Lost. Again. [Open, before rebellion.]

[morphitudinous]

Billy is hard at work on the teleporters, trying to ensure that they're all in working order. They'll have to move through the ship quickly if they're going to carry out these plans. He's walked through most of the common areas of the ship today, testing both by himself and with a backpack of items of various sizes. One of the items is his datapad, kept to ensure he always has something to work on during the cooldown periods.

So far, everything seems to be in working order. He's run a check at each station: he trusts Ronnae completely, but there's always the concern that the system could be tampered with. If it's malfunctioning, he needs to catch it early.

Unfortunately, his streak of good luck ends with a snag. Upon warping into the Hub, he finds that he no longer casts a shadow. A look down confirms that he's no longer visible. Oh well---it could be worse.

He shrugs and resumes his work in silence, the only visible sign of his presence being the tools floating in the air just beside the pad.

[Teleporter fun post! Any of the malfunctions listed here are fair game to play with.]

Comments

[yourbelovedfuture]

"Wooooh?! What's that?! Neat!"

Hello Billy, the eager little Asset is now making a quick grab for the floating tools!

Mashu had been wandering the area for a while trying to make the most of her idle time since there hadn't been a call for her as of late.

It had been downright boring and she really disliked being idle for too long. There wasn't even any money to count?! What kind of place was this anyways?!

[morphitudinous]

"Hey!"

Billy didn't much appreciate being bumped into. He thought about lowering the tools, but then she might step on his hand---no, better just hold them close to the vest.

"I'm still using these," said a disembodied voice.

[yourbelovedfuture]

"AH!" she yelped looking around more excitedly than scared.

"Georges?!" Georges was the only other Asset she knew that could go invisible like that, but there was no fog... Odd!

"Are you playing hide and seek?! Kimimaro never taught me how, but he told me about it! It sounds like it'd be fun!"

[morphitudinous]

"I don't know who that is, sorry," Billy apologized, lifting a hand to placate her before remembering that he was still invisible. He lowered it, coughing awkwardly.

"But I'm not here to scare you, and I'm not playing hide and seek. A malfunction with the teleporters has left me invisible." He looked over at the girl. She seemed old enough to know---what was the problem?

"You don't know how to play hide and seek?"

[yourbelovedfuture]

Not Georges? Blast...

Oh well!

"Teleporters? What do you mean?" As far as she knew, teleporters where power, not a place... or maybe he was talking about his own ability?

She shook her head at the latter question. "Nope!"

[morphitudinous]

"Teleportation pads, to be more precise," Billy amended. "My mate built them. You can teleport from anywhere on the ship to one of these using a special program on your omnicom. They've been working very well, I'm just here to make sure they're not glitching."

He sat back on his heels, setting the tools down. He turned to face the girl, not that she would be able to tell. "There's not much to know about hide and seek. One person's designated as the seeker, however many others are playing hide as best they can in a time limit, and the seeker searches for them when time's up. If the hiders are feeling mischievous, they can change locations while the seeker's not looking."

Oh, the kids had loved to play that particular prank on him. Billy remembered it well.

[yourbelovedfuture]

"Oooooh, neat! So it's like having a new ability huh?" That could be really useful.

While he explained the game of hide and seek, she grew more and more excited. "Sounds like fun! But wouldn't someone who can turn like you make it unfair? Unless you were the seeker! Then it would be really fun!"

Because they'd never see it coming!

[morphitudinous]

"Only temporarily. I should appear again in a few minutes, assuming the glitch hasn't mutated."

That was a possibility. Billy didn't relish the thought of having to scramble to keep himself from being permanently invisible. He shook his head and smiled.

"Yeah. I'm already hiding, aren't I? But I could look for you if you wanted to try it." He'd gone as far as he could with the diagnostics. There was nothing left to do but wait to appear again.

[anwei]

Anwei was in the Hub to do zero-G calisthenics; she could have used one of the Sensoriums, but she thought it might be better to see who was still around. What better place than in the literal Hub?

She saw the tools floating near the teleporter pad, and frowned. In still air, people could of course leave their tools anywhere they wanted; but with all the breezes in the Hub, and Stacy's occasional gusty 'sighs', they were certain to get blown away. Possibly into someone's path. So she bounced over towards the teleporter, pulling a roll of string out of her pocket. She could tie all the tools together, and then tie the string somewhere nearby, so they couldn't drift off.

[morphitudinous]

Billy felt the shift in the air from the movement from some point over his shoulder. He swung a hand up to guard, possibly smacking at the string in the process.

"It's not a threat. I'm still here, I'm just invisible for the time being," he sighed. "Anwei?"

[anwei]

At the motion of the string bumping into something invisible, Anwei curled back and up, her body turning from a straight line to a curve like the Locust pose of Earth yoga, as she tried to keep from running head-first into - Billy, apparently. She'd know that sigh anywhere. She couldn't actually move her center of gravity, but she could twist around it so that she went somewhat over the teleporter pad.

"I didn't know you could do that," she said, drifting back from a soft collision with one of Stacy's tree-trunk tentacles.

[morphitudinous]

Billy shook his head. He stood, pulling Anwei back to her feet. Please forgive the touch of invisible hands, Anwei.

"I can't do it voluntarily---not without special equipment that's still in testing. This can happen when the teleportation system is used, and I'm trying to solve the problem."

[anwei]

Grabbing her feet was reasonably safe - that is, since she already knew who it was. Sort of.

(Not a good idea to try grabbing her head, though, or you may end up paying a finger-tax.)

"Yes," she said slowly to where she thought Billy was, "I can definitely see how that would be a problem...especially if someone we didn't want using the teleportation system was affected."

Imagine invisible Kessek being beamed into strategic positions in the ship - no, better not.

[morphitudinous]

That was a problem. Billy lowered his voice and quickly released her once he'd regained his balance.

"That's why we require the omnicom system. I'm trying to keep the security on those as tight as possible, and I'm watching the system for signs of suspicious activity."

He reached up and pushed his hair out of the way. What a mess. "The effect should last no more than ten minutes, thankfully."

[anwei]

She pondered. "This is the same system that sometimes drops people into walls? Maybe you could write up a report on all the problems you're having. It would be unpleasant if someone used it who wasn't aware of the potential dangers."

And if their employers-cum-owners thought the teleport system was riddled with errors, they wouldn't trust themselves or their troops to it.

"Glad to hear we'll see you soon. I don't suppose there are any plans to analyze the effect and see if it can be manipulated? Making patients partially transparent could of great interest to the medical profession, I would think."

Anwei, ever the practical optimist.

[morphitudinous]

"There is a report. Ronnae put it on the screen before selecting a destination. I'm working here to try to minimize the chances we'll run into one of the malfunctions while we're doing..."

Well. Anwei knew what they were going to do.

He tapped on the pad a few times, deep in thought. "That would be wonderful if we could. I should definitely place more people on research in that area. Is that something you'd be good at?"

[jackalpi]

Spinelli was just passing through. Having spent most of his day in Programming, he hadn't had much of a chance to read the datapad he had borrowed, freshly loaded with a much beloved Dashiell Hammett novel, so had decided to get a jump start on it as he walked.

He almost ran straight into the tools before he even noticed them, only by chance catching them out of the corner of his eye at the last possible second. It did give him just enough time to avoid crashing into them, and he wound up peering at them with interest.

"Curious. These do not appear to be fully automated tools, but yet they are operating of their own accord, without the benefit of any robotic guidance. I wonder if perhaps they are bespelled to do the tasks necessary for repair in this area."

[morphitudinous]

That crew member was getting entirely too close. Billy drew his tools close to himself, narrowly avoiding a collision. This was really inconvenient, wasn't it? But he could have a little fun here---just once.

"We are fully sentient, yes," Billy replied, lowering the pitch of his voice to match his idea of what a hammer might sound like. He wiggled it. "And we're also capable of manipulating gravity to allow ourselves to float in any direction. The direction shifts are rather inconvenient, but they get the job done."

[jackalpi]

Well, if Billy was aiming for a startled reaction, he certainly got one, as Spinelli did a double take when the tools seemingly began to talk. And then his arms raised into the air slightly and his hands clutched into fists. But these were not angry fists, not by any means. Instead, they only stayed that way for a few seconds before his fingers flew open and he looked up at Stacy's fleshy ceiling, his face breaking out into a broad, nearly ecstatic smile. It seems the whole gesture was Spinelli having a moment of utter, geekish glee.

"This spaceship is GREAT. Truly, the Jackal never thought that he would be privy to such wonders in his entire lifetime. Sentient tools, aliens, Sherlock Holmes! Oh, if only Stone Cold or Maximista were here to see this!!"

[quixotically]

Elle arrives on the next teleporter without incident this time, thank goodness. Her thoughts about how glad she is to not be stuck in a wall again stop short, however, when she sees the floating tools near the pad. This isn't anywhere near the strangest thing she's seen, on the ship or off it, but while it doesn't throw her off too bad, her curiousity gets the better of her. She approaches them, head tilted...

... and if Billy doesn't notice, she's probably going to run right into him before she reaches the tools, since they're in his hands. Whoops.

[morphitudinous]

Yup, he's hit. Billy really should have expected it. He lets out a yelp, tumbling toward the teleportation pad with a screwdriver jammed into his rib.

"Hey! I'm sorry, I know you can't see me, but I'm still here."

[quixotically]

When Elle unexpectedly collides with something solid and it yelps, she lets out a squeak of surprise of her own and reflexively jumps back, hand going for her shotgun --

And then the person speaks, and she quickly drops her arm to her side again. No, this is not a Nightkin using a Stealth Boy. No, he's not going to try and smash her with a Super Sledge or Rebar Club. Breathe, Elle. Breathe.

"S-Sorry, I didn't... Sorry. I should've been more careful."

[morphitudinous]

Billy throws up his hands placatingly, temporarily forgetting that they're not visible. He really doesn't want to be hurt---oh. All right. They have it sorted out.

"No, it's all right. You couldn't have expected to find me like this. This doesn't usually happen. It's a rare glitch with our teleportation system."

[quixotically]

"Still, I..." She makes a vague hand gesture, meaning to sort of imitate her reflex to draw her gun. For once, that instinct didn't pay off. "Sorry."

Erm... Anyway. What was that about a glitch? Now that Elle's trying to calm herself down, her mind catches what he said and holds on to it. That sure does sound familiar.

"Like getting stuck in a wall instead of being sent where you want to?"

[morphitudinous]

Billy reads the gesture and shakes his head. He won't lie to himself, he was afraid, but nothing happened to them. They would be all right. Besides, it's good to be ready: the worst can and has happened on this ship.

"Precisely," he answers. "We've built tools that should carve people out of them more easily, but I'm hoping to stop it from happening in the first place. I wonder if installing some kind of electric signal would work---making the inner walls dead zones somehow."

But that probably isn't what the woman is here to discuss. "Did that happen to you?"