D
Dumont
>Pre-Star Wasp 9.
For a person who had experienced their entire life hooked into some sort of network, adjusting to life on a planet with such primitive communications infrastructure was somewhat disconcerting. He was used to have his experiences monitored every second, but also the espectency that he could reach anyone he's authorised to speak too with but a thought. Every waking moment could be used honing his talents in simulations so accurate they might as well be well, and every sleeping one allowed passive instruction to increase his skillbase further. If he ever was at a loss for a piece of knowledge, it was only a thought away to retrieve it from the SSI's sanatized archive on the outside world.
A world without one one was one where he finally had to deal with the boredom of repetitive,mundane labor instead of his piloting simply autopiloting through the motions whilehisfocus was elsewhere, where anyone not on a comms unit felt like a world away, and a sea of knowledge was lost to him. It was no wonder why he had spent the past week since he got here occasionally searching for some, any server despite everything he knew about the planet telling him the task was in vein.
Overall, the digital landscape of Osman City was quite bleak. Aside from the bare bones connections with various ships, with no actual features other than simple connectivity, there only seemed to be one server active with an open VR connection, completely unexplained, and labelled only as 'Public PS.vri'... About the only thing remarkable about it was the fact it had no passwords or anything. Although from the look of it, it was just some basic settings no frills sort of thing. Still, better than nothing maybe?
It was a bit shocking to Jason that he actually managed to come across a fairly innocous, somewhat useful server. For all the franticness of his search, he had largely resigned himself to having make due purely in the realm of real life. Apart of him wondered if it was particularly safe to jack into any networt he found out here without at least finding out it's purpose, but that part was quickly overriden by his desire to leave meatspace behind for a time.
Logging into the unremarkable seeming network, Jason found reality melting away for a moment, before quite dramatically snapping back in to place. Everything around him felt a little cool, as he stood simply in a white room. A perfect cube, with three chairs placed in the center. Each one was blocky, and built of simplistic polygons, but at a touch had such significant give would prove to be soft and pliable. Everything here just seemed to glow with an internal radiance, with no clear source of lighting. It all felt like the barest bones VR software which had been opened, left open then forgotten about... Although something about it was a little off.
It was....somewhat underwhelming compared to the vistas that he was familars with. The terror of block to block fighting on rok'veru, dogfighting over the skies of nataria, and a thousand other battlefields conjured from the scanned memories of a million soldiers. On the other hand, anything is a feast to a starving man, so he made the decision to stay while his body was going through the motions of routine maintenance on the Seraphim's engines. For the moment he decided to interact with the only feature in the room, sitting in the closest chair while searching for what sort of permissions were enabled at the moment.
As Jason sat down and checked permissions, he found that just about everything was locked to an administrator. Nothing too dramatic, other than 'Aggro' settings currently being active. Whether or not that meant anytihng depended on whether his trainers had used Free State software. Still, there seemed to be a few things definitively off about this. The first thing that seemed non-standard was that as he walked, his footsteps made little noises as if the floor was wet. Someone had put in some details here. The second was that the chairs themselves seemed to be some sort of log-in function. The second he sat down, his mindware chirped some quick loading bar reading only 'synchronising'.
Across the room, Corgan popped into being, sitting on another chair. At least from Jason's perspective. From Corgan's perspective it was the complete opposite, Jason popping into existence...
Maybe Jason would be able to help him find a way to log out. It had been maybe... Two hours now?
"Yo, Corgan, been awhile. How's it going? Guess I found the breakroom. Kind of shit they don't have freebuild enabled to keep you entertained, but better then working on my M5's engine alone." For the moment, he seemed content to simply try to scoot his chair closer to the mercenary officer's, while he did the next best thing to active investigation. Jason wasn't exactly a coder and definiely wasn't able to alter it, but with any luck their was more here to keep him busy then it seemed and the naming of some file might give him a clue. "Been here long?"
Corgan was extremely happy to see Jason. He was starting to get concerned. "Glad to see another person. It's been two hours I think. You're.. really here, aren't you?" He asked.
Jason found that the chair moved along easy enough, leaving little ripples in the water on the floor as it moved. The water itself seemed to actually be flowing along the floor itself... Still, that was about all he learned. The coding itself wasn't visible in a full .vri realm. Whoever programmed this left direct code access up to someone with administrative status.
I'm pretty sure we're on the same instance. Give me a sec, since aggro's enabled you should be able to feel this.” The newcomer leaned forward and gave the shoulder of Corgan closest to him a hard punch. “You really been sitting here for...two hours? Nothing to do but stare at a blank wall? Alone?” Suddenly noticing the jostling of liquid and that the floor wasn't merely wet, the young man stood up, glancing about the room in order to check where it was coming from or flowing too. "Man, whose idea was it to coat the floor with water?"
Corgan didn't flinch when Jason punched him, but he certainly felt it. "I felt that. I also felt it when I tried punching my way out of the room. That didn't work too well, by the way." He looked down at the floor curiously. "I don't know why the floor is wet. But I can probably guess whose idea it was. Arccos probably thinks this is funny as hell. She's probably even watching us right now." The Nepleslian looked up at the ceiling and gave it the finger.
A look at the flow of the water on the floor showed that it was flowing from one side of the floor to the other. Any logical scenario would indicate that there would be a seam for it to enter and exit, but this was VR where such logic had no sway. All the same, there was a definitive side of the room where it entered, another where it flowed outwards. It also interacted with the chairs quite effectively. Maybe a clue... There was no response to the flipping of birds forthcoming however.
“Who, the sheriff? Somehow I think she has better things to do then spend a few hours watching you try to pick a fight and made rude gestures at a room. But I mean, if it's really stressing you out that much, just log out and tell her off in person.” Even as he talked to he rooms other occupant, his attention was clearly focused elsewhere. Deciding that the literally only two interactible parts of the enviorment were probably important, Jason decided to experiment. While he kicked the empty chair towards a side of the room hoping to that the water wasn't flowing to or from out of wild guessing at possible event states, he dragged his own chair over to the wall the water was flowing too, wondering if he could get it clip through with the liquid. “But I figure she's literal the only other person who'd have a reason to build something like this, and I don't it was ENTIRELY done to troll you.”
As Jason moved the chair against the wall he found that while it didn't clip through, it did cause a reaction. The chair, without legs lay flush against the floor and partially blocked the path for water to exit, causing the water level to start to rise as water entered faster than it could leave.
The rising water level caused Corgan to jump out of his chair. "Well that's new. But I really don't want to find out if we can drown here." He looked at the corner where the water seemed to be rushing in. Maybe the chair would block that too? He picked up his chair and moved it to the corner. "Probably not just to troll me. Maybe to troll Akemi if he tried to join. Anyway I can't log out. I've been trying."
“I don't see why it wouldn't. And if you want to know if you can drown, just dunk your face in the water and find out. Might even get you out of here if I works.” He responded, pulling the chair away if he could and moving to gather the one that he kicked, arranging them to block the entrance. “Might as well see if draining this place completely has any effect before I check to see what filling it up could do though."
As all three chairs slotted neatly into the entire length of the room, the water level flowed out completely, until the floor dried... And started to change from its radiant white, to a faint gray. Starting to crack and crumble as if the room were drying out and flaking apart like parchment. The walls of the cube starting to disintegrate around the two. Eventually turning to dust and blowing away entirely, leaving the two standing in a completely alien landscape. It... Faintly resembled a beach, albeit one with multicolored fine glass pebbles instead of sand. The water crystal clear making the dunes extend out underneath it for what looked like miles. Looking inland, gleaming trees were worming out of the false earth, tangling branches like vines wringing their limbs in anxiety.
The whole thing seemed to be crammed into a giant cylinder on its side. A cohesive virtual realm with set boundaries, although the upper limits of it were glistening with stars in a false skybox emulating distant locations too far to touch.
"Now we're getting somewhere." Corgan said as he examined their surroundings. "Looks like we're in a giant bottle turned sideways or something." He turned towards the trees. Before Jason showed up he was regretting his decision to get mindware. Seeing this changed his mind completely. He was amazed at how vivid the details were. Too bad there weren't any women on the "beach". He would like to see if NPC constructs felt real too.
Despite being the more experienced with virtual reality of the two, unlike corgan Jason couldn't hide the utter shock that played on his face as the room became akin to the works of Ozymandian before them or the sheer excitement as the wider world opened up before them. “Giant Cylinder? Really all you gotta say? Come on man, this place is kind of fucking awesome, and i've been stuck Battle of Yamatai recreations before. Wonder if this place supposed to be some SERE style, hostile enviorment training scape with the aggro turned on.” Picking over the options of taking a dip, walking along the beach, or heading into the jungle he settled on the latter. Who knows what the tree's could be hiding out here?
Pushing towards the jungle led Jason towards a maze of clinging vines, which bore strange and alien fruits along them. For however large it was, this was an isolated little land of plenty. The strange pebble-like ground kept the same, but the trees just kept getting larger and larger... Finally pushing through endless copses of winding trees, Jason manages to stumble upon an open path, staked out with what looks like meter-long brass nails bashed into the luminescent earth... One way would probably lead back to the beach, the other? Who knew.
Corgan in the meantime would manage to just find the beach to be somehow more soothing than it should have been. A gleaming gem-like place under starlight. Soft waves lapping at the shore. If he looked into the water, he'd see schools of bioluminescent false-fish flitting about... Maybe it was no wonder Arccos wasn't that fond of the real beach?
Corgan didn't even see Jason walk off into the woods. He was too busy checking out the scenery. The water had captured his attention again with the bioluminescent fish things. He walked towards the water and took a few steps in, leaning down to get a closer look. Until now he hadn't noticed, but his right hand was actually flesh and blood here. He ran his hand through the water. "Hey Jason, come here." No response came. A sense of panic started to set in. He didn't want to be alone again here. Not until he knew how to get out. He stood up and turned around. Maybe Jason went into the woods? Corgan ran towards the jungle to look for him.
Signs of civilization? Now it seemed like he might be getting into something intresting. Before carrying on to the path to his left, they grabbed whatever fruit looked the tastiest before heading down the beaten path and hoping it would show him a new, ever more wondrous locale. With the sort of devil may care attitude you'd probably expect from someone who knew he was in a VR simulation, Jason didn't hestitate to try a bite.
Moving at speed, it wouldn't take Corgan too long to catch up with Jason... Actually it took a shockingly short amount of time for him to locate the other simulation delver. As if the jungle itself had twisted space within itself just so that they could meet at speed just by willing it. Corgan practically ran into the young man as he bit into a strange fruit which tasted something like a kumquat, cut with a slight splash of tequila. Like a weird cocktail fruit. Still, the rapid rubber-banded catchup link seemed to have caught them just on the cusp of another simulated biome, where the twisting vines had carved into a near mountainous cave-ridden landscape. From above, soft rains started to filter through the canopy, making the air smell faintly sweet, but also faintly metallic.
Just following the path, however led them to spot in the distance something that looked like a camp, or cabin in the distance. Just peeking through the encroaching trees.
“Mmmph. Man, you really got try this shit, fucking incredible. Better then some of the stuff i've had at the cockpit. Definitely should try a bite.” he said, before tossing the rather large fruit over to his...friend? It didn't seem that the younger of the two men was surprised when Corgan had suddenly appeared, apparently not altogether unused to the logic of these kinds of places. " Think I'm about to check out whatever site it over there," He pointed in the direction of the presumably manmade structure or structures, before trudging on in the rain. "Before I decide to go spelunking. Usually pays off to check out the obvious shit first. 'less it's a trap."
The sudden warp to Jason was disorienting for a moment. Suddenly he was right behind Jason, almost touching him. Corgan took a few steps back quickly and caught the fe fruit reflexively. "Is it safe to do that?" He asked, sniffing the fruit cautiously. "What happens if we die here? I saw this old movie where these people were stuck in a simulation and didn't know it. If they got hurt in the simulation it affected their real bodies." Most of his knowledge of mindware was from Nepleslian movies, so it was probably not a surprise that he was nervous. "I'm coming with you. Jut in case you find a way out and I get left behind." He said. Finally he decided to just take a bite of the strange fruit.
The same Kumquat and Tequila flavor would burst into Corgan's mouth, leaving him... Well, it would really depend on how much he liked those two flavors. Either way, it felt safe.
As the two wandered through the rain they found themselves at the edge of what looked like a little garden. No fences around it, instead small winding flowers moved to entwine with the vines of the jungle. Within the morass of plantlife there was actually a cabin... Sort of. The building itself looked to at once be some mixture of log cabin, and some origami papercraft that had been folded into existence. Low and cozy looking, full of bright tapestries and ornate doodads if one looked through the large open windows and doors that left it open to the landscape. A sim-wood deck out front was sheltered from the soft rains by large tarps of iridescent fabric. A wide array of cushions and bean-bags set up around some sort of ornate hookah array.
The place was occupied though. Two figures sitting around and puffing at the waterpipe. A female figure in white robes, somehow wearing the distant stars in the skies above the canopy as a crown. Her limbs hollow constructs, with a skin like baroque lace. The other seemed to be Arccos herself... Or at least someone who looked like Arccos. Her skin darkened in places with ink-like splotches, and her hair a bit longer and less primly straight. She also sat rigidly, unlike Arccos' usual slouch.
The two just looked over to the visitors.
"Hello." The robed figure said, a little surprised sounding, "I guess you got past the white room..."
Jason burst into laughter at corgan tales of caution. “, Hey, I don't know man, Arccos could have some drones standing over our bodies right now, ready to inject some lethal, alien virus into us right now. Might want to enjoy however long you have left...” He replied in a half serious, half mocking tone.
It didn't take particularly long for him too make his way to the cabin, and he certainly wasn't dissapointed when he found his way there. It was a tad suprising to see such a....obviously inhuman, almost fae person out here when he and corgan had been restricted to avatar's resembling their own person. He was almost a tad jealous, all though it was doubtful his usual sense of creativity would have resulted in a appearance quite as awe inspiring as the one befoe him. "Yeah, all though you might just want to put a normal exit door in there. Apparently Garett was in there for a couple hours before I logged in. Was pretty pissed about it..."
Without asking permission, the pilot walked under the tarp o escape the rain, eyes taking in the various pieces of art and the spectular garden before him. "Sorry about crashing your private club house, by the way. Honestly was just looking for something to do. Nice designs. You make them or are they just copies?"
"I made them." The white robed figure said simply enough, indicating the various cushions where Jason could sit. "And the white room is designed as a trap for unwanted visitors of a particular sort. The whole idea is that it has no exit, and may be cleansed at regular intervals of foreign data."
“Bit of a incovience to whoever can't figure it out, though. Might want to put up a enter at your own peril pop up...then again I doubt that would have dissuaded him.” He didn't hesitate to take a seat as she gestured, casting a glance to Arrcos-like figure who had been silent the whole time. “Plan on making that your new look?”
Corgan realized that he probably was being a little ridiculous. How could eating something here hurt him? "Guess I shouldn't take every movie I watch so seriously. And I am a little embarrassed it took me so long to get out of there. " He looked at the white robed figure and then the silent Arccos shaped figure before taking a seat. "Are you both Arccos then? Or do we have to figure that out now?"
The figure in white shook its head.
"Nothing so complicated. The White Room is a filtration device to keep Ace's AI from snooping around my workshop." They said, "And you can try and work it out if you want, but you can just ask."
As the white creature spoke, the Arccos-alike leaned forward and nabbed two pipes from the hookah array on the deck, offering one each to Corgan and Jason. Still not speaking.
Corgan shrugged and took the pipe he was offered. He put it up to his mouth and took a puff.
The other man did much the same as she offered, figuring it wouldn't hurt to try it out. "What? And spoil the mystery? Where's the fun in that?" He shook his head. "Guessing Ace's AI isn't as fun a guest as either of us, then."
"Ace is a problem." The Arccos-Alike finally spoke. Sounding... Quite perfectly like Arccos, with a somewhat flat affect.
The White Creature just waved a six fingered hand at Arccos as if in confirmation, as they both tasted the waterpipe's soft, almost vanilla and cinnamon tinged tobacco, which gave a distinct calm effect to those who imbibed. Almost like it was inhalable zen.
"Can't say I expected either of you as guests, to be quite honest. It's not that you're unwelcome, so much as you caught us by surprise." The White Creature added, slipping out one of the pipes and taking a puff of their own, flashing teeth like closely packed rusted nails in its maw.
"That's a unique avatar you have there." Corgan pointed out. "How do you do that? I'm still figuring this shit out. It's almost like a dream or something." He stared at the Arccos doppelganger. "Well, which one of you is really Arccos? Or are both of you?" It didn't really matter, he just couldn't figure out who to talk to. He took another puff from the virtual pipe.
"For a given value of real, that would be me." The white creature said, raising its hand and giving some sort of mental command to disperse the avatar into her base metrics. Suddenly turning this into a double Arccos scenario. This one was definitely real. Slouched on a pile of cushions, her sheriff's hat lazily perched on her head. Pointing her normal hand at her own face, she gave the best explanation she could.
"Arccos Two Three" She said, pointing the finger over to the Arccosganger, "Arccos Two Four."
“Seemed kind of harmless when I ran into at the spaceport. Mistaked for my...brother, knew I was from Psychopomp for some reason. What makes them trouble, exactly?”
Enjoying the taste almost as much as the fruit he had given to corgan, and the newfound sensation even more so, Jason didn't hestitate to continue using the pipe. Smoothly he replied, exhaling a cloud of smoke before replying. “A fork, eh? Bout what I expected. Wouldn't mind having more of you around. Know making me was the best decision the SSI ever made for Alex. ”
Corgan smirked. "I don't mind there being two Arccoses either. You going to do that on our date, too? I hope you didn't forget."
"Well she's a nonvolitional syntelligence that has some of my memories and junk stuffed in her head so she can get stuff done in my absence." Arccos reached over and poked her double on the side of the head. Two Four didn't respond to the touch at all. "She doesn't exist outside my personal network, so unless we're dating in here I can't do that. And no. I didn't forget. You should really stop acting like you tricked me into it."
"I didn't realize that I was.." He said slowly. "I was just checking. Probably should have picked a better time to ask than in the middle of a space battle." Corgan looked at Jason. "So, who are you interested in Jason? Aashi? Vier? Akemi?" He teased.
“I mean, not that weird. Potential death is hell of a motivator.” He replied, eyes half glazed over by now. “Akemi? Hell no, and not just because I got his boyfriend arrested. Vier doesn't seem to intrested in that sort of thing and I was under the impresion you were trying to add her to you harem anyway,” He punctuated that part of his reply with a chuckle. “And Aashi is someone I've talked to for at most a minute, and that was me explaining how I got shot, so i'm not sure I made the best first impression.”
“ Cool to meet you, two four.” He held his hand out towards her to shake, half expecting the SI to stare vacantly at it.
"Well I'm not about to weasel out of that. Worst case we get a bad date." Arccos said with a shrug, holding the mouthpiece in her teeth, "Not like there's anything to lose."
Two-Four however just extended a hand, and mechanically wrapped it around Jason's. Giving a clearly calculated squeeze and a shake that went perfectly up and down. "'Cool'. Yes."
AT the way the nonvolitional AI betrayed the...rudimentary experience she had with personal interaction by the mechanical nature of her movements and speech, Jason couldn't help but laugh again, as if on some joke that he hadn't bothered to share. Unsure of what degree degree she was capable of carrying on conversation at this stage of her life, he charistically decided the best way to find out was just to press down. "So, what has Two-Three been having you do out here, so far? Assuming it's not l some big secret."
Glacing over at the two as they mentioned their date, he asked. "Not meaning to be a third wheel here, but where are you guys planning have it? Literally only place other then his I found to kill time that wasn't run by locals at was Koga bar...brothel...arena combo place. Unless that skyscraper eyesore that have plopped in the middle of nowhere has some floor for a club, haven't really checked it out."
"Details are classified." Two-Four stated simply. Keeping their mouth firmly shut on the matter. Arccos herself just shook her head with a little smile.
"I have a ship. We can go wherever... Doesn't matter to me." She said. "Don't really know how nepleslian dating goes anyway. Freespacers don't really go places and do things since there's places like this."
“I guess you'll just have to keep me in suspense, then. Looking forward to the reveal, if there is one.” If his own smile was any indication, he wasn't exactly let down by the secret keeping.
At the mention of the ship however, he instantly perked up, leaning forward in his seat. “Wait a minute, wait a minute? Your a starship captain? Like do you own one of the freighters...” From the use of software, the mindware implant down to her naming scheme it didn't take much more for him to assume she was a freespacer, and their was only one ship in orbit with those kind of design. “Wait, it's not that 800 meter monstrosity, is it?!”
"Not really a captain. But I am default Shipkeeper of the White Lament, yes." Arccos nodded.
"You're serious." Jason blinked for a moment. "That thing's size and structure....it HAS to be a mothership. What on Neplesia is the shipkeeper of a goddamn spacer mothership doing running law enforcement for a Nekovalkyja warlord?"
"Well, I came here as a mercenary alongside Corgan here. I was Ragnarok's electronic warfare specialist." Arccos said, sidling over the cushions and slipping an arm around Corgan's shoulder. "The Lament crash landed here, with only its drone contingent still alive. I fast re-programmed the junkers on the fly, and took the ship for my own. As to why I'm still here: Would you trust a nekovalkyrja warlord to give anyone here justice or safety?"
Of course not. I may not be that long out of the vats, but even I'm not dumb enough to think she's here to uplift these people. She just wants all the resources, and this place is convient because the people here are too primitive to fight back." He returned to his pipe afterwards, hoping to make up for the shock killing his calm. "So...what? Your here making sure the jackboot on the natives neck doesn't get too heavy?"
"Well, something like that. My fondness of stepping on people made it more easy for me to just slip on a nice pair of boots myself and do the stepping, rather than trying to moderate someone else's pressure." Arccos said a little cheekily.
“Well, as far as I've seen the style really seems to suit you. I mean, if I had to pick someone to be crushed underfoot by...” Jason blissfully sunk further into the cushions. “Still, while I'm sure a lot people appreciate you being here to keep our glorious leader turn this place into too much of a hellhole, myself included since I have to live here, I can't really see you doing this indefinitely.”
“I mean, eventually you plan on repopulating the ship, right? And from what I know about freespacer governance, which admittedly isn't much, all of those new people get a vote on what the White Lament will be doing, and I assume some of them are going to have some problems working as colloborators for an imperialist regime.”
Corgan noticed Arccos moving closer and felt her put an arm around his shoulder. He was a little surprised at first. It felt as real as anything else he'd ever experienced. The Nepleslian thought about what Jason said. Repopulating the ship. He hadn't actually thought about what that might mean. "That's a good question. You guys use gene banks or something, right? Did the ones onboard the Lament even survive?" He asked Arccos.
"They survived the crash because that's what the damage control systems prioritised. They did not survive the chemical fire during the storm, however. None the less, they're rebuilt and functional." Arccos waved the pipe from the hookah around demonstrably as she spoke, "Well. Mostly, anyway. It'll still take a good three to four years to straight breed a new population, so I've had to recruit from outside to get a full crew... And there is a problem with the voting thing, but it's not as much of one as you'd think. In most crews you invariably wind up with one or two people who are either talented enough, or popular enough to consistently be the one who defines what's voted on... And there's other stuff about all the largegear units, and type twos mostly abstaining from voting a lot of the time as it's about something outside their area..."
Another puff on the hookah and a slight shift of her weight. If Corgan were perceptive, he'd actually be able to make out the feel of Arccos' simulated anatomy involving things like a normal skeletal structure. Seemed in here she was fully organic just like he was.
"Let's just say it's less of a problem than you'd think."
"So your probably selecting for people who either all right with current set up or pretty desperate anyway....plus, I'd buy your charismatic enough to build yourself a little cult following. Yeah, I can see how you've got this shit down pat. Having preferential access to to a planet with plenty of water, even one like this, probably helps." As if suddenly remembering that they weren't alone as soon as Corgan spoke up, Jason scruntinised the man with a apparaising look, scratching his chin. "While were on the topic...what about you Garrett? How long you plan on staying on in this place? Thinking of mustering out before things get too crazy, or thinking of making this place your home? Try and take as big a slice of the pie as you can, while you can?"
"Well, you could use my genes, but that would probably be strange. A ID-SOL/Spacer would be interesting though." Corgan said with a laugh. "It's much quicker to just find a crew. I would sign up if I could survive in the Lament without a suit on." He looked towards Jason when he said his name. "Call me Corgan, man. I'm not leaving until the mountains are under control. Even then, Ragnarok's base of operations is here and mine will be too, so I'll be here if my Reavers don't have any jobs. Unless we get into a large-scale war or something I doubt we'll have much work.. Maybe selling our services to some of the smaller nations, or frontier worlds." Corgan shrugged. "It's pointless to plan that far ahead. In my experience plans almost always fall apart."
"Well history tells me that the lives of high up people in new, rogue states tend to fall apart if their flying by the seat of their pants, but I'll trust your experience."
The pilot cracked his neck, tone was the same as when Corgan had asked about the fruit earlier. "Besides, I did tell you I'd help outfit that docile for you. And as for jobs outside this place...well, let's see. We're about to throwdown with a NMX fleet occupying some alien system any day now, the Yammie's declared war on someone from outside the damn sector, their's civil unrest in Neplesia after the Sky Marshall called in the military on some protestors after he replaced the resigning...what was it? Prime Minsiter?"
"Then you got the Free State not too far from here tearing itself apart, people pushing into new worlds on the frontier....oh yeah Corgan, I think your in a real growth industry right about now. That being said...what's all this about Reavers? Leaving ragnarok to start your own outfit? I mean, can't be too impressive yet considering that you were just offering to run off to the White Lament if it wouldn't kill you..." The young man teased.
Corgan was surprised by some of those events. "I.. didn't know about Yamatai and Nepleslia having troubles right now. I haven't been off-world very much lately, and I don't really keep up with the news. Guess I should start." He said sheepishly. "Oh, the Reavers are going to be part of Ragnarok. I'm starting a mechanized division. I bought a bunch of vehicle parts with my money from the job here. Uso and Cyrus are supporting my efforts, too. I'm starting small, just to see if I'm any good at it. Might even get a ship to transport my tanks and other vehicles."
He took a puff from the hookah casually. "My base will be somewhere in the mountains, I think. Asantren is nice, but it's too.. wet. Lahiri or Tolmasch would be ideal. I want to put it on a butte so I can call it Iron Butte or something."
“The Iron Butte?....Charming.” The young man held out his fist to his much older, far bigger couterpart. “Still, congrats man. Moving up in he world, investing in it with your own money, takes real commitment. Hope it works out for you. Not least because who your taking money from. Now I haven't met Cyrus and I've had a grand total of one conversation with Uso, but people who take over planets don't seem the type to tolerate failure much. Might want to make sure these Reaver's don't turn into a money sink.”
"Lahiri, Lahiri, Lahiri..." He repeated the word a few times till it seemed to roll off the tongue before emitting a audible, dissapointed sigh. "Man, I gotta start learning the names of all these places. Figured I could wait it out till they started renaming everyone Ragnaville and Usoland but apparently they haven't settled on what to call the capital. Too bad I can't just download it like usual."
"Well, if you need whatever, I have construction drones and a utility ship. Can probably send some of those to help." Arccos said, just leaning on Corgan and puffing on the hookah. "So you two want anything while you're my kinda guest? Food? Drink? Hot tub?"
"I could use some training with this mindware stuff. Don't want to get stuck in a room for hours again. If Jason hadn't shown up I'd probably still be in there." Corgan admitted. "Is there some kind of manual or something? There's also the matter of our date. Is there anything you would like to do, or somewhere you want to go?"
"You programmed a hot tub here? Sure, sounds like a blast." Jason turned his head back towards the forest. "And that fruit was pretty amazing."
"It's out back." Arccos said, jabbing a thumb towards the strange hut she'd constructed herself. "I can give you some direct information to put straight in your head, but that wouldn't help you with the room. It was deliberately that way to keep out AI's... It's sort of like an enter password thing, only more abstract. As for dates... I admit that I've never gone somewhere on a date. Freespacer dating isn't something you go somewhere specific for. You just do something together, usually in the same room you normally do stuff in."
"Well, what do you like to do for fun? On Nepleslia girls usually like to go dancing at clubs. The classy ones usually like to go to fancy restaurants, or visit museums and shit." Corgan shrugged. "Honestly I haven't really been on many dates. When I had girlfriends or whatever we usually didn't do much but have sex or play games." He looked out towards the back. "Hot tub does sound pretty good. Only if you're coming though."
"You don't seem like the kind of dude who spends a lot of time in Museums, no offense. Sure there are plenty of clubs in New Belfast though." Jason interjected.
Arccos stood up, two four likewise mimicing the action and falling in line as they headed into the virtual cabin. The two guests would find something hovering in their vision about them being granted Avatar ideation control by administrator.
"Hot tub's this way. While I do like museums, I can go to them on my own time. Dancing I'm not good at, and I'm fairly sure that sitting around playing games is a third date sort of thing. What do you like to do, Corgan? Other than fuck and play."
"You're right Jason, museums usally make me want to fucking kill myself." Corgan said as he stood up. He glanced at Jason before changing his avatar to himself, except with only swim trunks on. "That's a pretty good question. I guess I like watching movies, stealing things, and eating. Maybe we could play a game in the Polysentience. Hell, I had fun going with you and Rubi to the algaeia purifying place." He considered the question some more. "Some people would go learn how to prepare and cook meals together..."
Suddenly a great idea came to him. He couldn't believe he didn't think of it. Spacers probably didn't have room on their ships for rollercoasters and corny games with shitty prizes. "Hmm... Ever been to an amusement park?"
"What's an amusement park?" Arccos asked flatly. Leading them through the house which seemed to have every available surface covered in ornate... Ornaments created out of crystal. Absolutely nothing inside seeming to have any practical function other than looking good. Out the other side of it, the house seemed to be impossibly suspended in the air, despite being on ground level on the other side. Boughs of trees winding down around the balcony curved into something like a bath tub shape. The soft rains filling it up, although with no logic to how it seemed to be steaming. Arccos and Two-Four seemed to just... Wade in fully clothed. Taking a seat in the warm sky-spring.
The pilot had followed along with the master of this domain and the other guests, some more permanent then others, with a unusual quiet. Part of this was certainly due to the fumes he imbibed, almost certainly more fast acting then any counterpart it might have in the physical world, but much of it was due to his marvelling at the mosaic of decorations the Shipkeeper had filled her virtual abode with. Catching a reflection of the fairly built half ID-SOL now wearing nothing more then swimming trunks, he mimiced the action that his friend had taken, the look on his face admiring reflection being...less then enthused.
I will never understand the SSI's obsession with making people look like fucking twinks. Maybe it's like that one dude who made their country's bioweapons all look like catgirls...”
As Arccos asked the question, Jason wading into the pool himself, he jumped to answer it. “Yeah yeah, I know about those. Was in the socialization program the company crammed into me. Their like....They have these weird transportation that don't take you anywhere, but like....they're supposed to hit with g forces I think? Honestly I'd just skip the babyshit and cut loose in a frame with the inertial dampeners set on low.”
"I'm not much into extreme sports types of things." Arccos said, stretching out in the strange vine-tub. Resting her arms on the edge. Two-Four just sitting down, and curling up next to her creator. Pulling her knees up to her chest and wrapping her arms around them.
Corgan followed into the weird yet totally badass hot tub. He was surprised again at how real it felt. The bigger shock was Jason didn't know much about amusement parks. "Come on Jason, you've never been to Davisworld? If it weren't a date I would offer to take you too. You were deprived man."
Affixing the giant of a man with a deadpan expression, he replied with a flat tone. "No Corgan, I've never been too Davisland. Haven't had a lot of opportunties to get out and cut loose before all this even if I had." Sinking into the warm, churning water down to his shoulders, Jason asked. "So Is that the kind of place you hung out a lot in your gangster days?"
"Right, forgot about all that. Sorry man." Corgan replied. "I wouldn't say a lot, but my mother did take me a couple times when I was a kid. They have this huge gun you can get shot out of, it's insane. They put you in a protective bubble or something so the force doesn't kill you when you land." He strained to remember what other attractions he had seen. "There's some stuff for couples, but I don't think it's first date friendly. There's a tunnel you ride through in this little boat. The Tunnel of Love. There's adult videos on screens on the side of the tunnel and people have sex on the boats. They record it and give you a copy as a souvenir."
He looked at Arccos. "Yeah, probably skip that ride.The rollercoasters are pretty cool. There's an Aethersperm rollercoaster called the "OH FUCK I'M DYING", only the biggest adrenaline junkies ride it. It's pretty hardcore, you have to sign a whole stack of shit to ride it. Tbut Nepleslia, you know?hey say it's the closest feeling you can get to dying. Not sure why someone would want to feel that. My favorite is the giant robot fights in the Games section. That was where I spent most of my time. The war games kind of helped me learn to shoot, although the live ammo shooting range was helpful too."
"This sounds stupid. Let's do this." Arccos said with a sharp laugh.
For a person who had experienced their entire life hooked into some sort of network, adjusting to life on a planet with such primitive communications infrastructure was somewhat disconcerting. He was used to have his experiences monitored every second, but also the espectency that he could reach anyone he's authorised to speak too with but a thought. Every waking moment could be used honing his talents in simulations so accurate they might as well be well, and every sleeping one allowed passive instruction to increase his skillbase further. If he ever was at a loss for a piece of knowledge, it was only a thought away to retrieve it from the SSI's sanatized archive on the outside world.
A world without one one was one where he finally had to deal with the boredom of repetitive,mundane labor instead of his piloting simply autopiloting through the motions whilehisfocus was elsewhere, where anyone not on a comms unit felt like a world away, and a sea of knowledge was lost to him. It was no wonder why he had spent the past week since he got here occasionally searching for some, any server despite everything he knew about the planet telling him the task was in vein.
Overall, the digital landscape of Osman City was quite bleak. Aside from the bare bones connections with various ships, with no actual features other than simple connectivity, there only seemed to be one server active with an open VR connection, completely unexplained, and labelled only as 'Public PS.vri'... About the only thing remarkable about it was the fact it had no passwords or anything. Although from the look of it, it was just some basic settings no frills sort of thing. Still, better than nothing maybe?
It was a bit shocking to Jason that he actually managed to come across a fairly innocous, somewhat useful server. For all the franticness of his search, he had largely resigned himself to having make due purely in the realm of real life. Apart of him wondered if it was particularly safe to jack into any networt he found out here without at least finding out it's purpose, but that part was quickly overriden by his desire to leave meatspace behind for a time.
Logging into the unremarkable seeming network, Jason found reality melting away for a moment, before quite dramatically snapping back in to place. Everything around him felt a little cool, as he stood simply in a white room. A perfect cube, with three chairs placed in the center. Each one was blocky, and built of simplistic polygons, but at a touch had such significant give would prove to be soft and pliable. Everything here just seemed to glow with an internal radiance, with no clear source of lighting. It all felt like the barest bones VR software which had been opened, left open then forgotten about... Although something about it was a little off.
It was....somewhat underwhelming compared to the vistas that he was familars with. The terror of block to block fighting on rok'veru, dogfighting over the skies of nataria, and a thousand other battlefields conjured from the scanned memories of a million soldiers. On the other hand, anything is a feast to a starving man, so he made the decision to stay while his body was going through the motions of routine maintenance on the Seraphim's engines. For the moment he decided to interact with the only feature in the room, sitting in the closest chair while searching for what sort of permissions were enabled at the moment.
As Jason sat down and checked permissions, he found that just about everything was locked to an administrator. Nothing too dramatic, other than 'Aggro' settings currently being active. Whether or not that meant anytihng depended on whether his trainers had used Free State software. Still, there seemed to be a few things definitively off about this. The first thing that seemed non-standard was that as he walked, his footsteps made little noises as if the floor was wet. Someone had put in some details here. The second was that the chairs themselves seemed to be some sort of log-in function. The second he sat down, his mindware chirped some quick loading bar reading only 'synchronising'.
Across the room, Corgan popped into being, sitting on another chair. At least from Jason's perspective. From Corgan's perspective it was the complete opposite, Jason popping into existence...
Maybe Jason would be able to help him find a way to log out. It had been maybe... Two hours now?
"Yo, Corgan, been awhile. How's it going? Guess I found the breakroom. Kind of shit they don't have freebuild enabled to keep you entertained, but better then working on my M5's engine alone." For the moment, he seemed content to simply try to scoot his chair closer to the mercenary officer's, while he did the next best thing to active investigation. Jason wasn't exactly a coder and definiely wasn't able to alter it, but with any luck their was more here to keep him busy then it seemed and the naming of some file might give him a clue. "Been here long?"
Corgan was extremely happy to see Jason. He was starting to get concerned. "Glad to see another person. It's been two hours I think. You're.. really here, aren't you?" He asked.
Jason found that the chair moved along easy enough, leaving little ripples in the water on the floor as it moved. The water itself seemed to actually be flowing along the floor itself... Still, that was about all he learned. The coding itself wasn't visible in a full .vri realm. Whoever programmed this left direct code access up to someone with administrative status.
I'm pretty sure we're on the same instance. Give me a sec, since aggro's enabled you should be able to feel this.” The newcomer leaned forward and gave the shoulder of Corgan closest to him a hard punch. “You really been sitting here for...two hours? Nothing to do but stare at a blank wall? Alone?” Suddenly noticing the jostling of liquid and that the floor wasn't merely wet, the young man stood up, glancing about the room in order to check where it was coming from or flowing too. "Man, whose idea was it to coat the floor with water?"
Corgan didn't flinch when Jason punched him, but he certainly felt it. "I felt that. I also felt it when I tried punching my way out of the room. That didn't work too well, by the way." He looked down at the floor curiously. "I don't know why the floor is wet. But I can probably guess whose idea it was. Arccos probably thinks this is funny as hell. She's probably even watching us right now." The Nepleslian looked up at the ceiling and gave it the finger.
A look at the flow of the water on the floor showed that it was flowing from one side of the floor to the other. Any logical scenario would indicate that there would be a seam for it to enter and exit, but this was VR where such logic had no sway. All the same, there was a definitive side of the room where it entered, another where it flowed outwards. It also interacted with the chairs quite effectively. Maybe a clue... There was no response to the flipping of birds forthcoming however.
“Who, the sheriff? Somehow I think she has better things to do then spend a few hours watching you try to pick a fight and made rude gestures at a room. But I mean, if it's really stressing you out that much, just log out and tell her off in person.” Even as he talked to he rooms other occupant, his attention was clearly focused elsewhere. Deciding that the literally only two interactible parts of the enviorment were probably important, Jason decided to experiment. While he kicked the empty chair towards a side of the room hoping to that the water wasn't flowing to or from out of wild guessing at possible event states, he dragged his own chair over to the wall the water was flowing too, wondering if he could get it clip through with the liquid. “But I figure she's literal the only other person who'd have a reason to build something like this, and I don't it was ENTIRELY done to troll you.”
As Jason moved the chair against the wall he found that while it didn't clip through, it did cause a reaction. The chair, without legs lay flush against the floor and partially blocked the path for water to exit, causing the water level to start to rise as water entered faster than it could leave.
The rising water level caused Corgan to jump out of his chair. "Well that's new. But I really don't want to find out if we can drown here." He looked at the corner where the water seemed to be rushing in. Maybe the chair would block that too? He picked up his chair and moved it to the corner. "Probably not just to troll me. Maybe to troll Akemi if he tried to join. Anyway I can't log out. I've been trying."
“I don't see why it wouldn't. And if you want to know if you can drown, just dunk your face in the water and find out. Might even get you out of here if I works.” He responded, pulling the chair away if he could and moving to gather the one that he kicked, arranging them to block the entrance. “Might as well see if draining this place completely has any effect before I check to see what filling it up could do though."
As all three chairs slotted neatly into the entire length of the room, the water level flowed out completely, until the floor dried... And started to change from its radiant white, to a faint gray. Starting to crack and crumble as if the room were drying out and flaking apart like parchment. The walls of the cube starting to disintegrate around the two. Eventually turning to dust and blowing away entirely, leaving the two standing in a completely alien landscape. It... Faintly resembled a beach, albeit one with multicolored fine glass pebbles instead of sand. The water crystal clear making the dunes extend out underneath it for what looked like miles. Looking inland, gleaming trees were worming out of the false earth, tangling branches like vines wringing their limbs in anxiety.
The whole thing seemed to be crammed into a giant cylinder on its side. A cohesive virtual realm with set boundaries, although the upper limits of it were glistening with stars in a false skybox emulating distant locations too far to touch.
"Now we're getting somewhere." Corgan said as he examined their surroundings. "Looks like we're in a giant bottle turned sideways or something." He turned towards the trees. Before Jason showed up he was regretting his decision to get mindware. Seeing this changed his mind completely. He was amazed at how vivid the details were. Too bad there weren't any women on the "beach". He would like to see if NPC constructs felt real too.
Despite being the more experienced with virtual reality of the two, unlike corgan Jason couldn't hide the utter shock that played on his face as the room became akin to the works of Ozymandian before them or the sheer excitement as the wider world opened up before them. “Giant Cylinder? Really all you gotta say? Come on man, this place is kind of fucking awesome, and i've been stuck Battle of Yamatai recreations before. Wonder if this place supposed to be some SERE style, hostile enviorment training scape with the aggro turned on.” Picking over the options of taking a dip, walking along the beach, or heading into the jungle he settled on the latter. Who knows what the tree's could be hiding out here?
Pushing towards the jungle led Jason towards a maze of clinging vines, which bore strange and alien fruits along them. For however large it was, this was an isolated little land of plenty. The strange pebble-like ground kept the same, but the trees just kept getting larger and larger... Finally pushing through endless copses of winding trees, Jason manages to stumble upon an open path, staked out with what looks like meter-long brass nails bashed into the luminescent earth... One way would probably lead back to the beach, the other? Who knew.
Corgan in the meantime would manage to just find the beach to be somehow more soothing than it should have been. A gleaming gem-like place under starlight. Soft waves lapping at the shore. If he looked into the water, he'd see schools of bioluminescent false-fish flitting about... Maybe it was no wonder Arccos wasn't that fond of the real beach?
Corgan didn't even see Jason walk off into the woods. He was too busy checking out the scenery. The water had captured his attention again with the bioluminescent fish things. He walked towards the water and took a few steps in, leaning down to get a closer look. Until now he hadn't noticed, but his right hand was actually flesh and blood here. He ran his hand through the water. "Hey Jason, come here." No response came. A sense of panic started to set in. He didn't want to be alone again here. Not until he knew how to get out. He stood up and turned around. Maybe Jason went into the woods? Corgan ran towards the jungle to look for him.
Signs of civilization? Now it seemed like he might be getting into something intresting. Before carrying on to the path to his left, they grabbed whatever fruit looked the tastiest before heading down the beaten path and hoping it would show him a new, ever more wondrous locale. With the sort of devil may care attitude you'd probably expect from someone who knew he was in a VR simulation, Jason didn't hestitate to try a bite.
Moving at speed, it wouldn't take Corgan too long to catch up with Jason... Actually it took a shockingly short amount of time for him to locate the other simulation delver. As if the jungle itself had twisted space within itself just so that they could meet at speed just by willing it. Corgan practically ran into the young man as he bit into a strange fruit which tasted something like a kumquat, cut with a slight splash of tequila. Like a weird cocktail fruit. Still, the rapid rubber-banded catchup link seemed to have caught them just on the cusp of another simulated biome, where the twisting vines had carved into a near mountainous cave-ridden landscape. From above, soft rains started to filter through the canopy, making the air smell faintly sweet, but also faintly metallic.
Just following the path, however led them to spot in the distance something that looked like a camp, or cabin in the distance. Just peeking through the encroaching trees.
“Mmmph. Man, you really got try this shit, fucking incredible. Better then some of the stuff i've had at the cockpit. Definitely should try a bite.” he said, before tossing the rather large fruit over to his...friend? It didn't seem that the younger of the two men was surprised when Corgan had suddenly appeared, apparently not altogether unused to the logic of these kinds of places. " Think I'm about to check out whatever site it over there," He pointed in the direction of the presumably manmade structure or structures, before trudging on in the rain. "Before I decide to go spelunking. Usually pays off to check out the obvious shit first. 'less it's a trap."
The sudden warp to Jason was disorienting for a moment. Suddenly he was right behind Jason, almost touching him. Corgan took a few steps back quickly and caught the fe fruit reflexively. "Is it safe to do that?" He asked, sniffing the fruit cautiously. "What happens if we die here? I saw this old movie where these people were stuck in a simulation and didn't know it. If they got hurt in the simulation it affected their real bodies." Most of his knowledge of mindware was from Nepleslian movies, so it was probably not a surprise that he was nervous. "I'm coming with you. Jut in case you find a way out and I get left behind." He said. Finally he decided to just take a bite of the strange fruit.
The same Kumquat and Tequila flavor would burst into Corgan's mouth, leaving him... Well, it would really depend on how much he liked those two flavors. Either way, it felt safe.
As the two wandered through the rain they found themselves at the edge of what looked like a little garden. No fences around it, instead small winding flowers moved to entwine with the vines of the jungle. Within the morass of plantlife there was actually a cabin... Sort of. The building itself looked to at once be some mixture of log cabin, and some origami papercraft that had been folded into existence. Low and cozy looking, full of bright tapestries and ornate doodads if one looked through the large open windows and doors that left it open to the landscape. A sim-wood deck out front was sheltered from the soft rains by large tarps of iridescent fabric. A wide array of cushions and bean-bags set up around some sort of ornate hookah array.
The place was occupied though. Two figures sitting around and puffing at the waterpipe. A female figure in white robes, somehow wearing the distant stars in the skies above the canopy as a crown. Her limbs hollow constructs, with a skin like baroque lace. The other seemed to be Arccos herself... Or at least someone who looked like Arccos. Her skin darkened in places with ink-like splotches, and her hair a bit longer and less primly straight. She also sat rigidly, unlike Arccos' usual slouch.
The two just looked over to the visitors.
"Hello." The robed figure said, a little surprised sounding, "I guess you got past the white room..."
Jason burst into laughter at corgan tales of caution. “, Hey, I don't know man, Arccos could have some drones standing over our bodies right now, ready to inject some lethal, alien virus into us right now. Might want to enjoy however long you have left...” He replied in a half serious, half mocking tone.
It didn't take particularly long for him too make his way to the cabin, and he certainly wasn't dissapointed when he found his way there. It was a tad suprising to see such a....obviously inhuman, almost fae person out here when he and corgan had been restricted to avatar's resembling their own person. He was almost a tad jealous, all though it was doubtful his usual sense of creativity would have resulted in a appearance quite as awe inspiring as the one befoe him. "Yeah, all though you might just want to put a normal exit door in there. Apparently Garett was in there for a couple hours before I logged in. Was pretty pissed about it..."
Without asking permission, the pilot walked under the tarp o escape the rain, eyes taking in the various pieces of art and the spectular garden before him. "Sorry about crashing your private club house, by the way. Honestly was just looking for something to do. Nice designs. You make them or are they just copies?"
"I made them." The white robed figure said simply enough, indicating the various cushions where Jason could sit. "And the white room is designed as a trap for unwanted visitors of a particular sort. The whole idea is that it has no exit, and may be cleansed at regular intervals of foreign data."
“Bit of a incovience to whoever can't figure it out, though. Might want to put up a enter at your own peril pop up...then again I doubt that would have dissuaded him.” He didn't hesitate to take a seat as she gestured, casting a glance to Arrcos-like figure who had been silent the whole time. “Plan on making that your new look?”
Corgan realized that he probably was being a little ridiculous. How could eating something here hurt him? "Guess I shouldn't take every movie I watch so seriously. And I am a little embarrassed it took me so long to get out of there. " He looked at the white robed figure and then the silent Arccos shaped figure before taking a seat. "Are you both Arccos then? Or do we have to figure that out now?"
The figure in white shook its head.
"Nothing so complicated. The White Room is a filtration device to keep Ace's AI from snooping around my workshop." They said, "And you can try and work it out if you want, but you can just ask."
As the white creature spoke, the Arccos-alike leaned forward and nabbed two pipes from the hookah array on the deck, offering one each to Corgan and Jason. Still not speaking.
Corgan shrugged and took the pipe he was offered. He put it up to his mouth and took a puff.
The other man did much the same as she offered, figuring it wouldn't hurt to try it out. "What? And spoil the mystery? Where's the fun in that?" He shook his head. "Guessing Ace's AI isn't as fun a guest as either of us, then."
"Ace is a problem." The Arccos-Alike finally spoke. Sounding... Quite perfectly like Arccos, with a somewhat flat affect.
The White Creature just waved a six fingered hand at Arccos as if in confirmation, as they both tasted the waterpipe's soft, almost vanilla and cinnamon tinged tobacco, which gave a distinct calm effect to those who imbibed. Almost like it was inhalable zen.
"Can't say I expected either of you as guests, to be quite honest. It's not that you're unwelcome, so much as you caught us by surprise." The White Creature added, slipping out one of the pipes and taking a puff of their own, flashing teeth like closely packed rusted nails in its maw.
"That's a unique avatar you have there." Corgan pointed out. "How do you do that? I'm still figuring this shit out. It's almost like a dream or something." He stared at the Arccos doppelganger. "Well, which one of you is really Arccos? Or are both of you?" It didn't really matter, he just couldn't figure out who to talk to. He took another puff from the virtual pipe.
"For a given value of real, that would be me." The white creature said, raising its hand and giving some sort of mental command to disperse the avatar into her base metrics. Suddenly turning this into a double Arccos scenario. This one was definitely real. Slouched on a pile of cushions, her sheriff's hat lazily perched on her head. Pointing her normal hand at her own face, she gave the best explanation she could.
"Arccos Two Three" She said, pointing the finger over to the Arccosganger, "Arccos Two Four."
“Seemed kind of harmless when I ran into at the spaceport. Mistaked for my...brother, knew I was from Psychopomp for some reason. What makes them trouble, exactly?”
Enjoying the taste almost as much as the fruit he had given to corgan, and the newfound sensation even more so, Jason didn't hestitate to continue using the pipe. Smoothly he replied, exhaling a cloud of smoke before replying. “A fork, eh? Bout what I expected. Wouldn't mind having more of you around. Know making me was the best decision the SSI ever made for Alex. ”
Corgan smirked. "I don't mind there being two Arccoses either. You going to do that on our date, too? I hope you didn't forget."
"Well she's a nonvolitional syntelligence that has some of my memories and junk stuffed in her head so she can get stuff done in my absence." Arccos reached over and poked her double on the side of the head. Two Four didn't respond to the touch at all. "She doesn't exist outside my personal network, so unless we're dating in here I can't do that. And no. I didn't forget. You should really stop acting like you tricked me into it."
"I didn't realize that I was.." He said slowly. "I was just checking. Probably should have picked a better time to ask than in the middle of a space battle." Corgan looked at Jason. "So, who are you interested in Jason? Aashi? Vier? Akemi?" He teased.
“I mean, not that weird. Potential death is hell of a motivator.” He replied, eyes half glazed over by now. “Akemi? Hell no, and not just because I got his boyfriend arrested. Vier doesn't seem to intrested in that sort of thing and I was under the impresion you were trying to add her to you harem anyway,” He punctuated that part of his reply with a chuckle. “And Aashi is someone I've talked to for at most a minute, and that was me explaining how I got shot, so i'm not sure I made the best first impression.”
“ Cool to meet you, two four.” He held his hand out towards her to shake, half expecting the SI to stare vacantly at it.
"Well I'm not about to weasel out of that. Worst case we get a bad date." Arccos said with a shrug, holding the mouthpiece in her teeth, "Not like there's anything to lose."
Two-Four however just extended a hand, and mechanically wrapped it around Jason's. Giving a clearly calculated squeeze and a shake that went perfectly up and down. "'Cool'. Yes."
AT the way the nonvolitional AI betrayed the...rudimentary experience she had with personal interaction by the mechanical nature of her movements and speech, Jason couldn't help but laugh again, as if on some joke that he hadn't bothered to share. Unsure of what degree degree she was capable of carrying on conversation at this stage of her life, he charistically decided the best way to find out was just to press down. "So, what has Two-Three been having you do out here, so far? Assuming it's not l some big secret."
Glacing over at the two as they mentioned their date, he asked. "Not meaning to be a third wheel here, but where are you guys planning have it? Literally only place other then his I found to kill time that wasn't run by locals at was Koga bar...brothel...arena combo place. Unless that skyscraper eyesore that have plopped in the middle of nowhere has some floor for a club, haven't really checked it out."
"Details are classified." Two-Four stated simply. Keeping their mouth firmly shut on the matter. Arccos herself just shook her head with a little smile.
"I have a ship. We can go wherever... Doesn't matter to me." She said. "Don't really know how nepleslian dating goes anyway. Freespacers don't really go places and do things since there's places like this."
“I guess you'll just have to keep me in suspense, then. Looking forward to the reveal, if there is one.” If his own smile was any indication, he wasn't exactly let down by the secret keeping.
At the mention of the ship however, he instantly perked up, leaning forward in his seat. “Wait a minute, wait a minute? Your a starship captain? Like do you own one of the freighters...” From the use of software, the mindware implant down to her naming scheme it didn't take much more for him to assume she was a freespacer, and their was only one ship in orbit with those kind of design. “Wait, it's not that 800 meter monstrosity, is it?!”
"Not really a captain. But I am default Shipkeeper of the White Lament, yes." Arccos nodded.
"You're serious." Jason blinked for a moment. "That thing's size and structure....it HAS to be a mothership. What on Neplesia is the shipkeeper of a goddamn spacer mothership doing running law enforcement for a Nekovalkyja warlord?"
"Well, I came here as a mercenary alongside Corgan here. I was Ragnarok's electronic warfare specialist." Arccos said, sidling over the cushions and slipping an arm around Corgan's shoulder. "The Lament crash landed here, with only its drone contingent still alive. I fast re-programmed the junkers on the fly, and took the ship for my own. As to why I'm still here: Would you trust a nekovalkyrja warlord to give anyone here justice or safety?"
Of course not. I may not be that long out of the vats, but even I'm not dumb enough to think she's here to uplift these people. She just wants all the resources, and this place is convient because the people here are too primitive to fight back." He returned to his pipe afterwards, hoping to make up for the shock killing his calm. "So...what? Your here making sure the jackboot on the natives neck doesn't get too heavy?"
"Well, something like that. My fondness of stepping on people made it more easy for me to just slip on a nice pair of boots myself and do the stepping, rather than trying to moderate someone else's pressure." Arccos said a little cheekily.
“Well, as far as I've seen the style really seems to suit you. I mean, if I had to pick someone to be crushed underfoot by...” Jason blissfully sunk further into the cushions. “Still, while I'm sure a lot people appreciate you being here to keep our glorious leader turn this place into too much of a hellhole, myself included since I have to live here, I can't really see you doing this indefinitely.”
“I mean, eventually you plan on repopulating the ship, right? And from what I know about freespacer governance, which admittedly isn't much, all of those new people get a vote on what the White Lament will be doing, and I assume some of them are going to have some problems working as colloborators for an imperialist regime.”
Corgan noticed Arccos moving closer and felt her put an arm around his shoulder. He was a little surprised at first. It felt as real as anything else he'd ever experienced. The Nepleslian thought about what Jason said. Repopulating the ship. He hadn't actually thought about what that might mean. "That's a good question. You guys use gene banks or something, right? Did the ones onboard the Lament even survive?" He asked Arccos.
"They survived the crash because that's what the damage control systems prioritised. They did not survive the chemical fire during the storm, however. None the less, they're rebuilt and functional." Arccos waved the pipe from the hookah around demonstrably as she spoke, "Well. Mostly, anyway. It'll still take a good three to four years to straight breed a new population, so I've had to recruit from outside to get a full crew... And there is a problem with the voting thing, but it's not as much of one as you'd think. In most crews you invariably wind up with one or two people who are either talented enough, or popular enough to consistently be the one who defines what's voted on... And there's other stuff about all the largegear units, and type twos mostly abstaining from voting a lot of the time as it's about something outside their area..."
Another puff on the hookah and a slight shift of her weight. If Corgan were perceptive, he'd actually be able to make out the feel of Arccos' simulated anatomy involving things like a normal skeletal structure. Seemed in here she was fully organic just like he was.
"Let's just say it's less of a problem than you'd think."
"So your probably selecting for people who either all right with current set up or pretty desperate anyway....plus, I'd buy your charismatic enough to build yourself a little cult following. Yeah, I can see how you've got this shit down pat. Having preferential access to to a planet with plenty of water, even one like this, probably helps." As if suddenly remembering that they weren't alone as soon as Corgan spoke up, Jason scruntinised the man with a apparaising look, scratching his chin. "While were on the topic...what about you Garrett? How long you plan on staying on in this place? Thinking of mustering out before things get too crazy, or thinking of making this place your home? Try and take as big a slice of the pie as you can, while you can?"
"Well, you could use my genes, but that would probably be strange. A ID-SOL/Spacer would be interesting though." Corgan said with a laugh. "It's much quicker to just find a crew. I would sign up if I could survive in the Lament without a suit on." He looked towards Jason when he said his name. "Call me Corgan, man. I'm not leaving until the mountains are under control. Even then, Ragnarok's base of operations is here and mine will be too, so I'll be here if my Reavers don't have any jobs. Unless we get into a large-scale war or something I doubt we'll have much work.. Maybe selling our services to some of the smaller nations, or frontier worlds." Corgan shrugged. "It's pointless to plan that far ahead. In my experience plans almost always fall apart."
"Well history tells me that the lives of high up people in new, rogue states tend to fall apart if their flying by the seat of their pants, but I'll trust your experience."
The pilot cracked his neck, tone was the same as when Corgan had asked about the fruit earlier. "Besides, I did tell you I'd help outfit that docile for you. And as for jobs outside this place...well, let's see. We're about to throwdown with a NMX fleet occupying some alien system any day now, the Yammie's declared war on someone from outside the damn sector, their's civil unrest in Neplesia after the Sky Marshall called in the military on some protestors after he replaced the resigning...what was it? Prime Minsiter?"
"Then you got the Free State not too far from here tearing itself apart, people pushing into new worlds on the frontier....oh yeah Corgan, I think your in a real growth industry right about now. That being said...what's all this about Reavers? Leaving ragnarok to start your own outfit? I mean, can't be too impressive yet considering that you were just offering to run off to the White Lament if it wouldn't kill you..." The young man teased.
Corgan was surprised by some of those events. "I.. didn't know about Yamatai and Nepleslia having troubles right now. I haven't been off-world very much lately, and I don't really keep up with the news. Guess I should start." He said sheepishly. "Oh, the Reavers are going to be part of Ragnarok. I'm starting a mechanized division. I bought a bunch of vehicle parts with my money from the job here. Uso and Cyrus are supporting my efforts, too. I'm starting small, just to see if I'm any good at it. Might even get a ship to transport my tanks and other vehicles."
He took a puff from the hookah casually. "My base will be somewhere in the mountains, I think. Asantren is nice, but it's too.. wet. Lahiri or Tolmasch would be ideal. I want to put it on a butte so I can call it Iron Butte or something."
“The Iron Butte?....Charming.” The young man held out his fist to his much older, far bigger couterpart. “Still, congrats man. Moving up in he world, investing in it with your own money, takes real commitment. Hope it works out for you. Not least because who your taking money from. Now I haven't met Cyrus and I've had a grand total of one conversation with Uso, but people who take over planets don't seem the type to tolerate failure much. Might want to make sure these Reaver's don't turn into a money sink.”
"Lahiri, Lahiri, Lahiri..." He repeated the word a few times till it seemed to roll off the tongue before emitting a audible, dissapointed sigh. "Man, I gotta start learning the names of all these places. Figured I could wait it out till they started renaming everyone Ragnaville and Usoland but apparently they haven't settled on what to call the capital. Too bad I can't just download it like usual."
"Well, if you need whatever, I have construction drones and a utility ship. Can probably send some of those to help." Arccos said, just leaning on Corgan and puffing on the hookah. "So you two want anything while you're my kinda guest? Food? Drink? Hot tub?"
"I could use some training with this mindware stuff. Don't want to get stuck in a room for hours again. If Jason hadn't shown up I'd probably still be in there." Corgan admitted. "Is there some kind of manual or something? There's also the matter of our date. Is there anything you would like to do, or somewhere you want to go?"
"You programmed a hot tub here? Sure, sounds like a blast." Jason turned his head back towards the forest. "And that fruit was pretty amazing."
"It's out back." Arccos said, jabbing a thumb towards the strange hut she'd constructed herself. "I can give you some direct information to put straight in your head, but that wouldn't help you with the room. It was deliberately that way to keep out AI's... It's sort of like an enter password thing, only more abstract. As for dates... I admit that I've never gone somewhere on a date. Freespacer dating isn't something you go somewhere specific for. You just do something together, usually in the same room you normally do stuff in."
"Well, what do you like to do for fun? On Nepleslia girls usually like to go dancing at clubs. The classy ones usually like to go to fancy restaurants, or visit museums and shit." Corgan shrugged. "Honestly I haven't really been on many dates. When I had girlfriends or whatever we usually didn't do much but have sex or play games." He looked out towards the back. "Hot tub does sound pretty good. Only if you're coming though."
"You don't seem like the kind of dude who spends a lot of time in Museums, no offense. Sure there are plenty of clubs in New Belfast though." Jason interjected.
Arccos stood up, two four likewise mimicing the action and falling in line as they headed into the virtual cabin. The two guests would find something hovering in their vision about them being granted Avatar ideation control by administrator.
"Hot tub's this way. While I do like museums, I can go to them on my own time. Dancing I'm not good at, and I'm fairly sure that sitting around playing games is a third date sort of thing. What do you like to do, Corgan? Other than fuck and play."
"You're right Jason, museums usally make me want to fucking kill myself." Corgan said as he stood up. He glanced at Jason before changing his avatar to himself, except with only swim trunks on. "That's a pretty good question. I guess I like watching movies, stealing things, and eating. Maybe we could play a game in the Polysentience. Hell, I had fun going with you and Rubi to the algaeia purifying place." He considered the question some more. "Some people would go learn how to prepare and cook meals together..."
Suddenly a great idea came to him. He couldn't believe he didn't think of it. Spacers probably didn't have room on their ships for rollercoasters and corny games with shitty prizes. "Hmm... Ever been to an amusement park?"
"What's an amusement park?" Arccos asked flatly. Leading them through the house which seemed to have every available surface covered in ornate... Ornaments created out of crystal. Absolutely nothing inside seeming to have any practical function other than looking good. Out the other side of it, the house seemed to be impossibly suspended in the air, despite being on ground level on the other side. Boughs of trees winding down around the balcony curved into something like a bath tub shape. The soft rains filling it up, although with no logic to how it seemed to be steaming. Arccos and Two-Four seemed to just... Wade in fully clothed. Taking a seat in the warm sky-spring.
The pilot had followed along with the master of this domain and the other guests, some more permanent then others, with a unusual quiet. Part of this was certainly due to the fumes he imbibed, almost certainly more fast acting then any counterpart it might have in the physical world, but much of it was due to his marvelling at the mosaic of decorations the Shipkeeper had filled her virtual abode with. Catching a reflection of the fairly built half ID-SOL now wearing nothing more then swimming trunks, he mimiced the action that his friend had taken, the look on his face admiring reflection being...less then enthused.
I will never understand the SSI's obsession with making people look like fucking twinks. Maybe it's like that one dude who made their country's bioweapons all look like catgirls...”
As Arccos asked the question, Jason wading into the pool himself, he jumped to answer it. “Yeah yeah, I know about those. Was in the socialization program the company crammed into me. Their like....They have these weird transportation that don't take you anywhere, but like....they're supposed to hit with g forces I think? Honestly I'd just skip the babyshit and cut loose in a frame with the inertial dampeners set on low.”
"I'm not much into extreme sports types of things." Arccos said, stretching out in the strange vine-tub. Resting her arms on the edge. Two-Four just sitting down, and curling up next to her creator. Pulling her knees up to her chest and wrapping her arms around them.
Corgan followed into the weird yet totally badass hot tub. He was surprised again at how real it felt. The bigger shock was Jason didn't know much about amusement parks. "Come on Jason, you've never been to Davisworld? If it weren't a date I would offer to take you too. You were deprived man."
Affixing the giant of a man with a deadpan expression, he replied with a flat tone. "No Corgan, I've never been too Davisland. Haven't had a lot of opportunties to get out and cut loose before all this even if I had." Sinking into the warm, churning water down to his shoulders, Jason asked. "So Is that the kind of place you hung out a lot in your gangster days?"
"Right, forgot about all that. Sorry man." Corgan replied. "I wouldn't say a lot, but my mother did take me a couple times when I was a kid. They have this huge gun you can get shot out of, it's insane. They put you in a protective bubble or something so the force doesn't kill you when you land." He strained to remember what other attractions he had seen. "There's some stuff for couples, but I don't think it's first date friendly. There's a tunnel you ride through in this little boat. The Tunnel of Love. There's adult videos on screens on the side of the tunnel and people have sex on the boats. They record it and give you a copy as a souvenir."
He looked at Arccos. "Yeah, probably skip that ride.The rollercoasters are pretty cool. There's an Aethersperm rollercoaster called the "OH FUCK I'M DYING", only the biggest adrenaline junkies ride it. It's pretty hardcore, you have to sign a whole stack of shit to ride it. Tbut Nepleslia, you know?hey say it's the closest feeling you can get to dying. Not sure why someone would want to feel that. My favorite is the giant robot fights in the Games section. That was where I spent most of my time. The war games kind of helped me learn to shoot, although the live ammo shooting range was helpful too."
"This sounds stupid. Let's do this." Arccos said with a sharp laugh.
