[1st Day of New Mingle] Signs of Life?

[scarsolderthanyou]

Be careful out in Taurus. Something shitting shot at me.

That means there's probably some kind of people down there. Programs. Whatever. I couldn't catch a trail, because they don't have any kind of scent.

What kind of people don't have a scent. Rrr.

[Yes, he just growled on the network. Sorry, guys, he's annoyed.]

Comments

[vrepit_no]

Where are you in Taurus? Do you have coordinates? Are we talking bullets or laser bolts?

[scarsolderthanyou]

I don't know what any of those words mean, Shiro.

[vrepit_no]

[ ....oh boy. Right. Rephrase.]

Sorry. Where are you and what did they shoot at you?

[scarsolderthanyou]

[The joys of working with someone from a hunter-gatherer society, right Shiro? At least he doesn't grump further at him, he just answers the question now that it's in language he can understand.]

We flew east past the round city thing in Taurus, but there's no sun here so I don't know exactly how long it's been. I could tell you how far it is in ells, but I have no idea what that translates to in distance in here.

The thing they shot was some round solid thing. It wasn't too small to do damage if it had actually hit me, but it wouldn't have blown my wing off, either. I didn't get a great look at it when it was flying past me, and I haven't found where it landed yet.

[vrepit_no]

[Ells. Ells?? Wait. Isn't that something from, like... the medieval era???? Just how far back are you from, Stone??]

Are there any landmarks around you? Did you see the weapon or the Program that fired?

[scarsolderthanyou]

[He's not from your world, Shiro. Surely you of all people understand alien planets with different technological levels and words for things.]

There's hardly any landmarks at all around here. At least in the last sector thing there were canyons. There are a couple rocks off to the north of where we landed that might be distinctive enough to find.

I didn't see the program doing the shooting, I was too busy dodging. But they left some things behind.

[He pulls up his handy new sensory livestreaming skill and shows Shiro the large batons on the ground.]

[vrepit_no]

[Usually he's helping with evacuations or supply distribution, not discussing engineering terms. And liminal is full of people more modern again! When in doubt, blame ninjas.]

...Those aren't guns. Those are mortars! Or rocket launchers, if they're fired from the shoulder, but still. Siege technology, sort of. Explosive shot, like what took out the rail line near Aries. They're for taking out wide areas, or causing lots of structural damage. If they're really cruel they can be made to come apart into sharp fragments upon impact and shred the area with shrapnel. But usually the main thing is the explosion.

[scarsolderthanyou]

[It's okay, Shiro, he's used to it. Nobody gets him and his early-agricultural hunter mindset.]

Huh. I'm going to be glad I dodged, then. I do make a pretty big target.

[vrepit_no]

They're not meant for use directly against a single living target, so yeah, they'd do a lot of damage and possibly outright kill you. Just how big-- No, not relevant right now. If you can get a hold of one of those tubes and bring it back, that would be helpful. Both, if you can. The less we leave for them to reconstruct the better if they're going to use these kinds of tactics.

[scarsolderthanyou]

I'm big.

[He sounds amused, and he puts his dark-scaled, clawed hand down next to the rocket launcher batons, to show the size. His hand is bigger than the baton is, he could easily hold both of them in one hand.]

I'll bring them back with us. I already have to drop people off, I might as well bring these along. They won't be that much extra weight.

You'll probably see me coming, if you're in the city. All my spines have that stupid white glow.

[vrepit_no]

...Oh. Wow. I'll see if I can be there to meet you. [He won't be, but he'll try.]

[scarsolderthanyou]

[Wait till you see him in person, whenever that is, Shiro.]

I'll look for you. Stripy hair, right?

[vrepit_no]

Heh. Yeah, that's me. Black and white striped ponytail.

[scarsolderthanyou]

You're awfully young to be losing your color, aren't you? Or does your species just come in stripes?

[vrepit_no]

Sometimes we do, but usually it's artificially applied in someone my age, unless they got really unlucky geneology. But mine's natural. The most likely explanation is stress.

[scarsolderthanyou]

Huh. Good to know there's other reasons for it. You okay now?

[Since stress made his hair change color. Should he be on the look out for more hair color changes?]

[vrepit_no]

Suppose that depends on who you talk to. [He chuckles. ] I'm okay. Far better off than I used to be. Thanks for asking, though, Stone. It's kind of you.

[scarsolderthanyou]

[Stone is vaguely baffled by the thanks, not sure why that isn't something anyone would ask, but he'll roll with it.]

You're welcome. Let us know if you feel any more hair-color changes coming on.

[vrepit_no]

It doesn't quite work that way - I can't feel it happening. But I'll let people know if I start noticing even more grey hairs. Just be careful out there, okay?

[scarsolderthanyou]

I'll be fine. I've been flying too long to get taken out by these natives. You be careful, too.

[He sees Shiro as a lot more squishable than he is, sorry, dude.]

[portinari]

Shot. I have yet to see a weapon which shoots in the hands of the local Programs - what did they shoot with?

[scarsolderthanyou]

There's some kind of baton things on the ground, like the lightcycles when they're stored. They're bigger, though, like they would rest on someone's shoulder. Unless that someone is as big as me, then it would fit in my hand.

[portinari]

Some manner of cannon, perhaps. But left behind - too bulky to carry while they escaped?

[scarsolderthanyou]

Maybe. If they're normal program size, it would be heavy. Could be it's worthless after it's been used, or they only had the one shot and can't get more.

[portinari]

Given that you can shift it one-handed, if you would, bring it back. Perhaps we can determine something of use from studying the device.

[scarsolderthanyou]

I'll bring them both back to Taurus, that seems like it's where most of the Defender types are at. Shiro wanted to see them, too.

I don't think we've met before. What's your name?

[portinari]

Beatrice di Folco Portinari.

[scarsolderthanyou]

Stone. Line-grandfather of the Indigo Cloud court.

[Her name being so much longer and more complicated than his, he just goes ahead with the title, too.]

Been here a while and I've just missed you, or are you new?

[portinari]

I am not new, but I was away a very long time.

[scarsolderthanyou]

Welcome back.

[That's said dryly, because probably she's not all that happy to be here. Most of them aren't.]

I haven't been here very long compared to everyone else, it seems.

[butthemiracleneverhappen]

So there are Zodiac-native programs still extant.

What kind of weapons, is there any marker of their passage at all? Visual, audio, anything?

Can you normally scent the programs here or is that unique to this encounter?

[scarsolderthanyou]

Everything has a scent, even in here. This is crazy, that these programs don't.

[He still sounds annoyed about it all out of proportion to the matter. Possibly he is shunting his annoyance at being taken by surprise and then losing his assailants so quickly and funneling it into that.]

The weapons are baton things, like everything else around here. I didn't see them, I just felt the thing they shot coming and dodged. There were gone by the time I dived.

[butthemiracleneverhappen]

It's unusual for ranged weapons to be physical objects here - most of them have "Ray-casters," a weapon that directly blasts someone with focused energy. I'm curious why they used a missile.

That is interesting, though, that they were scentless. They may have advanced stealth Functions designed to baffle your talented nose - or at least, any given talented nose.

[scarsolderthanyou]

Maybe it's old. This place hasn't been part of the rest of the world-- the network, whatever-- hasn't been part of that in years. Centuries even, right? Maybe all their stuff is old-fashioned.

I can't imagine why they'd feel the need to hide their scents. Are there other predators around here who hunt by scent?

[butthemiracleneverhappen]

Natural ones? Almost certainly not. Everything resembling a creature here was designed, not emergent from the environment.

Artificial bloodhounds, though? I can see why they'd want such a useful Function.

[scarsolderthanyou]

So there might be other creatures who hunt by scent. That's all I was asking, not how they came to be here.

[He literally does not care about the why.]