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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The kid doesn't exactly ooze trust and innocence, but York can understand that. Some kids are a little more savvy to situations like this. Still, she can tell he's lost, and he's probably not gonna get far on his own. He's just a kid, and that makes him an easy target.

She laughs at his quip, though, because hey, he might just be a kid but he seems pretty sharp. He's funny at least, anyway. "I got two, so I'm up from last year." She grins down at him, extending a gloved hand. "You can call me York. You got a name, kiddo?"

[well, that much she figured, but why not ask to be sure, anyway?

she nods at his answer, though, and turns back to scowl at her omni-tool for a moment longer. when she speaks, she sounds more than a little distracted.] We were on transport to our next mission, and instead of reaching our destination, I ended up here. I .. don't know where the rest of them are.

[she pauses.] My younger sister is a part of that squad. I need to find her.

Captain.

[ Unlike with Tony, the relief Bruce feels is evident, and the smile he shows is a mile wide. Slightly uncharacteristic, but he remembers Steve as the kind of person who could be trusted to lead; the kind of person who only cared about what they could do and not the dirty little secrets Bruce didn't need aired out.

He exhales visibly, reaching out to shake Steve's hand. About time to return that mini favor. ] I'd say it's a relief, but... [ pause ] nevermind. Seeing you here is a relief.

Cortana's appearance startled him for a moment - and had Theta in a restless North who are they are they anything like us why does he have armor like yours? sort of buzz, but he managed to settle him down long enough to contemplate what she was saying.

They may not be the type to conceal what Cortana was, but North .. is just the slightest bit wary about the way things operate around here, and he wasn't about to trust that someone wouldn't see Theta and automatically want to study him.

So he's protective of the little guy. That was part of the reason he'd been paired with him in the first place.

He nodded to Chief in response, idly waving a dismissive hand. "Hey, no problem .. I haven't exactly been here very long myself, but it's been long enough that I'm picking up on a few things." He paused, tilted his head to the side. "I .. think so? I haven't seen anyone around here without one, so it wouldn't surprise me to find that they did."

Another pause, and if he spoke in something of a hushed tone when he asked his next question, it was clearly a figment of Chief's imagination. "Is she what I think she is?"

And here, there would be the introduction of a very unimpressed expression sliding across North's face, and he folded his arms across his chest.

"All right, I'll give you that much. But I'll have you know I'm more than used to dealing with someone that spouts about twice as much bullshit as you are right now."

There was a pause, and another half-smile. "So you can either drop the act and let me really help you out, or I can point you in the direction of the nearest bathroom. Your choice."

People had been passing her steadily - all aliens, a lot of humans, and though she was glancing up at them curiously, she hadn't yet spoken to anybody. Too busy trying to get onto an extranet that didn't seem to exist. It did, it clearly did - it was just going to take more time and effort to break onto than she had right now.

Then someone stumbled to a halt in front of her and she jerked her head up, network problems momentarily forgotten. The human wasn't obviously armed, and if anything.... She was never going to be an excellent reader of faces, but it didn't take a genius to recognise abject confusion.

And it was a feeling she understood well enough - and sympathised with.

"Yes," she answered him steadily. "It's called an omni-tool. Uh, it's..." It always took a second to realise such terms needed an explanation. "It's multifunctional, but at its core, it's a microcomputer with a holographic interface." If she had to boil it down to even more basic terms, she would... certainly try.

She stepped slightly away from the wall after another glance around - Omega didn't inspire trust at the best of times - and stood in front of him. "I can help you with it if you need. It's easy to use when you know how."

And when were you going to tell her you had one of those on you Chief? Well, she'll give him a break, given the nature of how they got here, missing a new addition like that isn't unfounded.

"Perhaps. It isn't a system I recognize. You'll have to give me a minute to make sure it's even compatible." If not, well she'll just have to make it. She's intimate with the armor's firmware, not the Omni-tool's. It had a holographic interface, but that's where the similarities end. At least there was a firm connection between Covenant and Forerunner technology, gave her a place to work from.

Busy at her work, Cortana was able to put her other research on the backburner. She picked up some excitation before noticing their new friend being all hush hush. "And what do you think she is exactly?" She has the time to be a little playful.

"A few people at the landing zone were working with them, but I wasn't sure about trusting it." Kengo's tone gave away that he'd suspected the worst case scenario upon seeing something strapped to his wrist that hadn't been there before. Worst case scenario options? That it had been some sort of tracking device, or a collar of sorts to keep everyone in one place. When ending up so far away from home at a moment's notice, it didn't seem strange to think such outrageous ideas.

Stepping away from the center of the hallway, Kengo moved to stand closer to the wall, though he kept a few feet between them. Staying off to the side was better than risking keeping himself in plain view. He switched the case he was holding to his other hand, not wanting to let go of it any time soon, but knowing he would need at least one hand free to attempt to work this new system.

"Omni-tool is an appropriate name, then." Those terms were enough for Kengo to understand, thankfully. Still, the technology for this place was slightly over his head at the moment purely because he hadn't had time to talk about it with anyone or study it himself. "I already know it works as a translator, even when it's not active. ... other than that, I haven't taken the time to work with it or study it."

It was almost embarrassing to talk to someone so casually, but he felt more comfortable with the feeling he had from this person than anyone else he'd walked by so far, so it was worth forcing himself to get information. Gentarou would have been disappointed in him if he kept completely to himself.

"If the information I've heard is true, this world is one hundred and seventy-five years ahead of where I came from. I have quite a bit of catching up to do." For someone who had discovered this information, Kengo seemed surprisingly calm, but years of studying space and its mechanics made him believe a lot of things most humans wouldn't.

"Why? It's obviously not the same place you're from, so I'm not sure it could possibly benefit either of us if I did."

See, even after being pretty sure he was way, way, way far away from anyone who might know who he is, Marco's level of paranoia wasn't any less. Until he had absolute, indisputable proof that this wasn't all just part of some crazy alien invasion superplot, he wasn't going to make it easy for anyone to trace him.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to follow you home or anything stupid like that. I don't even like sushi."

Kengo couldn't blame the kid for being paranoid. Kengo, of course, also had reason to be paranoid and keep information to himself, but this was a world where it didn't really matter. Fourze wasn't there and the Astro Switches in his case were valuable only to him. They wouldn't work without the rest of the system, so even if someone ended up with them, it wouldn't do any good.

"Good. I have enough idiots to keep track of back home, if they're still alive."

Switching the case to his other hand, Kengo lifted up the arm that had the unactivated omni-tool system on it, nearly jumping when he touched the right buttons and it came to life, the orange holographic system spreading out over his arm. ... oh, he really wanted to know more about this.

Marco looked down at the offered hand. If this was secretly a plot to catch him off guard and gain his trust so she could grab his hand and handcuff him and drag him off into some sort of space dungeon, it was a good one; that said, she had him cold either way, as he was pretty sure she could take him down in a second if he had a sudden urge to turn and run.

She looked human and friendly, at least. Not that appearances really meant anything.

"Marco," he said, grabbing her hand with the same guarded caution. "If you start sprouting more eyes, you'll excuse me if I vamoose."

Twice? Twice? The notion of someone who could even produce such a phenomenal level of bullshit was unthinkable to Marco, and he rolled his eyes once it became clear that this dude was pretty dead set on being Helpful.

"Okay, big guy, you want to help me out? Get me on the next shuttle ride back to good ol' sunny California, because if I'm not home before dark, I'm going to be grounded until I'm thirty." The dopey look on his face dropped off; Marco also folded his arms and returned an expression that was even more unimpressed than the one North gave him. It seemed a shallow reason to want to get off the station, but he had already passed the point of wanting to scream for the ride to stop and just wanted to quit going from one mildly nightmarish situation to the next.

Marco didn't really want to think too much about his own pack of 'idiots' back home. One step at a time; right now he was focused on surviving and getting his bearings.

"Relax, Toto, it's just a fancy computer." He pulled up a screen on his own just to show off, including a panel forhis own post that he made to the extranet while waiting for Kengo to finish attempting to pump batarians for information. "Way faster and cooler than anything I've ever seen before, though. Hey, check this out!"

A map popped up from Marco's omni-tool, showing their current location in the markets. Poking at the projection scrolled and zoomed the map, and Marco amused himself for a moment by spinning the entire display around at dizzying speeds.

"Keep that name out of your mouth." It was better than the other referring to him by his first name, at least. Somewhat less annoying. But he didn't understand what he'd done to gain this nickname or what it meant.

Kengo observed the other for a moment, sighing heavily and shaking his head at the other's actions. It was like trying to get something done with JK being himself, except even slightly more annoying. He hadn't thought that sort of behavior was possible. Which reminded him...

"Are you going to tell me your name?" Kengo went through the menus on his own, seeing that a few people had been posting up messages. He skimmed over the text ones and skipped over the videos and voice messages, looking for some sort of settings feature. "If you don't tell me where you're from. It doesn't even have to be your real name."

"Okay, fine, you can be Dorothy if you really insist! Jeez." Kengo was earning himself nicknames just by virtue of never offering anything else as a method of address. Besides, Marco was greatly enjoying collecting ammo for causing irritation.

"I tried to tell you my name, but you wandered off before I could finish. So I guess you'll never know. Anyway, now that I know where I'm going, I'm not standing around in the middle of the street all day."

Oh. Pausing to think, Kengo stared at the other for a few moments before he suddenly seemed to realize what the other had said. So the boy really had said his name, but he'd been too pre-occupied to notice. There was no way he would apologize for it, of course. "Was that your last name or your first name?" Kengo outright refused to refer to anyone by their first name. It was far too casual.

"If you want to call me anything, my name is Utahoshi." Which, if this boy knew how it was written, he was sure he would be teased relentlessly. Kengo was sure hearing the name 'star song' would be endlessly amusing for this kid. "And I'm not keeping you here. You can go."

"Just Marco. You know. Like Cher. I'm a one-name kinda star." Because his last name might as well be Paranoia.

"Oo-tah-ho..." Damn it, Toto was easier. "Okay, Utah!" He settled on pronouncing it like the state. "Enjoy whatever it is you're trying to do here. I'm gonna go find some place with fewer aliens hanging around."

Marco gave a sarcastic little wave and switched off his omni-tool, then set off towards the other end of the market district.

Something that casual wasn't going to work with Kengo. For the time being, he would find something else to refer to the other as. At the very least, he wouldn't be calling Marco an idiot because that title was reserved for his best friend. Turning the omni-tool off, Kengo visibly glared at the other's back as he walked away, fighting down the urge to yell a correction at him. His pronunciation was just as bad as Gentarou's. That was saying something.

Rolling his eyes, Kengo sighed deeply before finally turning his attention back to the rest of the landing pad. If anything, the interaction with another human had calmed him down. He was thankful for that much.

"Can you? Hm. Sounds like a question you'd be better equipped to answer than me. After all, we only just met."

Kasumi, on the other hand, was impressed. Worrying about the fate of the galaxy was Shepard's favorite hobby. After all this time, getting thrown around space and time was more of a slightly amusing past time than something to fret about.

Getting noticed on the other hand? Now that was rare. She stepped out of the shadow with a tiny smile, purposefully pretending she didn't hear the edge of annoyance in that voice.

"But signs are pointing to yes. Nice armor."

Kasumi was half tempted to just skirt along in the shadows for a bit. It was rare to see the shadow broker herself- assuming she was the shadow broker, time got so tangled up with these things- walking among the common folk. But considering the circumstances, the thief figured that might be a game for another day. After the info sharing session was over and done with.

Still, she waited until Liara passed a quieter area, calling out from the shadows rather than stepping into the light. Shady people belonged in shadows, after all.

"Not exactly my first pick for a vacation spot. But, hey, you have to love the variety Omega has to offer these days."

Big explosion on the helicarrier. We were all yelling, Fury was being Fury, your little speech about the Other Guy, then boom. Right here. That's it.

[Sorry Bruce, hope that's sensical enough, because he's all sorts of confused.]

Far as I know he was still alive before then, but - well, he wasn't there, wasn't in the room. I don't - ... this is so messed up. All of it.

Maybe Chief hadn't realized that he had it on him; it had taken North a little while to realize it, himself, but once he'd gotten used to it? It felt like just another part of his armor, now, and though it was still taking a bit to figure out how the mechanics of everything worked, he liked to think he was coming along with the technology nicely.

It wasn't all that different from the holographic interfaces he was used to working with back on the Mother of Invention, if he thought about it. That, he could handle. This would just take a bit more to get himself acclimated to.

North made a small noise in the back of his throat that may just have been one of surprise at the realization that Cortana was speaking to him directly, and in the back of his mind, Theta only buzzed more restlessly. "I'm sorry, that .. was a rude thing to ask, wasn't it?" Way to stick your foot in your mouth, North .. you're not usually the type to do that.

"I was just .. wondering if you were an AI. Because -" He looked around him very briefly before continuing. "I have one, too."

Yes. Twice.

When - and if - you meet the York here? You'll more than understand what he's talking about. But .. for the moment, it's neither here nor there.

And being helpful is what he does. Sue him. ~~Maybe he was a boyscout in a past life.~~

The fact that Marco was finally coming clean meant they were making some headway - even if the request he was making wasn't one that he was going to be able to help with. His mouth twisted to one side, just the very corner, in a small scowl that didn't have any place on any expression that he might normally offer. "I wish I could help you with that, kiddo. It doesn't look like any of us that have been brought here have any way of getting home right now. Trust me - we've tried."

"Neither is it mine, I'd much rather be back on the Normandy than here." Liara replied, turning to look into the shadows from where Kasumi's voice had come. Once she heard the voice she could recall who it was that she had been following around based upon the few data snippets she had managed to find from her time on the SR-2.

"You needn't hide in the shadows to talk with me you know."

Watch out about suing; Marco happens to be in good with the progeny of a very psychotic lawyer.

"Well, fuck, what am I gonna do here?" He hadn't yet developed a good habit of cursing, but this seemed about as good a time as any. If this guy, who seemed more or less like someone who had a number of clues about what was going on, said there was no way back, what was a stupid kid like him going to do about it? For a few horrible moments, all he knew was the twisting feeling in his gut telling him that he was definitely way, way more lost than he had let himself believe. He dragged his hands through his hair as the realization sunk in.

"I can't stay out here, man. I'm not just gonna die here! I've got like, things to do, and friends, and my dad's gonna worry, and oh god my dad. Wake up, Marco! You are definitely dreaming. No more salsa before bed."

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welcome to omega, round two.

excellent.

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this is going to be a brilliant yet very small niche we're filling

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i hope it's okay to go ahead and reply to this. ;;

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