trans_9 | POLO!

Entry tags:

POLO!

Who: Allenby and VARIOUS
Where: All around the City.
Summary: Allenby is looking for more blind spots. Care to join her? Or search on your own!
Warnings: Only what you bring with you.

"Staaaacy! Heh heh." Allenby stepped outside the Temple of Small Gods. "STACY!"

||Hello, Allenby.||

Allenby stepped back over the threshold, perching on the stone sofa of Hessinin, the Upholsterers' God. "Staaaacy!"

Silence. Ringing, beautiful, silence. "Ha-hah! She can't hear me! She can't heeear me! My mind is mine, you supercilious spaceship!" The George de Sand-like verbiage was not very much in line with the way she was prancing around the temple, but she calmed down soon enough. This was a big discovery.

...Okay, so Stacy could just be faking her out here, but... well... the old crew had trusted her, right? Allenby didn't. But she knew there were blind zones. And she knew that you could get Stacy's attention by addressing her, something that Allenby had discovered when she had started her daily sessions of directing mental hate at the ship. So... this seemed to work. She grinned and pulled out her omnicomm, typed a quick message, and then hopped up to the Temple's roof to scout out some more places to test.

[ooc: TOTALLY OPEN, guys. Check out this entry for details!]

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She'd read the message, and in fact was starting to keep tabs on some people in the ship. The whole shore leave had really been a way for her to start noticing there was definitely a difference in the way people were acting on the ship, and it was rife with rebellion. At some point, something was going to happen, and the Daligig were bound to notice they weren't dealing with compliant, soft headed people. Where Hit Girl stood even she didn't know. What was certain was that she needed to keep watching.

And here was that girl Allenby, the one that Lash didn't like. "Yo."

Allenby leaned down and grinned, waving at Hit Girl. Looked like she was out in the wig today. "Hey there! Did you know that the planet this temple's from had a goddess of things that got stuck in drawers?"

Not quite on topic, but Allenby was too ebullient not to be a little silly.

"Are you serious?" Hit Girl smirked, chuckling as her mind wandered to Ruffnut and how seriously she took the whole Valhalla thing: the idea of that ridiculous a goddess was bound to make her laugh a little bit. "Not that I wouldn't like to know where my shit went when I lost it, but that's pretty out there."

Man, it would bother her to know how many people actually knew who she was though. "But you look like you're looking for more than just some goddess of lost shit."

"I guess it depends on how much furniture you got." Her grin sharpened at Hit Girl's insight, though. "You're right, though. I found somethin' I didn't even realize I was lookin' for."

She patted the roof she was sitting on. "Didja know that this here temple is one of those 'blind spots' in the City? Stacy can't hear what you think if you go in here."

"More than enough, actually," Hit Girl said, thinking of the castle/hotel she lived in. "Even so, its still weird to think of a God giving a crap about what you lose. Good on you though."

Hit Girl looked interested. "Huh. I didn't know Stacy had any kind of jurisdiction in the city anyway. Sure as hell don't want her knowing what I'm thinking though, especially not after all the shit Ive been hearing lately."

"Some, I think. It's not as good as other places in the ship like the Hangar. Maybe 'cause this place is more like a big salvage... storage level than somethin' like the Bridge or Engineering," Allenby said. She slid off the roof, landing in a crouch and bouncing right back up.

"I hate that she's in my head. And I was just doin' my daily... letting her know that when I wandered into this place and vvvp, silence! I'm gonna look for more places like this--wanna come with?"

Hit Girl followed her, showing that she could keep up just as easily, but was more interested in what she was saying more than anything. Allenby, as far as she could tell, was a pretty normal girl, but still had this way of doing everything she could to be herself when it came to the ship. In some instances, she could respect that.

"So you just happened to stumble here huh? Sounds like a pretty awesome random circumstance. Yeah, of course I'll come with you. I'm gonna have to figure out where I stand in all this mess eventually."

"Great!" Allenby turned north, or whatever counted as north in the City. "You want anywhere specific to try out, lemme know." She clasped her hands behind her head. "It is kinda tough to know what to do... sometimes I even wonder if the memories I have are real. But I'm sure I hate how things are goin' now. I want to change it."

She paused, hailed Stacy, got an answer--nuts--and continued on.

"Huh?" That was weird: she understood just about everything up until she started mentioning something about memories. "Why wouldn't your memories be real? And what the hell are you gonna do to change stuff?"

She followed the girl, now VERY interested in what was going on.

"If Stacy can wipe out memories and read our minds, what's to say she can't put in ones that're useful to the Daligig? Though, I don't think mine are fake, at least. Unless it's some weird reverse psychology thing, 'cause I hate 'em." Allenby said that pretty casually. Her life experiences predisposed her to be instantly resentful and mistrustful of people trying to control her.

As for changing stuff? Well, that was tricky. "And as for changing things... well, I think we need to find a way not to follow their orders anymore. But let's find another blind spot first. How 'bout you pick the next place to look in?"

"I don't see why she'd do that," Hit Girl said, shrugging. "Way I look at it, Stacy has her sphere of influence, but she's as much a pawn in all of this as we are. I watched her actions during the first punishment and during a bunch of other shit on the ship. No matter what most people say, Stacy was always used as a tool, but we can work that in our favor."

She grinned. "Not that I want her reading my thoughts, because I'm pretty fucking crazy. I told people I wasn't going to a psychiatrist and Stacy checking out my thoughts would be a pretty bad idea for me."

Now THERE was a good idea. "Damn right on that. I say next spot is the Jedi temple." No nerd influence there, of course not.

"Even if she's a tool, I don't trust her," Allenby said, scowling. "Waltzing into my thoughts and pretending like she was my mom wasn't a good move." Still, Hit Girl had been on the ship longer. Allenby hadn't witnessed the first Punishment for herself and she hadn't watched the entire recording of it--she'd tried to put it out of her mind as much as she could after running into it. "But okay, what did she do during that... Big Zero thing? Did she try to override herself or something?"

Jedi Temple... that was the big one that looked like someone had chopped off the top of a pyramid and shoved toothpicks in it, right? "Jedi Temple it is, then!" Allenby turned in that direction; the thing wasn't too hard to spot. (And fortunately for Hit Girl, she had no idea of the nerdy significance of the landmark.)

"Nah," Hit girl said, "at that time she couldn't. Big Zero was this huge racist bitch that lived for causing trouble all over the ship, and racked up all the violations to get the punishment anyway. It was a pretty fucked up punishment though, and Stacy, despite just being an AI, was pretty distraught by it. Sorta weird too, considering what she was meant for. say what you want, but...an AI is like a kid sometimes, even when its trying to be your mother."

If comics were any basis, actually.

"Ever been to this place before? Heh, well, better question, know what a Jedi is?"

Allenby grimaced. "Sounds like the kinda person I would've had to punch a few times. But yeah, no way anything could justify doing that to a person." She was still pretty dubious about Stacy, though. "I dunno. She might be like that, I guess, but she's still built and controlled by people I don't trust at all. It's nice that she'll feel bad if they decide to hurt us, but it's still nothing to rely on."

Though Allenby really didn't have much experience with AIs at all, before Stacy. And this hadn't been a great first impression.

"Jedi..." She was a few hundred years too late on that one. "Not a clue, nope. They some kind of religion?" Well, it was the Jedi Temple, after all.

"She's wasn't weak either: had to be strong enough to back up all her bullshit somehow. Even punched Billy, from what I hear. But I agree with you on Stacy even though I sorta wished I didn't. There's not a lot of trust with an AI who has to battle for her own conscience. It sorta has a way of throwing us to the wolves, you know? We need all the help we can get."

AI's were, in Hit Girl's eyes, no different front human beings that way: easy to be corrupted.

She snickered. "Something like that. They're supposed to be a force of good and light and all of that goody crap. They're also really powerful, so I would be surprised if Stacy can hear us there."

And VERY disappointed.

Allenby shrugged at the description of Big Zero. Sure, she might've been strong, but Allenby was a Gundam Fighter. It'd be a sad day if she couldn't teach some bigoted jerk a lesson or two. "Either she throws us to the wolves or some asshole AI decides to wake up and murder everyone for laughs." Worst ship to get drafted onto ever.

She chuckled when Hit Girl defined Jedi. "Good and light and all? So was mind-shieldin' one of the things that made them powerful? 'Cause then I bet they'd put protections on their HQ, yeah."

When they reached the actual Temple, though, Allenby let out a whistle. "Just how many of these Jedi guys were there?"

"Hey, we're a high in demand ship of heroes and super powered people, of course we're going to attract an unsavory crowd. That's just a sad fact. But what are you going to do? I'd still rather be on the ship than dead. We just have to be on our toes, right?"

Mind shielding? She hadn't thought of that, but she still wouldn't see why thy wouldn't have put up protections. They were fucking Jedi's, for Christ sake.

Hit girl shrugged. "Beat me. I don't know my nerd lore all that much. I'm not sure if this is before or after their fall by the Republic."

"Well, I'll still hit who or what I can hit," Allenby said with a grin. "I can put off hitting Stacy, though. I'm not even sure she's got a nose to punch."

She felt strangely hesitant about going inside. This place was... big. Not just in the sense of y'know, it being big, because that was bad enough. But walking up those huge flights of stairs to those ridiculously big doors was, well, a little intimidating for someone like her. "What's nerd lore got to do with it?" she asked. "And what's this Republic?"

"Yeah, I think when it comes to trying to hit Stacy, you'd be kinda in a losing battle there. She's sort of an AI, so that might make it hard."

Strangely, while Hit Girl respected and cared about Lash, Allenby actually reminded her of HER, really. They were both sort of strangers in a strange land when it came to the technologies of the ship and still adjusted to the best of their abilities.

"Ah, its just something people on my planet know a little, just because of the legends and shit." She was careful to make it sound like she didn't believe it too much. "And the Republic were some bad guys, you know, trying to rule the world, that whole thing. Tyranny, fighting, wars. So we might find this place pretty helpful."

Zouichi came around a corner, curious about what all the fuss was about. "Allenby? You all right?"

Not that she wasn't energetic under ordinary circumstances. It was just that... well, usually that energy didn't involve what looked like crowing at empty air.

Erk.

Had he heard all that? Oh. Well... if he had, it didn't matter. Allenby laughed and jumped down. "I'm fantastic, Zouichi! Guess what I just found out! Go on, guess!"

Well, it hadn't been that long since she'd posted to the network. He might not know.

"You've spontaneously developed mental shielding powers?" That was a joke, though who even knew on this ship. Anyway, when it came to Allenby and the ship, there was one major point of contention between the two of them, and that was the mindreading.

Allenby laughed. "Damn, you're a good guesser! You're real close, but not quite." She jabbed a thumb back at the Temple of Small Gods. "I found out Stacy can't get into this place. I must've yelled at her fifty times and I didn't get one response. And I know for a fact that she answers when you talk to her deliberately."

She looked very satisfied. "So I'm gonna look for other spots she can't get into."

"Really? It's never answered me at all." Then again, maybe the ship sensed Zouichi's deep and abiding haterade.

"That kind of information would be extremely useful if it's not putting you on..." He brought out his holographic map, making a notation about the temple and adding it to the existing data on the area. "Especially if we can't get a hold of the people who can get around the monitoring."

Edited 2012-03-16 04:52 (UTC)

"It depends on how direct you are, I think..." Allenby scratched the back of her head. "If I ask her something like I want an answer, she'll speak up. And if I do it out loud."

She stepped closer to get a look at that map--pretty neat little gadget! "She could be just trickin' me," she admitted grudgingly, "but she could be doing a lot of stuff. And it kinda seems too simple to be a trick, you know?" Unless it was too simple to be suspicious, so Stacy took advantage of it, and it really was suspicious--yeah. Slippery slope there. "Get around the monitoring... what do you mean by that? Like people who actually can use mental shields?"

Zouichi nodded. "Well, it's certainly worth a try. And I'm not totally sure, actually. I've heard there are a couple of people on board that can do things without getting caught by the ship. But I'm not one of them, and I'm about as psychic as a box of rocks, anyway."

He motioned to the map. "I'm going to be making a few copies, actually. Do you want one? I mean, if you're going to be looking for blind spots and all."

Allenby laughed. "Well hey, there's a good reason as any to like a box of rocks." She did want to learn how to do some kind of mental shielding. Allenby wasn't sure if her previous experience with Berserker systems or DG cells made her less vulnerable (the way bones didn't break in the same place twice) or more (because once a path is established it's easy to follow).

She grinned at the offer. "You bet! The City's a big mess anyway, heh. A map'd be pretty nice, even without marking blind spots on it. But the more this information gets spread around, the better."

Oops, well. Maybe she should bring that up with Zouichi who, though not psychic, had been practicing with Ildraniath to get better at not broadcasting his thoughts.

He nodded. "Maybe we can set something up where we can upload all of this to the Media Library. And stash a couple of copies around, too, just in case the ship gets delete-happy."

"Yeah, I'm already planning to put stuff up on the omnicomm network since Stacy can't get into that. The Media Library'd make it easier to find too, I bet." She grinned. "So even if Stacy decides to go in and rewrite our heads, it'll be somewhere."

She started walking, intending to search out other blind spots now that she'd found one. "We oughta see if there's some kinda pattern to them, too! That'd be pretty cool if we could predict how to find new ones."

Zouichi thought about that for a moment. "Okay, how about this? I think we'll find a number of these blind spots in enclosed spaces in the City. The buildings here aren't made of whatever the ship's made of. It seems likely that if it can't see into the building, it would be a blind spot."

"Hm... yeah, that ain't a bad theory! It's all stuff she grabbed out of the same places she grabbed us from. And maybe places that are heavily constructed and thick-walled are harder for her to see into..."

She pondered for a moment. "What about that big old castle--Camelot, or something? It's kind of a trek, but we can check out other places along the way too."

"Camelot? As in the Camelot?" Zouichi thought for a moment. "Well, it can't hurt to try. Have a lot of free time right now?"

This could turn out to be very interesting indeed.

"If the Camelot is the big castle from England, yup!" Allenby said. "I don't have anything super-urgent to take care of. Besides, this is important." So even if it had nothing direct to do with her job in Engineering, Allenby was going to do it.

She started off towards the west. "There might be blind spots not in buildings, too. So we oughta just call for Stacy now and then on the way--You there, Stacy?" Allenby scowled when she got back another damn ||Yes.||

Zouichi followed along at Allenby's pace. "To be honest, I don't know most of the old castles from the other. I mean, they're obviously very different, but I don't really know their names."

He sighed. "You know, I'm used to being in areas where there are security cameras everywhere. And yet I never got quite the feeling of being watched as I get here."

"Heh, I ain't much of a castle expert either. I just know that a lot of old Swedish ones look like big houses and Camelot's the one that uh... that legendary British guy lived in."

Allenby made a noise that was half-growl, half-sigh. "No kidding. God, I hate anything that looks into my head. I mean, doncha think that if there's any place you get that's completely yours, it ought to be your own mind?"

"King Arthur," said Zouichi, running a gloved hand along a crumbling wall.

"I... yes. On the other hand, sharing my mind with someone else for a brief time wasn't terrible." Which felt like a strange thing for him to be saying. After all, it wasn't too long ago that psychics made him rather uncomfortable.

And many of them still did, the ship included. But not Ildraniath.

Ashley was not in the best of moods to put it lightly. She had caught the sight of not so familair blue-haired woman being exceedingly loud. "Do you have to be so loud? I think they heard you in the Sensoriums."

Whoooops.

Allenby was pulled up short by sight of the serious-looking woman. "Well I dunno, if they're in the Sensoriums they might not care a whole lot anyway. I did just hit on a way to find Stacy's sensor shadows in the City, after all!"

What was that all about? Jamie glanced up from where he had been replacing a board on the front porch of his house - not too far from Central Park - and frowned slightly. Setting the hammer down, he dusted off his hands and headed off in the direction of the call, hurrying his steps a little when he spotted Allenby. It didn't occur to him to check his Omnicom first.

"Hey? What are ye doing that for?"

Allenby chuckled nervously, realizing that maybe she shouldn't have been quite so loud in her jubilance. "'Cause I just found a way to get out from Stacy's stupid mind-monitoring, that's why!" she said, unable to stop herself from grinning despite her embarrassment. "Pretty good reason to get excited, doncha think?"

"Ye have?" A crooked smile suddenly appeared on Jamie's face. "Hey, that's great!"

With that, they'd have places they can talk that she couldn't hear, and they needed those if they had any hope of succeeding at getting out from under the Daligig's thumb. "So you're going around talking to her, and seeing where she's talking back to ye? Is that it?"

"Haha, yup!" Allenby raised a fist to punctuate. "Seems almost too simple, doesn't it? But I wasn't even thinking about finding blind spots when I realized she'd gone all quiet, and when I tried it for real it was the same. So it's as good a starting point as any, right?"

"Aye. Aye, it is." A thoughtful look crossed his face, and he brought up a hand to stroke at his chin for a moment. "Seems to me, though, that ye could use a wee bit of help in finding some of those places."

He glanced back at the house. It could use the work, but it wasn't anything that couldn't wait. Besides, a bit of a break might not be a bad idea - if Allenby was aimable. "Would ye mind a bit of company while ye look around for a bit?"

Allenby found herself grinning as Jamie put the idea of helping her out to some serious consideration. For someone as unmethodical as herself (considering she had seen the Susono Inn all of once before asking if she could move into it) it was kind of a novel sight. "Not at all! It's a big city. And it'll be nice to have someone to make sure that Stacy's not faking me out or anything."

She looked around, swinging her arms. "I'm not in this part of the City too much. Anywhere you wanna try out first?"

"Well," he said thoughtfully, "We could always try Central Park."

He gestured over in its general direction. From here, some of the forest a former crew member had planted was visible, even if a lot of the other vegetation was no longer there.

"I saw something on the Omnicoms about it maybe being a place with blind spots. Seems to me it's large enough of one that there'd be a chance we'll find something if we go take a look."

"Central Park?" Allenby stood on tiptoe to get a better look at it. She'd seen it once or twice in the course of training and exercise, but she'd never really explored it in-depth. Nice trees, though. "Yeah, if people already think it's a blind spot we should definitely check it out!"

She started in that direction, though at a quick walk rather than the full-tilt run she liked to use to go most anywhere. She looked over at him again--Allenby knew that the name Jamie went with that face, but she didn't know him to well. "You're in Engineerin' too, right?"

While he could keep up with a full-tilt run if he had to, he's just as glad to have it be a brisk walk instead. Easier to talk, for one thing. He nodded, keeping pace with her as he made his way towards the edge of the park.

"Aye, although I've not got much experience with it as most of ye. Billy's been willing to see that I've gotten some training, though." Granted, he's really more of a general helper, but at least he's picked up a few things. And while he knew who Allenby was as well, he's more or less in the same boat she is when it comes to familiarity with each other. "You're in charge of the weapons part of things, are ye not?"

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POLO!

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I'm sorry for the edits 8|

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