Operation: Roll Out

[initiates]

Date & Time: January 31st - February 4th, Present Day Exsilium Time
Location: Neo Las Vegas, in what formerly was called Turkey.
Characters: All Transports!
Summary: Transports have been sent to Neo Las Vegas to gather information on the origin point of the United Earth and the UE AI. Conference sabotage and the rest is expected and invited!
Warnings: Gambling and alcoholic beverages quite likely! Please PM the mod account for anything else.

By day, the landscape isn't desert, precisely, so much as it is dry. Winter's settled in and found in the biting chill of the wind when it finds you standing on the street. Hovercars and taxis thrum down the cobblestone streets, cavorting and honking like a noisy crowd of inelegant, overweight geese. Men walk by on stilts half in make-up, on their way back to their stage for the next night. Walks of shame are taken proudly in this district, one of the few approved and sanctioned vacation zones in the United Earth.

Evidence of law enforcement can be found all around, but they seem altogether too pleased to be there too. Talk with any one of them about crime rates, and they're liable to laugh at the idea. Those who come to gamble know the house is rigged to win. It's not about making or breaking the bank -- people whose funds dip too low are politely escorted back to their rooms and given a set of normal playing cards -- but it is about enjoyment.

Of the flesh too, and it'd be difficult to find anyone working in Neo Las Vegas who suffers from modesty, or anyone visiting who seems unwilling to politely ask visitors and staff if they'd like to keep them company for the night. In fact, Transports may find themselves needing to turn down multiple such requests! The refusal is always taken well. These are people looking to have a good time, and that's all.

No chance taken, nothing gained, right?

At night, the city really comes alive, the lights in all the hotels and casinos turning the Neo Las Vegas Strip into a carnival of sensation. Drinks and recreational drugs are freely passed around, men and women engage in a variety of sexual and other hedonistic excesses without regret, and the beautiful interiors and ostentatious or playful exteriors of the buildings hide and reveal a rich tapestry of events, delectables, and desires waiting to be fulfilled.

Neo Las Vegas is a fun place, and it is a safe place, and it is Where the Conferences For Our Future Are Made. Playtime is on, gang.

Comments

open ...edited for surprise injury, whoops.

[lazyinlove]

a
Being summoned to party (and there was something about a conference but frankly, Stan tune all of that out) was his idea of a mission. It was also the only official sort of mission he' ever been dragged on, save one. That time he and Peter ran off to California for a bit was just for fun. And medical supplies, but anyway.

Arriving in a big crazy strip full of roller coasters and whatever was inside casinos that people got so into, and more importantly hover cars (!) was as good as it had been in his whole life. All the food and drinks and drugs were just extra little bonuses. He turned a cartwheel right there in the street, making a few of the hover cars honk and swerve. Not that he minded. It felt good to be somewhere happy instead of miserable. It felt amazing.

b
Stan's eyes and nose are a bit red, maybe a bit more than the temperature warrants. He's also got a sling on one arm, with a cast and a finger splint tucked away inside. In spite of that he seems to be in fairly good spirits. In fact, he swings around a light post cheerfully. He also slips off, being that he's down to one good arm, but even the part where he lands soundly on his ass doesn't seem to put him off all that much. He doesn't even voice a complaint about it, just glances serenely at his surroundings. Yeah, life is pretty sweet at the moment. Sorry if he's in your way, parked on the sidewalk like that, because he's not really interested in moving at the moment. It's a cool new perspective as far as Stanley's concerned.

b

[khajidont]

[Walking down these busy streets, any familiar face is welcome - even if that familiar face happens to belong to a body that looks a little banged up. He stares down at Stan for a moment before leaning over a little, hands still stuffed in his pockets.

Seeing Stan like this seems to be a trend.]

Having fun down there?

[lazyinlove]

[For Stan, falling on his ass and deciding not to bother with getting up is in fact something of a trend. He glances up at Jaime and lifts his eyebrows in a nonverbal greeting. There's really no way to overstate just how happy he is to be here instead of where they came from, so he nods. Hell yeah, he's having fun.]

It's not a snow drift.

[khajidont]

It's not a snow drift, [Jaime agrees readily enough. That is a point in this place's favour, that's for sure. He glances around at the crowds around them, and sees that some people are giving Stan dirty looks here and there for taking up precious sidewalk space.

Jaime could help Stan to his feet and get out of everyone's way, but then again, he really doesn't have anywhere to be, or anywhere to go.

So he sits his ass down in front of him, leaning back on his hands and ignores anyone who has an issue with the dumb kids who decided to sit in the middle of the sidewalk.]

So how'd you hurt yourself?

[lazyinlove]

Fell off a building.

[Stanley replies, surprisingly calm and indifferent, given the subject matter. He holds up his arm a little, but grimaces and lets it fall back into place. His shoulder is still really sore on that side. Ow.]

[khajidont]

Oooo-kay. [Jaime squints a little, trying to figure out whether or not he's joking. It's kind of hard to tell with Stanley.] And how'd you end up falling off a building?

[lazyinlove]

Uh, 'cause I was sitting on one and a girl sort of tripped on me.

[Something like that anyway. He shrugs, then winces again, regretting it immediately. The painkillers are good and all, but shrugging is still a bad idea. He frowns, a slight look of guilt crossing his features.]

Think I scared her.

[khajidont]

Oh, ouch. [He winces at about the same time as Stanley through sympathy alone.] You're lucky you only hurt your arm.

[Even if it's not really the definition of keeping a low profile, that actually sounds like an honest accident.] Was she okay too?

[lazyinlove]

Yeah, she's tough. Plus we only fell a little. There's like plexiglass clouds up there or something.

[He glances upward again, taking in the strange wonders of this crazy place for a long moment.]

I tried to grab her and the building and it...I dunno. Yanked something.

[khajidont]

Plexiglass clouds? [Jaime follows Stanley's gaze upwards, but his attention's held for longer than Stanley's as he tries to make them out. This place is bizarre, and he may not be in the mood to partake in much of the festivities, but he can't help but be interested in something like that. He makes a mental note to check it out later.

Pity going for a fly would absolutely attract too much attention.

He's actually still staring up when he asks,]

What d'you mean by yanked something?

[lazyinlove]

Y'know. Like...out.

[Stan makes a gesture with his good arm, like reaching to grasp something and getting caught on it. It was a whole shoulder wrenching, finger breaking, wrist popping deal. Yanked.]

[khajidont]

[That demonstration is sufficient to draw Jaime's attention away from the sky, and he winces in sympathy once he catches Stan's meaning. That just sounds nasty.] Ouch.

[And here Stan is, sitting in the middle of the sidewalk - with Jaime, now, so who is he to judge? - and evidently feeling just fine. Either he's really happy to be out of their little winter wonderland, or...]

I guess whoever patched you up gave you some of the good stuff for that?

[lazyinlove]

[That gets a little grin out of Stan in response. Yeah, it's safe to say that his pain has been managed. It still hurts to move the wrong way, actually, but it's a soft, fuzzy feeling of pain mostly. Unless he really overdoes it, the sharpness is muffled, and the burn is more of a feeling of uncomfortable friction.

Tomorrow it'll be a bitch, unless the little bottle of tablets they gave him are as good as whatever was in that sweet drip and the needles they used when they were crunching things back into place. Whatever, it feels alright at the moment.]

Yeah, it's alright. What's up?

[A question which he helpfully punctuates by actually glancing up, as though maybe something's there after all and it's not just an expression. Nothing unexpected is up there, but his eyes do follow the roller coasters that run between some of the buildings. He glances back down again at Jaime.]

You puked yet?

[There's an unspoken invitation there as well. Ya wanna?]

[khajidont]

Eh, nothing really. Some roller coasters and some crazy signs, mostly, [he says, gesturing at a few of the more colourful - and lewd - neon signs advertising the various types of entertainment available to them.

[As for the offer...] Nah. I'm not really into any of this stuff. [He gestures to what may as well be all of Vegas. Even if he were speaking of Vegas in general, he wouldn't be too far off the mark. Paco would be having a blast here, he's sure, but this is completely out of his comfort zone.]

a

[commentboxtroll]

From what Caesar could tell, someone cartwheeling through traffic was a norm for New Las Vegas. Most of him said to carry on while ignoring it, as he was planning to do with most everything outside the conference here, but there was one problem with that.

He totally recognized that guy.

On one hand, it would've been perfectly sensible to keep going and let him inevitably get run down by hover cars, but he figured someone, somewhere, might be a little upset by that. So it was with a great sigh that he strolled out into the very same street to make a grab for Stan and bodily drag him back onto a sidewalk.

Or try, anyway. It was stick boy versus stick boy!

[lazyinlove]

On the bright side, Stan isn't very heavy. He also doesn't object to being tugged around by people, since he's pretty well used to it by this point in his life. He is, on the other hand, a fair mount taller than Caesar. If there's a wrench in the plan, it's pretty much going to come down to that.

"Huh?"

[commentboxtroll]

He'll manage. If Stan isn't going to put up a fight, the dragging will get them more or less somewhere safer to stand.

"I thought 'don't play in traffic' was something you Earth people were big on, but there you are, trying to get hit."

[lazyinlove]

"Where are you from?"

Nope, no fight. Just vague curiosity. He'd always assumed Caesar was just from back in time or whatever, but totally still from earth. Apparently not. Woah.

[commentboxtroll]

"Somewhere that isn't Earth."

Similar, but definitely not Earth. That was all he would say on it, seeing how they were still smack dab in the middle of enemy territory. That didn't change just because that territory happened to be a drunken paradise with non-stop partying.

"What in the world made you think doing that across traffic was even remotely a good idea?"

[lazyinlove]

Stan's reply to that is the ever helpful shrug. He was just goofing around, so what? No one hit him. It's fine.

He doesn't press for more details, either. If the dude doesn't want to talk about home then maybe his place sucks too. Better leave it be.

"You ever take the stick out, or is it wedged in really far?" He asks instead, casually. It's not meant as an insult, so much as genuine curiosity. Which really could have been phrased better, but Stanley has a habit of assuming that people won't bother trying to read between lines that don't exist. The fact that he's continuously been proven wrong about that never does seem to factor into his considerations.

[commentboxtroll]

It takes more than that to really upset Caesar, so there isn't any forthcoming explosion at any perceived insult. That would take more energy than he cares to continue expending. Worse, it would cause a scene, so...

He just sighs and lets go of Stan.

"There isn't any stick at all. Fine. Go on, go get yourself killed if that's what you really want to do."

These people seriously have no sense!

[lazyinlove]

"Thanks."

Not about telling him to go die, more like the helping hand to begin with.