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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[for a minute, she's too concerned with looking down at her omni-tool, trying to find a way to get in touch with the rest of her squad - and most importantly, her sister - to even hear her name being called. it also has everything to do with not thinking she'd ever hear it on omega, because she's sure that anyone here that's familiar with the alliance would just refer to her as an n7, but -

when she hears it again, her head snaps up and she whirls around, catching sight of that familiar armor, she doesn't waste any time at all in rushing in zoe's direction as quickly as she can. (which, let's be honest, isn't slowly by any means.) ] There you are!

[benji swallows around the lump in her throat, realizing that her sister is safe, and she's about to ask her where the hell she's been when she notices the scratches, and her brows furrow as she pulls her helmet off, expression pulled into something that very clearly says i will kill whoever did this to you.] Zo, what happened? Who did this to you?

Even given the fact that within the Project, the subject of AI wasn't all that secret, only the top agents received them. York had been the first, with Delta, and though he'd yet to see just how the unit was supposed to help him - given the fact that he had yet to successfully decrypt a holographic lock on the field without Delta having to bypass potential security breaches - he could see why they were useful. Theta had already proven his worth in their first training session together, and to say that he was grateful to have the little guy around would have been putting it mildly.

Even if he ended up pacing the corridors of the Mother of Invention on the nights that he couldn't rest.

As far as being skilled with manipulating AI went, well .. the Director was definitely good at that, even if his particular method of manipulation included torturing a full AI and gaining the assistance of a huragok to fix the fragments obtained in order for them to be used .. well! He didn't know anything about that, of course, so for all he knew? There was some very intricate work behind creating these fragments, and he left it at that.

But then Cortana was addressing Theta, himself, and the AI receded back behind North's neck entirely. The agent huffed a small sigh and shook his head. "You'll have to be patient with him, I'm afraid. He's extremely shy - but he's been working on it. He got along really well with Delta and York before we were dropped off here."

He bit the inside of his lip, wondering how much more would be safe to talk about out in the open. "I take it you're a full AI?"

"You never know, he might accept the charges if he knows it's you." There was a pause, and he decided to try being teasing about it. "Unless he'd be glad for a vacation from your charming personality."

Twitchy paranoia .. lord, is he ever familiar with that. Theta kept him up half the night one time not too long ago with something along those lines, worrying about their next mission that would take place the next day, worrying about whether they were going to be all right, wondering if everyone else was as well-prepared as North was ..

Yeah, no, he was perfectly used to dealing with something like that. Which meant he could handle Marco just fine.

- and he was finally beginning to think they were getting somewhere when he came out with that, which just brought him back to square one, and he couldn't help but to sigh and rub at his forehead.

.. North? Do you think I could help at all?

I don't see how you could, but .. you can give it a try. Just keep it brief, okay?

Okay!

And that was when Theta's hologram appeared, rolling around North's shoulder on that ever-present skateboard of his. "You can talk to North! He's not going to hurt you or anything, I promise! He's here to help!"

"What."

Marco was just about ready to excuse himself from North's presence and find somewhere to wring his hands in peace, but when the tiny skateboarding armored holographic figure popped up out of nowhere and started talking, he just Stared.

"Who are you? What are you? Oh man, I'm really imagining things now."

At least he switched from paranoid to just plain old bewilderment.

Yep. He was expecting that, really. He couldn't help but to chuckle as Theta rolled back and forth on his little skateboard, though he was mindful of anyone walking by them possibly noticing him.

Being pink and purple didn't exactly make you invisible.

"I'm an AI unit," Theta responded promptly. "Implanted to help Agent North be more efficient on the field. I monitor the frequency of his energy shield so he can fire through it, but the enemy can't fire at us! .. And other stuff."

"Not all of the AI our agents have are as .. talkative as Theta, here," North interjected with another small chuckle. "He was paired with me for a reason."

Marco's choices were to continue denying that this was actually happening, or suck it up and let himself suspend enough disbelief so that he could actually function. And he had to admit: tiny skateboarding holographic AI? Pretty cool.

At the same time, certain keywords from Theta popped out more than others. Agent. Field. Energy shield. 'Implanted'?? He stared at Theta's actions in fascination, resisting the urge to stick out a finger and poke the hologram. Except he might not be able to reach that high.

"Dude, you call that talkative? I'd call that totally sweet. Though it's kinda weird that he sounds like, you know, a little kid? Especially in like, battles and stuff. Can't you program him to sound more like, I dunno, a robot or something? Like the voices the AI always have in video games and movies or whatever."

[ He gives a look of 'no shit, Cap', scoffing at the implication. He might be too much of a spoiled genius, but it worked in the end. ]

He'll catch up with the rest of us plebes. Now if only I could find a place to settle down. [ And not flip out and transform, that is. ]

[Ah but the thing is Steve doesn't know it worked out in the end. He only knows that Tony is irritating, just as he had been on the Helicarrier and nothing else.]

I hope so, I think he could do a lot of good if he put his mind to it.

[Now that he can help with.]

We have an extra bedroom. You're welcome to it. [Then someone other than him can keep an eye on Tony.]

Marco .. didn't have a whole lot of choices, did he? It didn't appear that way .. and if North thought about it, he really wished one of those options was actually acknowledging,/i> what was going on around him and allowing himself to acclimate to the situation was one of those choices.

But .. he'd been a teenager once, and while he'd never found himself in any situations like this before, he didn't think he would have been able to take it all at face-value, anyway.

But .. it seemed Marco was at least warming up to him - or maybe just Theta - and that meant he was getting somewhere. He thought. "He's more talkative than the other AI assigned to our agents," he clarified with a small hum, looking over at his companion as he rolled and rolled back and forth. "Delta only speaks up when he thinks it's necessary - or when he feels the need to prove York wrong about something, which is pretty often .. and Sigma .. Sigma is just one of those creepy-sounding ones that you don't really want to listen to unless you really have to."

He'd never said that out loud .. but he'd been thinking it pretty loudly ever since Maine had been implanted with him. But at the question, he found himself humming in thought. "I've never thought about it, because I'm not the one that programmed him. He was given to me like this, and I honestly wouldn't have it any other way."

.. And if Marco ever wanted to poke at Theta, he was more than welcome - because he didn't think the little guy would have a problem with it. He'd probably find it amusing.

I'll keep that in mind.

[ He was expecting this to be a temporary thing, but if they're already settling in long term, Bruce figures he might as well join the fray on that front. ]

So what exactly do we do here, sit and rebuild? Make this place ours?

Acclimatization was one of those tricky things that took a bit of time; the logical part of the brain notices that something in the environment has changed, while the emotional part of the brain remains unwilling to accept it. Eventually, after a lot of internal conflict, the two parts reach an equilibrium. Either you change the world to fit your expectations, or you change your expectations to fit the world, but either way, the transitional state between them was unpleasant.

Circumstances were hard to change, especially when you're just a kid. Marco knew that, and he also knew that there was a bigger picture happening here that he was not going to have the ability to comprehend for some time. What was left for him to deal with was directly in front of him: he was in a weird place, talking to a weird dude, with a weird little skateboarding AI. Weird things were pretty funny, and Theta's appearance seemed such an absurdity on top of everything else he'd seen so far that it seemed better to laugh at what was happening to him than curl up into a ball and cry for his daddy.

"So, uh, what sort of work do you guys do? If you're like, allowed to talk about it or whatever." The temptation was too strong, and he finally stood up on his toes to reach for Theta, making a little ramp with his hand in front of Theta's skateboard. You know. Like trying to pick up a parrot from someone's shoulder.

For being a couple of hundred years behind the curve, he was fairly impressive in just how quickly he was working hiw way around it - and really, if you thought about the Reapers and the origin of most of this tech, it was far older even than that; stagnation was the only reason it wasn't far more advanced than even this, she sometimes thought.

"They're impressive equipment. When you start with a new one, they can be used by anybody at all - but the longer you use it, the more it keys into your thought patterns and the way you personally respond to stimuli. Eventually, it can barely be used by anybody else - like attaching someone else's arm onto your own." She's still watching him tap at the interface, clearly gaining confidence the longer he works.

She thinks about his question for a moment, murmuring the words, "Cosmic energy...." to herself thoughtfully, but all she can come up with on the spot is, "Do you mean dark energy? Seventy per cent of the universe's make up, responsible for its expansion?"

She's not sure if that's what he means, though - they don't exactly use it in technology; they know very little about it.

I'm sure Tony would be happy if you'd join us and affording rent here isn't easy.

[Please come cheer Tony up. He's tired of staring at the shut door.]

For now, we can't do much else. Until we know more about why we're here we need shelter and food. I think we all hope to go home but nobody knows how.

The idea of having a system that adapted to him was a concept that was very exciting for Kengo -- the advanced technology of this age really would be a great opportunity for him to learn more things that could help him, in the event that he would return home. While he liked to think it was possible, he really was starting to doubt his chances, but... there was someone who would want him to stay positive, so he tried to remind himself of that.

"It's similar to dark energy. My father started research on it about twenty years before my current time. His notes said he found a device on Earth's moon that he didn't know the origin of, but it was composed of cosmic energy and reverse engineering it helped him to find out ways to use it. I've been working with cosmic energy for the last year and a half with most of the technology and systems I build. It's an infinite resource, once you figure out how to use it..."

Kengo stopped himself at that point, realizing how much he was rambling. It was a topic he was passionate about, clearly. However, it was a bit disappointing to hear that technology didn't use his father's research at all. If this was the same timeline he came from, then it was possible all of the research was lost with the destruction of the KRC. After all, Kengo had really been the only one with access to the research.

Tricky, tricky .. of course it was. No one was all that great at adapting when the situation that they found themselves in was something completely different from what they were used to. North .. hadn't had too much of a difficult time, even if things on Omega were different from life on the Mother of Invention - he was still used to existing in space. Being around aliens, not so much, but .. that was something he was just going to have to get over.

There was a smile that came when Marco reached to make that little ramp for Theta, and he was even more pleased when the AI took the incentive without a moment's hesitation - and while he made it over it, he promptly wobbled and toppled over into that small hand, the skateboard rolling to a stop on a patch of air right next to him. "Ah, why does that always happen?"

He shook it off, picked himself up and went to retrieve his skateboard, getting back on it and continuing rolling around. "We .. hrm." How to explain what he does to a child without it sounding too .. graphic?

(Even if he was pretty sure that Marco would love to hear it that way.)

"We're soldiers, mostly. We deal with insurrectionists. So we, uh .. shoot people for a living, basically."

Yep. Best explanation ever.

North was dealing with a kid raised on the best of video game violence and fictional depictions of superheroes and action stars. His own life has just turned into a ridiculous science fiction movie. If he was going to fully embrace his new status as a puny little human stranded on a space station full of remorseless cutthroat aliens, he was going to need plenty of brutal honesty here.

"Counter-insurgency special agents? Cool, dude. You're a lot more chill than I'd expect someone in that line to be, I guess." He shrugged, as if all of a sudden all of this was no big deal at all. Sure, there were a lot of things to deal with. He'd deal with them later.

Meanwhile, he gave a little grin at the little AI that just fell into his hands. How does that even happen? Gravity shouldn't affect a holographic projection. Marco wasn't going to ask any questions about that. "Lean heelside. Don't let the board get away from you." Never mind that the only skating Marco had done was on video games. But it seemed like a reasonable thing to say! He made another ramp with his other hand so Theta could try again.

I'd be happy to. [ Provided they don't mind the other guy, but that's another story. He could keep to himself as needed, but the company -- Steve's and Tony's both, was something he thought he could handle for the sake of simply getting by. ]

Food and shelter I can definitely do, living on my own's been one of those things I can handle.

"Guess it's a good thing I'm not with the school board, then," York says right back with a grin, but she's a little distracted. It's a little delayed, but -- Marco. Seriously? Now she's pretty sure she knows why the kid looks so familiar. There's an age difference of five or so years, but -- man, no way. What are the odds.

"You said your name was Marco, right?"

Great, we're up in 089-F. The doors work a little strangely. Tony says there is some kind of code to lock the door through these. [He glances down at the omni-tool.] I was showed how to close it but I don't know if there's something you have to set-up.

[Don't ask him. He only knows that it works.]

Place is a mess. Needs some work on the plumbing.

Marco really, really doesn't like that look that York's suddenly giving him. It raises the hairs on the back of his neck a little, for reasons he can't quite put a finger on. He sort of wants to inch away slowly and bolt, even more so at her question. Shit, should he have given a fake name?

"That's what I said, right? Though I'm not picky, you can call me Matt or Juan or Steve or Isaac."

There was no reason anyone here should be looking at him like they thought they recognized him. He's trying to keep his tone casual, rolling his eyes as if he just can't believe that she needs to ask him his name again, but mostly to cover up the fact that he's trying to check to quick escape routes.

[ It's odd enough to hear someone calling his name on a still-unfamiliar station that his first instinct is to tense up, but when he turns it doesn't take more than seeing Ino to make him relax. He hasn't seen her since he arrived, but as long as she's in one piece, he figures that's good enough. ]

Oh-- hey, Ino.

[ Wash turns as the volus huffs at him, and the look he gives Shepard is closer to exasperated than anything else. This hasn't been his most productive shopping trip, and after so long of not having to deal with vendors in person, he's found he didn't miss it. ]

Hey, I'd take goldfish. I've never seen half of these before.

[ Zoe's always been quick, but it feels like it only takes a step and a half to get to Benji's side. Zoe doesn't waste a single moment in squeezing her tight, not about to hide how relieved she is to see her sister. No matter what's going on here, as long as they're together, she knows it'll all be okay.

For a moment, she looks at Benji without the slightest idea of what she's talking about, but the way her sister's looking at her face clues her in. ] --Oh! Nothing happened, I just had to punch some batarians. And kick 'em. Kicking's the fun part.

But never mind that-- you're here! Where's everybody else? Why're we on Omega?

[Alive and kicking. She ambles on over, adjusting her bags but still smiling.]

You know, I almost didn't recognize you without the helmet but it's much better this way.

[And now she'll realize where exactly they're at. Fish stand. She thinks. Those are fish? She might be side-eying them a bit.]

Um, what are you up to?

You're not from around here, are you?

[Sounds like a line from a Western. Oh well.]

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welcome to omega, round two.

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things i can't do - tag on time

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why didn't you tell me my html was bojanked. :|

because bojanked isn't even a word

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soooooob i am so sorry this is so late.

hello i am hideously late.

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it's okaaaaaaay! lol hope you had a good vaca

hello it matters not :3