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

[controlledvariable]

[It takes her a second to get through the password, but then in the system and pulling up any files that look like they might be relevant.]

I'm betting most of these guys wouldn't take you seriously, anyway.

[Considering his age.]

[unmasking]

Very, very encouraging.

[Peter watches what she's at, somewhat surprised she's that good—but not overly surprised. It's a skill that would come in handy considering their line of work if they didn't have it in the first place.]

But I'll have you know scientists take me seriously. When I don't exhibit poor social skills, anyway.

[controlledvariable]

[You can't work alongside Oracle for almost a year without picking up a few tricks.]

I thought they might not be able to look past the whole teenager thing.

[It's a problem Tim ran into on occasion.]

[unmasking]

I worked hard to get people to take me seriously ... outside of here, but I managed it. [With some. Captain America doesn't count. Carol Danvers doesn't count. Peter likes them not counting because he doesn't like them overly much.]

[controlledvariable]

[She nods, because wow can she understand that.]

Well, hopefully they don't give you too much trouble here for the next couple of days.

[She's still looking over files as she talks, and after a second she fishes a USB drive out of her pocket to plug in so she can copy some things across.]

[unmasking]

If they do, I'll just have to work extra hard on growing some facial hair for next time.

[controlledvariable]

[That earns a laugh, though she muffles it so she doesn't draw too much attention to herself.]

Sorry, sorry. All I can think about are my ex's shitty fake moustaches and goatees when he had to go undercover.

[Mr Sarcastic tho]

[unmasking]

... Was he as young as me when he did it? [It sounds like a good, logical question to ask.]

[controlledvariable]

He was like, fifteen or so? Something like that.

[Tim Drake, everyone.]

[unmasking]

Okay, just for the record: I said that as a joke.

[He didn't think it'd actually work.]

[controlledvariable]

[She laughs even as she goes digging in her bag for the wallet she brought from home.

Because inside there's a strip of photos from a photobooth, of Steph and "Alvin Draper", terrible facial hair and all, which she hands to Peter once she's found it. Both Steph and Tim are about fifteen, and in a couple of the photos Steph's very round belly is noticeable. In the first photo, Tim is clearly fussing at Steph, but after that he's smiling and pulling faces right alongside her.

It's one of the few photos of Tim that she has.]

We used to go to the mall after my lamaze classes, I dragged him into a photobooth once because I wanted to immortalize his shitty disguise.

[unmasking]

You had a kid...? [The thought makes him stop and look her over. He has a very limited thought on these things, partly fostered with his sometimes nonexistent thoughts on sex. He blinks and looks Tim over more seriously.]

He really isn't convincing. No one ever told him about masks?

[controlledvariable]

A little girl, couple of years back.

[It's not necessarily a secret, she's just a bit picky about who she mentions it to, but Peter's a friend, and a good kid, so she doesn't mind him knowing.]

He wore a mask the rest of the time, but he couldn't exactly wear one while he was civvies. And this was before I knew his real name.

[unmasking]

Oh. [It's more like he's processing it than anything. He doesn't have much more to say on it.]

But I guess knowing his face didn't mean you knew his name. ... But why didn't he just tell you?

[controlledvariable]

Those were the rules that Batman laid down, and he wasn't gonna against them.

[She always thought it was a little bit bullshit, the claim that telling her Tim's would jeopardize Bruce's identity; she likely wouldn't have put two and two together.]