Going Round in Circles (Open)

[8wings.livejournal.com]

The trains still automatically circled their track through the City, piloted by the software of the absent Rock Light. Anwei sat in a seat on the Warren Zevon, and watched the City go by. Grand Central Station, the Drunken Dragon, Temple Row – she hadn't visited those places. She had been waiting to see them with someone else.

Horanckk still was not here.

She had looked in the face of every person at the podpop, and none of them had recognized her. She had sat in the gloom in front of a computer, feverishly combing through every possible frequency and code that he might use to tell her he was here. But he wasn't. Maybe he never would be.

So?

So she would go on, that was all. She would be happy, because there was nothing so stupid as being miserable when there were so many here who had lost more. There was food and water and shelter and meaningful work and people, beautiful people in all their varieties; what did she have to be unhappy about?

She let the wind of the train's passage ruffle her hair, smelled Stacy's air heavy with dust and damp, and measured her progress by the creeping shadows cast by the light of the not-sun. The train paused at its stations for five minutes, and then rolled on, tracks clicking under its wheels.

Comments

[j-y-d.livejournal.com]

Amidst his explorations of what was known of the city - might as well get to know what's safe before venturing out into the unknown, after all, Chase couldn't exactly miss the trains.

As he almost perpetually does, the big man looks to be in good spirits, just assessing the scenery - most particularly the train itself, and the people present at the station.

[8wings.livejournal.com]

The train was just slowing as it pulled into the station, and Anwei amiably waved out the window at the extremely large man who looked like he might be waiting for it. She didn't recognize him - yes she did; he'd been at the podpop, so he might have just arrived.

"Hello!" she called. "Are you new? The train takes you to most of the interesting places in the City, if you're exploring."

[j-y-d.livejournal.com]

Well, he originally was just checking out the train, but, hey, blonde waving to him out the window? Now he's going for a ride. He ducks through the doors, responding once he reaches her, making no real attempt at subtlety in giving her the once over.

Subtlety is not his strength.

"Can't really call it exploring, most'a this is explored and mapped. But checking out the place and getting myself dug in. Then I'll do some proper exploring. Adam Chase... just go by Chase. And you are?"

[8wings.livejournal.com]

Anwei had no objection to being looked over, although this man would probably be disappointed at what was under her plantsuit if he ever could see. He was a fine specimen himself, rippling with muscle and with a definite air of what she called solid-with-self, entirely edible formidable - no doubt why Stacy chose him.

A pang of jealousy there, maybe?

"It's a big place, and the stuff that's not explored seems to have all sorts of nasty surprises. Anwei Ayles, Vizsnunishne Mercenaries," and then with a dip of her head, "clerical division."

She held out one hand for the Terran handshake; her grip was stronger than a human woman's, but hopefully this charming behemoth knew his own strength.

[j-y-d.livejournal.com]

He's more than human strength himself, even for his frame, but its also obvious he's long since learned how to handle it without injuring anyone. Still, he notes the woman's grip. But then he's still looking her over and noticing these details in general. Not shy, anyway, even if he might be disappointed if he knew all the details.

"Ahhh, yeah. I think I heard your name mentioned over the comm thing." Yeah, heard. Her kind of attention to detail might note that he probably has his comm set from text-to-voice on the receiving end, or infer it anyway.

"With medical here, or something, right? I still need to get my ass up there one of these days soon and help the doc out. Mercenaries, huh? Sounds like quite a place if the mercs have their own accounting."

[8wings.livejournal.com]

There isn't a lot to separate her from the human to the casual gaze, except for the neck that's too thick in the back, solid muscle running from the crown of her head down to her shoulders. But so long as she doesn't pull out THAT smile, she can pass.

"I'm Senior Medical Administrator, which just means I'm helping type things into the computers, and double-check that Stacy is storing the data correctly. And I help people book their appointments for physicals and such." She smiled more warmly. "The Vizsnunishne boasted they could put four hundred thousand sentients on the ground to fight - that's organics, robots, and artificial intelligences. And they were a trandimensional force, so I hope that some of them may have survived - whatever happened."

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

That figure on the other side of the car?

Ah. It was Anwei. He hesitated for a moment, then strode resolutely towards her. She looked as though she were lost in thought... about what? Horanckk, maybe.

Zouichi cleared his throat to alert her of his presence. "Anwei."

[8wings.livejournal.com]

She smiled up at him. "Hello, Zouichi. Did anyone you know arrive during this podpop?"

She'd been thinking of Horanckk, all right.

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

"No, they didn't." And he hadn't really expected them to; it would have been far too much a coincidence.

"What about you?"

[8wings.livejournal.com]

"I'm sorry to hear that. Several people seemed to be recognizing people they knew during the podpop." Including that rather alarming person who threw fire; with her and with Megamind, Anwei was now two for two for combustible events happening during pod release.

Maybe the pod slime had a secondary function as fire repellent.

"No sign of other mercenaries - which doesn't surprise me as much as it might. It's the entire organization that's famous, not any one particular person." She raised one hand and brushed fingertips to her cheekbone where the sign of the Eight Wings had been painted.

"No Horanckk," she added, her voice suddenly completely empty.

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

"I'm... very sorry to hear that," said Zouichi. Though Anwei often seemed happily busy with her tasks, sometimes even manically so, from her constant talking about Horanckk, he'd gathered that she missed her partner more than she let on.

"Horanckk may be there next time," he offered. "There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to who is released, and who remains in stasis. Or we may simply run into him during one of our missions. Do not give up hope, Anwei."

[8wings.livejournal.com]

"That is the one thing I can't do. He never gave up on me, after all. And who knows? If I don't find him, I may find another AI that he had had contact with, and pass the word along." She was visibly relaxing at that thought. "There's a lot of places he could be."

Including trapped inside Stacy, unable to reach her. Well then, she would have to reach him.

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

Surely no one needs all these train tracks. Some of the rails piled up by the side of one of the train look completely unused, and thus perfect for scrap metal. Unfortunately, they're also heavy, so Howard's working up quiet a sweat dragging them back to the warehouse.

"Hey, mind helping out over here?" he calls out to the blonde lady at the station.

[8wings.livejournal.com]

Hmm, spare rail - but how much did a system this size need? A quick head calculation suggested that this was probably here just for emergency patching - and it wasn't like the train was carrying freight. The rail shouldn't wear out very fast.

She picked up the end of one of the rails, but felt she had to add, "You do know that there's a robot maintenance crew that looks over the trains, right? They haven't secured these rails, but they might come looking for them."

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

"Oh no, not the robots," Howard says sarcastically. "Aren't they bound by Asimov's laws?"

He nods his head towards the end she's picking up. "Thanks."

[8wings.livejournal.com]

She made a rude noise through her nose. "No sane robot would put up with a set of laws that would let people order it to commit suicide. Would you? I just meant that if they come to retrieve this, they might step on anything breakable in their way. So I'd either hide the rails, or put them right near the door of wherever you're storing them."

She was used to a monitored system; is someone didn't want these rails moved, they would have objected by now. "So where's this going?"

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

"I wouldn't know. The only robot I've ever met is Spacey Stacy, though, and I know she doesn't follow the first rule." He furrows his brow at her. "That's a good idea. I'm taking it to the warehouse, with all the other scrap stuff."

[8wings.livejournal.com]

"Stacy isn't a robot, though. Organic mind with computer code written over it, and an electronic interface. She's also got some sort of artifical split personality, massive data damage, a belly full of people who keep picking fights with each other - and pretty clearly her First Law is 'Do what the Daligig order, no matter what.'"

"Of course you could hide the rails near the door. How far is it to your warehouse?"

[neveradamsel]

Of all things, she hadn't expected to find trains inside of a space ship. When she had initially found them some time ago she had stood and stared, though had initially gotten on and mapped out the route.

Today, she's aimless - there's no particular place in mind that she really wants to go. It's for the sake of leisure that she climbs on board today, not particularly expecting to see anyone she knows, but the shock of blond hair that she sees is familiar. It's been some time since she'd spoken to her.

She comes to sit near the other woman.

"Never thought I'd see the day where there was an entire rail system inside a ship."

[8wings.livejournal.com]

She didn't know the name, but the face was familiar. Megamind's friend, looking considerably less frazzled. They'd met down in the pod caverns, before.

"I'm still wondering what the original transport system was supposed to be - and how they were going to get the vehicles in here. Is there a freight elevator somewhere that we haven't found? Or were they going to haul the equivalent of cars up and down the transport tubes?

A beat. "Sorry, we never did get around to introducing ourselves, did we? Anwei Ayles," she said, holding out her hand and smiling a human-width smile. She'd been practicing.

[neveradamsel]

 “Hard to say,” she replied, smiling. Roxanne reached and gave the woman’s hand a firm shake. Anwei. That’s right – she remembers speaking when she’d first been released.
 
“Nice to meet you officially, when we aren’t covered in alien goop and reeling from getting spit out.”

[8wings.livejournal.com]

"Yes, that was a little awkward, wasn't it? I thought that I had been booked on a trip and taken the low, low, LOW-budget seats," she joked.

[8wings.livejournal.com]

Good handshake there.

"Yes, that was a rather harsh welcome. I thought that I had been booked on a trip and my AI had chosen the low, low, LOW budget seats," she joked.

[neveradamsel]

Roxanne can smile about this now, a wry, twisting thing tugging across her lips.

"Mhm, something like that, yeah. It sort of felt like I had been tossed into a B rated horror movie or something."

[8wings.livejournal.com]

"But look at the budget! The fabulous sets - no rear projection here, all one hundred percent organic! Special effects you wouldn't believe! Cast of hundreds, no two alike!"

Her eyes darted outwards for a moment. "Though you'd think they could at least give the cast a copy of the script. As it is we're doing improv."