bod Pol Bod does his best to keep his composure, as he is somewhat intimidated. Doing his best to keep from stammering, he says, "I'm new. Sorry to interrupt you fellows, but I'm looking for somebody. A human girl."

If he seems inclined to help, Bod shows the man the photograph of the girl.

"That's her. Might be dead by now, no idea. Have any of you fellows seen her?

Bod carefully watches the attitudes and expressions of these people, doing his best to read them

Jugjugmleep gets cleaning supplies from the box and begins to clean a dirty-looking area of the room.

Rosh is in full problem solving mode.
"Well, you know the engineering principle: always fix a problem at the source. I'm not sure whether this atrocious design are deliberate malevolence or incredible stupidity, but the problem could be more widespread than just this thing. I have two ideas: either we try to improve our standing with Dr. Seinberger, the guy in charge of this suit, or we go straight to Development and investigate there. What do you think?"

"I have a human brain."

((I really hope I don't. Have a human brain, that is. I like the idea of a pure robot character. ))

((You don't have to, but in that case, any death is permadeath))

Talvieno wrote:((You don't have to, but in that case, any death is permadeath))

((I am ok with this.))

I guess I'm new here, I don't quite fancy criminals, don't get too close or I'll cut ya
Tonon then walks to the VR combat arena to stab things
~Tonon

Bod Pol You feel a little intimidated, but tell the man as stoutly as you can, "I'm new. Sorry to interrupt you fellows, but I'm looking for somebody - a human girl." The man nods; you pull the little picture out of your jumper and hold it out towards him. "That's her. Might be dead by now, no idea. Have any of you fellows seen her?"

The grizzled man turns around in his chair and lays a heavily-built metal arm across the back of it, giving Cindrina's picture of Ama'lia a long, hard look. After a time, he shakes his head, but you're completely unable to read his expression. "No," he says, "I haven't seen her."

Just then, you hear the voice of SCAMPS coming from speakers nearby - SCAMPS, the computer that greeted you when you arrived. He - or it - seems to be listing off the names of several individuals, calling them out for another mission. The man and his squadmates - demigods of men and women - rise from their seats, solemnly, slowly - almost sadly, exchanging worried, regretful glances as they file out of the mess hall towards the briefing room.

Before he leaves, the grizzled man turns once more to you, grunting. "Listen, kid. You seem an honest sort, so I'll be straight with ya." He towers at least a full two feet over you. "The Tartarus - she ain't no pleasure cruise. People who come in here - they don't come out. SCAMPS'll tell you different. Others will too. Truth of it is, I've never heard of anyone getting out alive. I ain't seen your girl, but that's no surprise. We're criminals, kid - except for our squadmates, we're not a tight-knit bunch. With hundreds of thousands in the REKT program, I can't possibly remember them all, and nor can anybody else... Your best bet is probably the memorial room." And with that, he turns away, walking towards the exit. You're left standing alone by the side of a table covered in half-finished meals.


Jugjugmleep You walk carefully over to the cleaning supplies and reach into the box with one of your tentacles, trying to pull a sponge out quickly - and, it works. It works so well that your tentacle flings it against the wall behind you, leaving a large wet mark. The woman looks at you strangely, but you casually saunter over to the sponge as if it was exactly what you intended. Then, grabbing it carefully in one one of your pincers, you begin to clean what appears to be a grease stain.

It's silent in your little room for several minutes - the woman is working fast behind you, but you're having trouble reaching all the way up the wall. Sometimes being short isn't fun. She doesn't seem to notice, though, instead making some idle conversation.

"It helps speed the time along." The woman says it like she's answering a question. "This work, it helps. Sometimes we're here for a week or two with nothing to do," she explains, glancing at you over her shoulder. "The cleaning doesn't pay, but you get a better room for it. Better part of it is, you don't worry about when you're gonna die. Been cleaning ever since my second mission." She pauses, having finished with the rest of the room, and then comes over to help you get the spots you can't reach. "You're kind of small, aren't ya," the girl says with a little smile.

You may have found a friend... but the room is just about clean at this point.


Rosh Annalea hesitates for a moment. "I think... Well, like you said, always fix a problem at the source." She pauses a moment more, and then offers, "I've never met Dr. Seinberger, though - I've only been on one mission so far, so I don't know many people. I'll follow your lead, Dr...?" She looks at you curiously, asking for your name - you realize you haven't told her yet.


Unit 4965 "I have a human brain," you say, pleased with yourself at their apparent surprise. It's a lie, too - you don't have a human brain.

"What the shit?!" Carl exclaims, while Jens shakes his head ponderingly. "How could you have a human brain? You can't have a human brain - look at those arms and legs, they're outdated models by at least two centuries!"

"Yeah, but it clearly understands us - wonder why someone would've put him in such an outdated body. Well, him or her," Jens adds, catching himself and glancing nervously in your direction.

"What the shit... what the shit," Carl mumbles again, walking back into the lab and closing the door behind him, seemingly irritated that he won't be able to mess with your insides.

Jens gives an apologetic, lopsided smile. "Sorry about my friend Carl, there," he says, trying to smooth things over. "He's... well, he can be... a bit emotional at times. He's right, though - those limbs do look a little strange... I could give you a pass to Medical so you could exchange those for some standardized parts if you'd like," he offers.


Tonon ((If you underline your actions and "put what your character says in quotation marks", it'll make it a little easier to tell your text and speech apart.))
"I guess I'm new here," you say loudly in the middle of the mess hall. "I don't quite fancy criminals; don't get too close or I'll cut ya!" Your eyes gleam wickedly as you speak - you can almost feel people tremble under your gaze.

...except they don't. They're not even paying you attention - and you're standing on top of a chair, too. Apparently they get enough crazies in there that one more doesn't really matter.

Sighing, you get down off the chair and walk towards the VR Training Zone following the signs as you go. You figure you might as well learn the ropes while you have the opportunity, and this time is as good as any. There's no telling when you'll get called out to the next mission, after all.

When you arrive at the VR Training Zone, you're quickly patted down and checked by some armed guards. They check to see if you've brought anyone with you, and when they see you haven't, they escort you to a room down a hallway - Room 10C.

As you enter the room, the lights dim to an almost total darkness - the room is black except for a cylindrical console in the center of the room. Above it floats a holoscreen with hundreds of different settings for missions, and it asks a simple question:

How do you want to fight?

Choose:
- Loadout
- Enemies
- Allies
- Location

I enter the pistol + knife as my loadout, TE-34 citizens, none, TE-34 Rural area into the VR
Tonon cracks his neck
~Tonon

Jugjugmleep does a little happy dance in reaction to her commenting on his small size, and then keeps cleaning and tells the woman how/why he got here and what his name is, and then asks the woman her name and how/why she got here.