exsiliumlogs | [OPEN] we expected something

Entry tags:

[OPEN] we expected something

Date: various; post-zombie attack
Location: Various
Characters: Charlie Cutter and YOU
Summary: ~~Skullduggery~~ Charlie does his homework.
Warnings: None (as of yet, will edit if applicable)
Notes: Get yer pre-mutiny CR building opportunities here!

[CAFETERIA]
[Gathering supplies - food, medical kit - is all vital, but being well fortified isn't what's going to win them anything in the end. So more and more, Charlie can be found with his nose in his tablet reading and making notes, brow furrowed and mouth pinched into a thin line.

Reading, research, quoting lines back - all that he can do. But figuring out how to order his own words properly, anything to do with writing something respectable of his own? Less his forte. Oh, he's a good liar when he needs to be, but he's not stupid enough to think they'll slide through this with a little fast talk.

So he's hunched over a meager lunch from what's left of the cafeteria's stores in the wake of the zombie invasion, carefully making notations in hard copies of old speeches that he's found in the AI's database.

Christ, it's the sort of thing designed to produce a headache.]

[VR ROOMS]
[Charlie hasn't actually spent much time in the VR rooms, but they've got their advantages. Though he doesn't go so far as to bother with constructing anything complete, but rather spends some time tinkering up partial floor plans. It's something he'd usually prefer to have on paper, but resources are scarce and - if he'd being exceedingly honest - he's never been much of an artist.

He runs the builds late in the evening when someone's more likely to go off to one of the other compartments rather than take too close a look at what he's doing, but that doesn't necessarily mean his work always goes uninterrupted.]

(ooc: any format is a-okay and if neither option appeals to you, feel free to throw up something random and I can just tag in as is appropriate.)

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How odd?

I imagine it's old, given all the glitches we've experienced. But I never thought to investigate why.

[He crosses his arms and sighs. He recognizes Charlie's irritation, so he doesn't plan to stay long, but he is curious]

[That gets an impassive shrug, noncommittal in a lot of ways.] Mostly it's historical documents - old government dossiers, half the contents blacked out. That sort of thing. Dull as dishwater unless you've a head for it. [Half declassified files left over from old versions of the world aren't his favorite thing right now. Any other day? Absolutely. But having to sift through them while trying to unearth useful files is like separating wheat from chaff.

Charlie nods to the tools Billy has with him.] I see you're keeping busy.

I'm still fixing the base. I'm learning how to operate a spacesuit so we can fix the breach in the shower walls now.

I guess it's a little grueling---fix something, something else breaks, and we never quite know what's happening.

Breach in the shower walls. [He repeats carefully. Lovely.] My advice would be to keep the helmet on, for starters.

I have been, don't worry.

[He grins, but it's not quite sincere.]

I'd love to get home before a bigger catastrophe can happen. A few good punctures and we die.

[Charlie raises his hand slightly - like a vote that he's right there with Billy.] You're preaching to the choir, mate. This space nonsense isn't really my thing.

I didn't miss it.

I've been trying to make this place survivable, but I'd really prefer to head home. But they're not being forthcoming about the clues, are they?

I'm just blindly doing missions here.

You and everyone else. What boggles me is the bit where the Initiative's still pulling people in; we're low on space and supplies, but they're still hauling in truckloads - there's not exactly a proper war to be fought right now either; stuffing this place so full we can hardly breathe isn't helping anything.

[Just means more missions have to be run for the basics - food, water, to keep the base in repair so they don't all get sucked into space - more often; de-prioritizes getting back to Exsilium at all.

What a train wreck.]

And we have to be so concerned with just surviving that our ability to fight is compromised.

It makes no sense.

Not much of this does, if you ask me. [Which is distinctly bitter, low and growling in a way Charlie doesn't even try to hide.] So far as you know, has anyone even been trying to organize moving against the UE? Hunting down that rover they might have up here?

I don't know, no. But I know I definitely need more information from them than what I have.

I'm worried about what happens when the transporter goes down in the middle of a food shortage, for example.

[It's all a delicate balancing act, one where they've got time working against them: how long can they keep this tin can running and supporting life versus how long it takes for them to fix things down on the planet.

Charlie briefly pinches the bridge of his nose, mouth pulling.] Suppose that's another thing to add to the long list of 'things that could kill us in the near future.'

It grows every time I think about it.

[He sighs and rests his head in his hands]

You'd think it would kill them to let us help.

[Charlie breathes out a low noise - not exactly of amusement, because being amused about this situation is so far below what's even remotely acceptable right now, but not really anything else either.

Close, Billy. But they're aiming not to kill anyone.]

Something needs to happen in any case. Things up here are untenable as they are now.

It does. Everything's entirely uncoordinated---I'm doing what I can with the clinic group to stabilize power to the base, and I think we did something to start to destabilize the future of nuclear bombs.

But who knows where that leads? If we knew what they know and don't know...

Instead they've put us in a dark room and expect us to hit a target we can't see. [It's not the first time he's used the metaphor, but hell- he likes it and Charlie's never been above repeating himself.]

And that's dangerous in more ways than one.

[Billy pokes at his toolbox with a quiet sigh.]

The last time I was in a situation like this, people pulled in from other world to fight a war, we were lost like this at the beginning too. It helped that we could organize enough to negotiate control...but we're so disbanded it seems impossible to get anything done.

[Charlie glances up, mouth drawn briefly into a thin line.] Yeah? How'd you lot do it the last time?

[Because if he intends to do it here, there's no reason he can't mine for a little advice.]

Well...

[Billy had never actively been involved in the politics and plotting. He was a mere mechanic, a supplier for the tools needed. But he had a vague idea.]

We had crew meetings. They were chaotic, but we eventually convinced most of the crew that our benevolent saviors needed to answer to us. We then charged forth and attempted to seize control of the ship's bridge. That ended in a space pirate battle and death, but we survived it.

Usually we had to throw some people in the brig during conflicts, but we made it.

So you mutinied.

[There's a decided, purposeful tone to how he says it - trimming through the diplomacy and cutting to the core of it. Simple and straight forward, but hardly accusatory.]

We didn't know exactly what we were acting against, but...yes.

At the time, we thought we were held captive solely by an AI system programmed to treat us as prisoners. It turned out that there were space pirates hiding on the bridge that we'd never received a hint about.

But we did break the prison AI.

[Charlie fixes him with a thoughtful look, chin set up in the palm of his hand, fingers tucked against his chin. It doesn't last long before he wrinkles his nose, throws his shoulder in what must be a shrug, but it's there.]

Doubt it'd work here; too many people and no one can agree on the color of the sky much less what to do about the Initiative.

[Which, for all intents and purposes, manages to sound about as dismissive as he wants it to.]

That needs to change.

[He drops his head]

And if we tried to enact any form of government...it might be worth pursuing, and I'd be happy to present a case for it, but I can already see the complaints.

[Charlie makes a sharp, dismissive gesture. When he speaks again, there's a definite combative element to his tone:]

Any kind of government you'd try to enact would take too long; we've got maybe two, three months before the UE figures out where he if they don't know it already. People should get their shit together or just space themselves now.

And how do you propose we get it together?

(no subject)

alittlesweptup - 2013-11-15 08:25 (UTC) - Expand

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