trans_9 | I've gained Nothing, therefore I have Nothing left to Lose. [open]

He’d failed.

He’d failed miserably.

Everything had gone according to plan. Dustin got a layout of the ship, figured out all the key locations, found his weapons and tools, and had made it down to Neuropathy with only a few distractions here and there. True, once he got inside and Kirk got involved (along with security and the Major), things got a little out of hand for a few minutes. But in the end he still managed to get through to Stacy’s mainframe via one of the inorganic consoles and his cellphone—and, just as he expected, he ran into a pretty powerful defense mechanism.

Dustin had never seen anything quite like it before. The code itself was in an alien language and format (though that admittedly did not take long to sort out), and once he’d translated it into something recognizable it engulfed anything he threw at it. It was through sheer luck that he was able to decrypt and block the section that related to physical ship defenses so that Stacy didn’t hurt anyone while he was working—or, worse yet, hurt the one he was trying to save in the process.

It took roughly forty minutes of continuous typing, referencing, sweating and cursing for Dustin to probe his way through most of the security code. He was able to safely disable about a third of it. Two-thirds was beginning to look like a possible window of success, and at the rate that he was learning the code and adapting to Stacy’s counter-scripts his task was slowly becoming easier. Then, just as Dustin thought he had the hang of things, right when he let his guard down for the first time, the AI struck back viciously and managed to completely disable his phone, therefore destroying any chance he had at the time of getting past. The speed and ferocity in which it did so was totally unexpected, as if Stacy was predicting how Dustin would react next in order to disable each strand she threw at him—but this, this was impossible…not that he didn’t believe in telepathy, but he’d long thought that the frequency and turbulence of his thoughts made his mind impenetrable, equating to something like putting one’s finger in a blender if attempted. How she managed was less of a mystery; it was more bizarre how Dustin had managed to overlook such a glaring possibility in his preparations…

How could he have been so dumb?

It was a miracle that he’d escaped the brig (and the Major, no less), but now Dustin was on the run from everyone and everything. Judging from the crowd that had amassed and followed him inside Neuropathy, there was no doubt that his failed endeavor to get inside Stacy’s brain and fix her, once and for all, had long since been broadcasted to everyone’s Omnicom and had earned him widespread acrimony. Though, then again, he’d still managed to get pretty far into her programming to prove that he’d put up an impressive fight, one that few were probably expecting from him.

No matter; it still wasn’t enough.

So now, downtrodden, starved and exhausted, Dustin wandered into the City. He hadn’t eaten or slept since he woke up, kept hydrated only because he was stabbed by annoying tentacles each time he passed through the Living Area. Frankly he hadn’t expected that he would be on this ship long enough to worry about such matters.

Obviously he was wrong.

Staggering, the scruffy man’s gaunt figure walked blindly forward in a trance-like march. His deep green eyes, accented with bright red veins, were wide open and unblinking, staring at nothing, and yet wandering this way and that as if following invisible lines of text. The gears in his head were turning, nigh audible if one pays attention—though that sound is actually Dustin muttering to himself, quietly and without moving his lips. He seems to be speaking in…Russian? It doesn’t matter, what with the translating systems, because even with them he’s not saying anything coherent. Just numbers and letters…

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"I am a raptor, and I am armed with a rifle, yes." Red Snout grinned a rather unpleasant grin as he slowly began to circle the human, eying him up and down. What a strange creature. At the least the other humans kept themselves fed and kempt.

So he’d probably be a lot more in control of his nerves if he was armed. In this case, however, Dustin was half starved and exhausted, and the friggin’ raptor was the one with the gun. How unfair was that?

…Eh. He’d gotten out of worse situations. Though, with any luck, if this ‘Red Snout’ character (if he remembered correctly) took the first strike, then Dustin might have a chance of disarming him and turning the tables. Those chances were…highly unlikely, however.

“Any particular reason for gracing me with your presence?” Dustin blinked sarcastically, shifting to a noticeably more defensive stance.

"There is not. I was wandering and found you. You seemed to be in a state of mind-sickness." The raptor tilted his head to one side, a gesture that might be interpreted as a shrug. Humans were so very strange. They were smart (but not as smart as raptors, naturally), but take away their tools and their buildings and they were nothing more than soft, pink, helpless things that were so very easily disposed of.

And Dustin shrugged back at him.

“Yeah, I won’t argue with you there,” he blinked slowly, watching the raptor’s arms and gun with attentive, bloodshot eyes, “Quite frankly I’m starting to think this is all one big hallucination. None of it adds up.”

For Dustin to be saying that he doesn’t understand something…well, that’s definitely a bad thing. He always makes a point of learning everything there is to learn about a place. Therefore, if Dustin had noticable gaps in his comprehension, the situation was either completely illogical (thus, not real) or there was information not yet available for him to study.

“I mean, all things considered.”

Red Snout resisted the urge to snicker. On, this human was funny. He had been so confident on the communicators and now...now he thought he was going mad. How vastly entertaining. He'd have to have a bit of fun. THe raptor nodded soberly (An expression he'd picked up from humans. Useful when dealing with them).

"You are correct, of course. All of this is inside your head. We're all a figment of your mind gone mad." Oh, this was going to be amusing.

Dustin narrowed his eyes, obviously skeptical. He was used to hearing that phrase with sarcastic undertones, so this was…new. But even figments of his imagination couldn’t be trusted, especially when they blatantly stated that they were, in fact, hallucinations.

And there were other things, too: Dustin was unable to predict the Major’s punch while in Neuropathy, and if this were a dream or illusion then he would’ve had a small twinge of precognitive discomfort shortly before the fact. Dustin had, after all, done some extensive studying of comatose patients in his late teens—some of his papers might even be in the Media Library—so he should’ve known what a vividly realistic hallucination was like.

There was one thing he could test out before he jumped to any conclusions, of course.

Dustin straightened himself, standing at his full height of 5’7’’ with his arms held loosely at his sides, legs casually spread—a sturdy stance, perhaps disinterested.

“Shoot me.”

"As much pleasure as that would give me, I cannot. There are rules, even if it's all your own madness. Stacy does not like violence between crewmembers." He snorted, the raptors opinion of that rule painfully clear. He slowly began to stalk around Dustin, circling him as if he were some tasty morsel that might provide some real meat for once.

"Humans. So weak. So pathetic. The only advantage you have over raptors is your tools. But oh, such tools. I must admit, they are quite useful." He hefted the rifle again, barrel clanking against one of the raptor talons hanging from his bandolier.

"It will be quite entertaining when you are finally thrown into a prison of your own devising. I look forward to it."

Now Dustin was convinced that this wasn’t all his imagination—if it were, then those that were taunting him would actually know how to get under his skin. So far it had been the exact opposite. And Dustin already figured out, at least to some degree, what peeved off Red Snout the most.

“That, and humans can actually do math,” he raised a heavy brow, not without taking the raptor’s aggressive motions into account and tensing his shoulders and legs (though his stance remained the same), “If you haven’t noticed, there are quite a few more humans on board this ship than dinosaurs. Considering that this is a collective of individuals from different universes, the fact that most of them are at least humanoid in shape and nature implies that we’ve done something right. Apparently your species must’ve missed out on that.”

"Mm. Yes. I have no doubt that there being more of your fragile-skinned brethren aboard gives you even more of an unwarranted sense of superiority. Most of you wouldn't last day in my world, of course. So I assume Stacy had to pick someone who was good at dispensing quick death to her enemies." Red Snout, of course can acknowledge his species short-fallings. Usually. Well, most of the time. It just gives him such pleasure to taunt human beings.

"As for you....rather unremarkable. So far a failure in everything you have attempted, a pariah in the making some your new tribe, however much you dislike them." Of course, Red Snout wasn't about to let on he'd started out much the same way. No need to let the human know that sort of thing. He continued to circle.

"But you feel as if you don't need them anyway, so why would you care? No, no. I think what you care about most is the fact that for the first time in your miserable life you have experienced complete and utter failure. Your mind cannot comprehend such a thing, thanks to your blind arrogance. Humans tend to have that problem."

Dustin started laughing. It was a grating snicker, as if his vocal chords had been replaced by sandpaper.

“You don’t know anything about me.”

"Perhaps not. But you boasted that you would have us out of here quickly. You have not yet succeeded. This, combined with your seeming descent into madness leads me to believe that you have failed. You are faced with an obstacle you cannot overcome."

Red Snout just watches.

Now Dustin was on the defensive. He could’ve just admitted that he had, in fact, failed, overestimated his abilities relative to the tech-level of this ship; but that would be entirely too easy. Not to mention it would give Red Snout a sense of satisfaction and superiority that Dustin knew wasn’t good for this sort of creature to possess over him.

“Define ‘quickly’.”

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