trans_9 | All work and no play...

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All work and no play...

There is an AI on the ship that goes by the name Bender Stack. It only pops up now and again, and now its function may finally be somewhat clear.

"Hey. Hey meatbag!" says a grating voice.

Bender Stack chases people away from work when they've been doing too much of it.

This is why Brainiac 5 leaves the Special Weapons Division and by the time he gets up to the Living Area (having decided to eat anyway if the irritating AI is going to heckle him out of work) he's about at his wit's end.

"--For the last time, I am not going to build you a robot prostitute! You're an AI, not a mechanoid, you couldn't interface with it anyway."

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Brainy shrugs.

"My world--and time--is merely different from your own."

He doesn't put much thought to his upbringing on Colu. There's a reason he doesn't.

Edited 2009-04-14 07:32 (UTC)

"You'll have to forgive me if I'm not itching to visit it."

She manages to down another mouthful of slop, then just puts down her spoon with a groan.

"Ugh, I'd need a funnel and no gag-reflex to finish this stuff. How did whatever crew was here before LIVE like this?"

"If you did want to visit, I certainly wouldn't be able to give you the tour," he remarks idly, somewhat amused.

"As for our primary means of nourishment, given that we haven't seen the original crew of this ship--implying that something likely killed them all--perhaps you've incriminated the culprit responsible with some unintentional perspicaciousness," he says, pointing at his slop with the piece of his tray in his hand.

It takes her a second to decipher that but when she does she laughs.

"I was just saying to Kate the other day that I bet ten bucks the previous crew went postal over the food and offed each other in desperation for real meat or something. Or a salad. Maybe they were cannibal plant people. If we ever get access to the ship logs or something and I find out I was right..."

She just shakes her head and digs up another spoonful, shutting her eyes and managing another swallow.

"Does this place ever stop anywhere? Like... space shore leave?"

Edited 2009-04-14 08:29 (UTC)

"It hasn't so far," he says. "Mind you, it's moderately difficult to keep a large group imprisoned if you actually let them out."

Oh and he's just utterly dashed her hopes of ever tasting polenta again. She pouts, she can't help it, and props her chin on one hand.

"Dammit, maybe we're just a giant sociology experiment here." Brenda stirs her slop idly with her spoon. "This 'ship' is some terrifying evil alien's ant-farm and it just wants to see how long it takes each group of new podlings to kill each other. The signs of a previous crew are just the experiment before us. Like a cycle of murder mystery dinner parties but with real murder."

"I believe we've been conscripted for war, given the cross-selection of individuals here," Brainy says, popping some of his tray into his mouth, rather neatly. It's kind of remarkable how neatly he's managing to eat slop.

She frowns a little. "Well, considering the ratio of people with crazy powers to 'normal' people I'd say you could be right. Dunno what the hell good people like me would be in an organized war effort though. I mean, stacked up against the other here I'm nothing special."

She makes a little mountain from her slop and wishes she had some gravy. Her tray is getting soggy.

"You're highly intelligent for a baseline human, and familiar with providing a support structure for another individual's superheroic efforts. War is not won by warriors alone. An army has structure, and is comprised of valuable noncombatants that provide a support base for the fighting force," he points out. "Furthermore, your current relative lack of fighting skills is not indicative at all of your potential."

Brenda stops stirring her slop for a minute and just looks at him. Did the level 12 intelligence guy just call her smart? Cause she thinks he did. ~~...not blushing, nope nope nope.~~

"I kind of hate the idea of being sideline in a fight." She admits. "I mean, I've done it sure, but sitting aside when Jaime's out there with Khaji Da just makes me feel more squishy and helpless that usual."

"Don't get me wrong, I was TERRIFIED when I fought with the Reach and if not for Paco and the others I'd probably be dead, but I felt way better trying to tackle an armed alien twice my size barehanded than I did running away."

She pauses and cracks off a still-crispy bit of her tray to munch on.

"I should learn to use a weapon or something, god knows there should be someone on this ship able to teach me."

"While I wouldn't wish this locale on my team-mates, it's a shame Karate Kid isn't here," says Brainy. "Of the Legionnaires that weren't especially combat-capable, he trained most of us. He is, in fact, the only Legionnaire without an actual superpower--that is the full extent of his skill."

He goes on, "However, you're correct. Others on board would likely be willing to train you."

She blinks at him, then tries not to laugh a little at the name.

"Karate Kid? For serious?" she clears her throat to compose herself. "But... he made the Legionnaires roster just for being a hand to hand fighter? No super reflexes or anything?"

Hilarious name, but colour her impressed.

"Yes," says Brainy. "He's the only Legionnaire we've allowed to violate the charter. Cosmic Boy got around it by having us vote to declare his fighting skill superhuman in nature. I've seen him do such things as punch through weak points in energy-based force-fields."

"That... sounds much better than the movie."

Oh, right, Coluan brain vs pop culture references.

"Uhm, there was a really famous movie in the 1980's called 'The Karate Kid' about this boy who made friends with a karate instructor and it was sort of this coming-of-age tale that frankly would have been a billion times more exciting with force fields. As it was it just encouraged a lot of small children, including myself, to try to perform complicated stunts without support wires and break their toes."

"But yeah that's... ridiculously impressive. I don't know much about energy-based force-fields even but... wow. Did he teach you anything?"

Edited 2009-04-14 22:36 (UTC)

"It sounds like media hasn't improved in the slightest in the last thousand years," Brainy remarks dryly, taking another bite of his "food."

"But yes, he did train me. The only reason I'm remotely competent as a fighter is because of his training, and because of considerable practical experience." Learned on the go. There's nothing like facing the Fatal Five to teach you how to fight very quickly.

"I was not drafted into the Legion for my combat capabilities."

"If you were I would be very worried about the Legion's ability to protect people, no offense."

She smirks a little.

"Then again, give the geeky guy a big enough gun and he'll still mess you up. Look at Jaime."

"My preferences run towards non-offensive technologies, personally," he says, indicating his shield-belt. "It's considerably difficult to cause catastrophic damage with my shield capabilities."

She eyes the belt buckle curiously, munching some more tray.

"Oh yeah? Does it block bullets and stuff? Does it protect just you or can you shield someone else too?"

"Far more than bullets, and yes, I can extend the shield to others and create constructs out of it."

Much like the Green Lanterns--not that they exist anymore in Brainy's time.

He points to the implants on his cheeks.

"That's what these are for. The controls used to be entirely manual in nature, until an unusual spacial anomaly upgraded me."

"You have a personal force field and it's control panel is embedded in your face?" She sits back in her chair, piece of tray between her teeth. "Do you make different expressions and it tweaks the field or does it read your brainwaves or something? That's crazy!"

"The latter," he says, rather simply. "It reads nerve impulses that are, yes, controlled by thought."

"Honestly I thought maybe they were just decoration or something. Like some Coluan version of jewelery maybe? Does your species really put much emphasis on physical beauty at all?"

She keeps asking him so many questions and maybe it feels a little one-sided but... he probably knows or is at least disinterested in everything she could tell him about humans and truth be told listening to him talk about his home world and time with the Legionnaires is pretty fascinating. (Distracting her from lunch enough for her to have mostly finished it at the least.)

Brainy actually likes this. He has such difficulty socializing on his own and she's reducing the sharing to a format he's familiar with--someone asking him a ton of questions. (That happens constantly). It was the only way Ayla'd ever gotten anything out of him, like him telling her about his mother, after all.

He almost smirks at her supposition about his implants, intensely amused.

"Our species is not known for putting emphasis on physicality, no. Actually, it likely wouldn't be difficult for you to conjecture what trait Coluans value most." He taps his temple for emphasis.

So that must mean he's Colu's most desirable young bachelor and most well-respected citizen, right? (Ha.)

Brenda smiles at that, suddenly imagining him in dark sunglasses and a trench coat like some kind of incognito celebrity. He'd indicated life was anything but fame and respect back on Colu but...

"The girls ought to have been all over YOU if you'd ever been let out of the lab back home." She teases. "But you know, you're pretty cute by human physical standards too, even with the out-there skin colour."

This is where he gets uncomfortable.

"I'm not..." He lets out a little huff of disbelief. "It's not my experience that I'm considered attractive."

He's a little pinker--well, greener in the cheeks.

"I wasn't considered as such on Colu. Or...anywhere else."

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