Down periscope! Dive dive dive! [open, btw. come talk to the grouchy green genius, newbies]

[cabbage-butt.livejournal.com]

Anyone who ventures near the bathrooms will hear odd, strained clanking noises, to the point of possibly making some wonder if one of the Transformers is trying to go and having a hard time of it.

This is not a sign of one of the 'bots on board needing more robo-fiber, however.

Brainiac 5 is up to something.

Surprisingly, his techie hijinks are something he's been ordered to do--Jaime, the one in charge of the team trying to open up more of the ship has tasked him with building things to scout out where the waste goes, to use that to find out more about Stacy's hidden structures and ductwork, and that's exactly what he's doing--building an array in the bathroom to control and track the sensor-bots he's about to send where the sun don't shine.

"Hmm...still losing signal strength..."

Comments

[cabbage-butt.livejournal.com]

"Provided I cooperate with others, the manner in which I do so is irrelevant."

Clank clankety clank goes the machine as he mucks about with its inner workings, and then he sits on the floor to start changing up some of the wiring.

[thethirdhalfa.livejournal.com]

"It's very relevant. People like you more when you're not a jerk," Dani said matter of factly, floating closer to look at what he was doing.

[cabbage-butt.livejournal.com]

"Then perhaps it's beneficial that I care very little about being 'liked.' I am not a contestant in the Pretty Miss Galaxy Pageant. Therefore, it's irrelevant."

[thethirdhalfa.livejournal.com]

Dani blinked. And stared. "But how do you make friends without being liked? I mean, if you're always rude to people you don't even know, how can you make them?" She asked, looking confused.

[cabbage-butt.livejournal.com]

"Inexplicably."

[thethirdhalfa.livejournal.com]

Dani tilted her head, tapping her chin as she thought about this. "So...there must be something cool or nice about you they can sense! Despite being a jerk," Dani concluded.

[cabbage-butt.livejournal.com]

"I would hazard to guess that they understand that my somewhat terse requests for silence are the result of my trying to concentrate on developing some means to assist the group or save them from certain death."

[thethirdhalfa.livejournal.com]

"This isn't certain death," Dani retorted. "This is being sneaky in...a bathroom. Which I really don't get. But I'm good at sneaky and getting into places," she added, pointing at his machine. Well, it looked like a probe thing.

[cabbage-butt.livejournal.com]

"I'm talking of the group I'm a member of back home, not the group here. Back home, certain death is quite often a distinct possibility."

[thethirdhalfa.livejournal.com]

"Oh. Well, then what I said still stands. It's not life or death, so I shouldn't listen to 'terse requests,'" Dani stated.

[cabbage-butt.livejournal.com]

"Except that I also said that my requests for silence are often because I'm concentrating on some means to assist the group. Which I am doing right now--why is this entire conversation so irritatingly familiar."

[thethirdhalfa.livejournal.com]

"Dunno," Dani said with a shrug. "Anyway, if your machine is having a signal problem, then it means it won't give you video feed or it won't listen to your commands?" Dani asked, sitting down across from him. At least that's what usually happened once or twice with Vlad's probes. Usually because a fight knocked something loose.

[cabbage-butt.livejournal.com]

"Both."

[thethirdhalfa.livejournal.com]

"...can the camera record without needing a video feed?" Dani asked.

[cabbage-butt.livejournal.com]

"Yes, but to navigate through Stacy's systems, I do need some measure of feedback."

You have to see where you're going somehow.

[thethirdhalfa.livejournal.com]

"I could navigate it. Maybe you could even use the navigation signal to make it so you can get feedback if you wanted to tell me where to go. Could that work?" Dani asked. It sounded like it could work, but she didn't know if signals worked that way.

[cabbage-butt.livejournal.com]

"Certain parts of Stacy's structures give off a field that renders tehm immune to intangibility. The sewer system is one of them."

A pause.

"Furthermore, I imagine that even phased, it would be exceedingly unpleasant."

[thethirdhalfa.livejournal.com]

"Really? That's annoying," Dani said. "Danny's tried then?"

She looked confused at that. "Why? Besides not being able to phase through it?"

[cabbage-butt.livejournal.com]

"He has tried, yes, and it would be unpleasant because it's the waste system. I imagine it wouldn't be the best view," Brainy remarks dryly.

[thethirdhalfa.livejournal.com]

"Meh. Seen one sewer, you've seen them all. I've been in a lot of sewers and they always look alike," Dani commented.

[cabbage-butt.livejournal.com]

"I question your choice in locales to engage in sightseeing..."

[thethirdhalfa.livejournal.com]

"Usually I got caught stealing food or caught somewhere I wasn't supposed to be sleeping in," Dani said with a shrug. "No one looks in the sewers, so it was the quickest place to hide in without having to use my powers to keep escaping or turn invisible."

[cabbage-butt.livejournal.com]

"Why were you stealing food? Were you indigent back home?" Brainy asks curiously.

[thethirdhalfa.livejournal.com]

"Not sure what indigent means, but I was on my own. I figured out my creator was a jerk who saw me as a tool and I wasn't gonna make Danny explain me to his parents," Dani said in a very statement of fact tone. It kind of sucked, but it was her choice and she dealt with it fine. "I tried to avoid stealing as much as I could, but no one hires twelve year olds without question."

[cabbage-butt.livejournal.com]

"Homeless. Destitute."

He looks up from his work, somewhat surprised.

"Why wouldn't Daniel simply tell his parents the truth, so that you could stay with his own family?"