outsiderslogs | welcome to omega, round two.

Entry tags:

welcome to omega, round two.

who. everyone!
what. in which the new arrivals join the outsiders.
where. landing pads for new arrivals, who then head through the markets to the residential area.
when. today!
warnings. n/a

This time, when the shuttles arrive, the landing pad isn't so empty. There was no saying these people wouldn't show up again, and though Aria isn't going to be happy that they appear to be coming on a schedule while the rest of the system is grounded, there doesn't appear that there's much to be done about it. A group of her batarian agents are there to escort incomers off the ship; some are taken aside for questioning, but when it's clear they know nothing of their origins, they're let go. Some new arrivals may notice that these shuttles don't simply depart -- a number of them are escorted off by other shuttles, deeper into the station.

After that, though, there's little the batarians can do about them. They're sent towards the residential district by way of the markets and financial sectors. The housing areas they arrive in aren't in the best of shape; while there are other outsiders to this galaxy already at work trying to repair the damage, others aren't bothering with it at all.

This is Omega. If you don't find some way to pull your weight, you'll be dead in no time.

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[ Out of the frying pan, into the fire. (Isn't that the saying?)

It's one thing to find yourself in a deadzone, ten miles out from the nearest border of a friendly country with a injuries a plenty and only three bullets left. It's another thing to find yourself catapulted into what Natasha can only assume is — this, somewhere that's definitely not the Earth she knows. (Sure, she has a rudimentary understanding of astrophysics, but pare it down any finer than that and even Natasha's eyes start to glaze over). Rare that she gets dropped somewhere without a briefing file about what to expect and who to expect, but that's fine. The Black Widow is nothing but adaptable.

The facts. Those come first. The omnitool is going to get some getting used to, but it seems to translate well enough; there are five or so main species she doesn't recognize, but each have characteristics that are defining enough. She's seen plenty of weaponry -- some concealed, some not -- which means that, guessing at the amount of technology around this place (Omega?), it's not always this friendly. Or this quiet.

She stretches her neck this way and that, momentarily distracted as a shuttle flies by and makes its landing, a hand cupped over her eyes as she follows it with her line of sight.

Maybe she should have watched more of those science fiction movies Clint likes so much. ]

"Marking a waypoint. Careful not to trip over anyone." Cortana half-jokingly mused, but there was a point. When was the last time they had to navigate through a densely populated area, let alone one that contained mostly citizens. There were looks to be sure, a lot of annoyed dismissive. It didn't seem like soldiers were in short supply around this station, but none fit UNSC profile.

If there were, they weren't showing their colors. Cortana kept her scans up, trying to pick up anything she can work with. Just so happens that she found something right as she was about to answer Chief, from the same man that was answering Chief instead. ~~Also don't think either of you boys have any room to talk about height.~~ There was something off about the reading, not quite the same as she's gotten before, but it was definitely there.

"Omni-tool? Well, at least we have a name now." Sorry North, but these two aren't exactly concerned about concealment.

When she stepped off the shuttle to Omega, it was all she could do not to groan. Or cheer. Or.... She's not sure, but it was something a little bit overwhelming. And then it was hard to be sure if she should be worried that she was even considering being happy to see Omega.

After all, it looked much the same as it did the last time she was there: dark, dirty, noisy in the worst kind of way, and today crowded with batarians herding everyone out of the shuttles. She hadn't laid eyes on a batarian in well over a year now and couldn't say she had missed them.

That she had no memory of ending up on a shuttle in the first place was the least of her worries now. She never remembered going into or leaving Abax, either. This.... It was depressingly familiar.

The shotgun in her hands was what stopped her being approached by what had to be Aria's people to begin with, certainly - glaring, though, was obviously unappreciated - and it wasn't until she was out of their way and moving deeper into the station that she re-holstered it and went for her omni-tool. If she was on Omega, either someone she knew would be there, or there would be something useful to pick up on.

But she did at least make sure to have her back up against a wall before she paid too much attention to her arm and not her surroundings - some lessons had started to stick.

[And just a few feet away also buying some fish is Commander Effing Shepard. The little commotion caused by Wash being a little confused about the fish gets his attention. He glances over, notes the armor -- doesn't look like anything from the Alliance -- and then cuts in.]

Striped Dartfish. What were you expecting out here in this dump? Goldfish?

[He knows his shit when it comes to fish, alright?]

The Chief's head twitched as the static hit again and he realized he was going to have to get used to that again. And then, unfortunately, came a couple questions he was hoping he'd have a little bit more time to think of an answer for.

He didn't want to tell her...everything that had happened on Requiem and Ivanoff Station. Or, more accurately, he wasn't sure how to yet. He could at least answer her other question straight.

"While we were moving to attack the Gravity Well...I met another Forerunner. The Librarian." He'd heardher called an 'echo', but for how much she'd helped, that seemed...disparaging. "She told me about the Didact. Then she made it so I could fight him."

"And you were there."

No. I'm not. [Understatement of the cycle.]

[He glances at the device for a moment - so it's for communication. So used to just using his helmet's radio for that, it occurs to him that there has to be more to it than that - but something else catches his attention.]

Did you lose contact with your squad?

By this point, Kengo was rather sick of trying to find his way around the large group of newcomers. It was obvious that the body he'd been holding when he'd been transported to this new place hadn't come with him and there wasn't a single Amanogawa uniform in sight other than his. None of this was surprising, but it was certainly frustrating to be plucked from his world in the middle of a battle when he was the only person on his side to still be conscious and able to fight. (Though with all of his health issues, it wouldn't have been a very good effort considering who he was going up against.)

The halls of Omega were just as dark and suspicious looking as he had expected from glancing down them while standing at the landing zone. Great. The last thing he needed was to lose anything he came with and he was sure that his age and appearance would make him an easy target. Not to mention the fact that he was human.

When Kengo started past the person leaning against the wall, he'd nearly stumbled over himself to stop. It seemed like this was one of the more human looking individuals he'd encountered so far, or at least more humanoid than the four-eyed creatures or the hump-backed ones in armor. Keeping a few feet away, Kengo glanced over the bright orange object on the other's wrist, before glancing down at the unactivated device on his wrist. Maybe that was what this was -- the thing that allowed him to understand everyone else.

Though talking to people was never Kengo's strong point, he also felt it was important to take advantage of a situation. "... excuse me." It was really uncomfortable, struggling to be polite. Raising the hand that had the unactivated omni-tool system on it, Kengo tapped it with his other hand (which was still holding a small black case -- there was no way in hell he was letting go of that). "Is this what you're using?"

He'd also not attempted to activate it on his own, on the off chance that it was something dangerous.

Marco instinctively started trying to make himself scarce when he saw that giant sci-fi action movie suit of armor clanking purposefully his way, but the mysterious lady's vector wasn't directed his way. Even so, he was hoping to melt quietly into the ground and disappear during their exchange, in the event that crazy space-fighting was about to break out. Thankfully, the batarians apparently wanted to get away from her as quickly as he wanted to get away from them.

"Yeah, well, I don't really want to like, discriminate or anything, but I think I'm gonna have a hard time making friends with anyone who doesn't have a normal number of eyes and nostrils."

He looked his savior up and down, a surprisingly cold and skeptical expression on his face for a kid who looked like he was about to wet himself moments ago. Friendly as her face was, he wasn't having the most relaxing of days, and he was ready to brace himself for another round of jumping from a frying pan into a fire, and then a volcano, and then an exploding supernova.

"So how many eyes do you have, huh?"

Marco twiddled his thumbs as he let the other boy go do the annoying work of digging for information. He almost even started whistling to himself while he waited, but then discovered that he could poke at the sweet little holographic computer thingie given to him.

So while Kengo busied himself with attempting to interact with the locals, Marco accessed all sorts of fascinating things once he figured out how to get onto the network. So little lag time. So many shiny blinkies. So few content filters. Ooooh.

He quickly flicked the screens closed once Kengo returned, a slightly guilty look crossing his face that soon disappeared once the delightfully useless and depressing information was reported to him. "Sheesh. Not in Kansas anymore, huh, Toto? Anyone offering rides home? Because I've got like, things to get back to. Think they'll let me take this baby with me, though? I bet I can run Quake in a resolution so high it'll make your eyes bleed."

Kengo had only caught a momentary glance of the boy turning the device attached to his wrist off. Well, that answered Kengo's question on whether or not it was some sort of device meant to monitor them or kill them. It could still be something dangerous, but if it had been truly dangerous, he didn't doubt that the other would have been the one to detonate it by some sort of accident.

Pop culture references seemed to go right over Kengo's head, the older boy just staring blankly for a moment before returning his attention to the object on his wrist. "Whatever you have going on at home, I'm sure it's not as important as what I need to get back to. It doesn't seem like anyone knows exactly how we got here or how we're supposed to get back. From the way he was acting, I'm sure they'd be more than happy to get rid of all of us as soon as possible if they could."

Kengo adjusted his hold on the case, holding it a bit tighter, his chest feeling pained again at how much he was stressing over the situation. It was hard to remain calm when so many things were going on.

At Kengo's dismissive statement, Marco's smirk dropped. "Hey, Toto, listen. You have no idea what I've got going on back home. Trust me, I care way less about your life than you care about mine. For now? I think we're at least from the same planet, so that's better than anyone else I've run into."

He paused for a moment, considering something he just said. "We are from the same planet, right? What year is it?"

Only now did Kengo seem to realize that he had gained a nickname, still not understanding the reference at all. He stared blankly at the other boy before sighing deeply. Really, was this kid going to argue with him about who had more of an issue back home? Kengo was tempted to try to one-up the other, but he didn't feel it was worth it to try and explain a complicated situation back home. No one here was his friend, or even his ally.

With the fact that time travel seemed to have taken place already at this point (as much as it was making Kengo's head hurt, but there were plenty of scientific reasons for this), assuming that they were from the same year seemed something that was an actual concern at this point.

"Two thousand and eleven. Heisei year twenty-three. I'm from Takasaki in the Gunma prefecture of Japan, on Earth. Does that sound about right to you?"

"I have no idea what most of those words mean. Except for 'Japan', and 'Earth'. Do you have Hello Kitty there?"

The question may have seemed frivolous, but Marco's trying to find some common ground here, okay. He also felt no need to offer any information about his own time and place.

Someone said Omega, [ Bruce answers, running a hand through his hair nervously. ] The name means nothing to me, but I've been here for all of a few minutes, so really, just give me some time?

[ More like a few days, because he'd rather nothing more than set himself up into a corner and get adjusted. Much like Tony has been, but this is more for his own personal needs. Bruce keeps himself focused onto Tony, rather than at the constant milling species by him – okay because he's pretty certain that a Vorcha walking by him is not supposed to look that weird. ]

I remember going back to Stark Industries, after Loki went with Thor? [ What do you mean you don't remember, Tony?Things just got more and more confusing. ]

There was a hard silence in the suit. When Cortana finally spoke up, she tried to hide the crack in her voice. "Chief, I don't remember any of this."

Which, for an AI that was already falling apart, didn't bode well for her mental state. There was some explanation, but she almost didn't want to have to admit it.

"It's possible something got corrupted and I lost the time between Requiem and the shuttle. That would explain the gap." Of course that plausibility was far from an ideal situation. If that was the case, then either she was more unstable than she had anticipated, or there was an outside force powerful enough to delete that much memory.

Yeah. Omega. Sounds like something out of a weird B rated sci-fi flick, but yeah. We're on a space station hooked up to an asteroid.

[He understands - he went through the same sort of procedure, only his was him locking himself in a very small space and hoping that when he came out it was all a bad dream and he was actually back home with everything he knew and needed in his life (ie. tech, Pepper, JARVIS, tech, armor, tech, money, tech...). Sadly, that is... not how things have happened.]

...

[Okay now he's rubbing at the bridge of his nose, because that sounds off now too.]

Wait, hold the phone. You went to Stark Industries? Like, Stark Tower? Candy Land?

Yes. [ The puzzled look on his face only intensifies, because he can get new locations, he can get demigods taking over, but somehow the idea of weird time points and memory loss, particularly when it comes to Tony, has yet to actually register with him. ]

Thor took Loki back, and we celebrated with a return to Stark Tower. [ Pause. ] Do you really not remember any of that?

So we won. ['Celebrated' kind of seems like they won, anyway. Tony knows nothing of the fight in Manhattan, Bruce, bear with him here.]

...Okay. ...Okay, just answer this: Is Coulson dead?

[ It's a tricky question, because Bruce wasn't exactly there during that incident. He pauses for a moment, pursing his lips. The incident was briefed to everyone after the fact, and he knew of it, but more from a third party perspective than anything else. ]

As far as I know, yes. [ But that only worries him further. ] You know I missed that particular... accident.

[ While Bruce didn't know Coulson as well as Tony did, he was still the man responsible for bringing them together. ]

[Dammit. Dammit dammit dammit. That meant Steve wasn't crazy, he wasn't just yanking Tony's chain. Coulson was really dead and Tony was missing time.]

No. No I don't. Because I don't remember whatever accident killed him. Shit. [He's seriously rubbing the crap out of the bridge of his nose, because this is messed up. So messed up, and Tony hates not being in control.]

Cap was right. Dammit.

[ This is new, and he doesn't really try to hide the surprise at this point. ]

I think the better question is, [ Bruce starts slowly, not looking up at Tony's face. ] what's the last thing you remember.

[ They can work from there better than Bruce filling in details, because he wasn't around, except for when dealing with Loki. It causes an undue bit of disconnect, but he tries to cope with it regardless. ]

[Rumors travel fast on Omega if you're in the right place and when he hears that more people are showing up, well, he makes a bee-line for the landing pad. With the mess he'd gotten in on his own arrival, they might be able to use a human that can calm someone down.

...plus maybe he'll see a friend.

He almost double takes when that actually turns out to be true.]

Dr. Banner?

"I don't think that's it." Rather, he felt reasonably sure that he knew it wasn't. He'd seen every gruesome effect that Cortana's rampancy had had on her (and he doubted he'd forget any of it any time soon) and memory loss wasn't anywhere on the list. However, the idea that some kind of outside force had tampered with her was a bit harder to discount, since both of them were already well and tampered with just by being here.

"...we should focus on finding out where we are," he eventually said. "And how we got here. If we find that out, it could explain the rest." Like the discrepancy between both of their memories.

'Omni-tool'. With a name like that, the Chief couldn't help but muse that it had better be pretty impressive when he did get his hands on one. He glanced down at the man who'd been kind enough to answer his idle though, a thought occurring to him.

"You said I should've arrived with one." Almost absentmindedly, his hand began traveling over his armor. He'd mentally run over his inventory, but he hadn't physically checked his armor to see if anything was different yet. Eventually, his hand stopped when it reached into a compartment on his back - coming out with a device which he quickly slipped over his right hand.

"Cortana. Do you think you can integrate this with my armor?" He asked aloud, apparently as unconcerned with concealing Cortana as she was. The MJLORNIR was nothing if not adaptive and Cortana was already intimately familiar with its firmware, so he expected it to be well within her capabilities. After his request, he turned to North.

"Thanks." He nodded to him. "Does everyone arriving in the shuttles have one of these?"

"It's the name of a city and a prefecture. Sort of like a state, in America." Kengo felt it was necessary to start dumbing his talk down a bit, but 'dumbing down' for Kengo was still rarely simplified enough that anyone could understand him. At the mention of Hello Kitty, Kengo let out a breath of air, seeming a bit more frustrated.

Also, with his tendency to attract traitors and suspicious people, he didn't want to let this boy get away with not giving up an equal share of information. "You should tell me where you're from."

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welcome to omega, round two.

natasha romanoff | open.

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Opennnn

Re: open like ... an open thing.

Re: Closed

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hello fellow tech engineer with health issues

there is nothing not okay with this

yes, but there's no shortage of horrible jokes to be made

it's marco. i wouldn't expect anything else.

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Re: Closed

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