exsilium | 2nd Contract

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2nd Contract

[it's 3 o'clock in the morning, and Charles Foster Ofdensen is, thanks to the wonderful world of Exsilium, several things: he is bored. he is frustrated. he is tired. and he is slightly buzzed. training in the Hold can only do so much for a man who is used to taking care of hardcore business, and he is well aware that were he in possession of his full cadre of resources, he would have had this whole Transports Vs. The UE Vs. The Natives thing taken care of and in the bag by now.

around his third page of yellow legal paper, he gets tired of making notes, and starts to doodle.

it doesn't take him long to draw an old, familiar face from home. he taps his pencil thoughtfully against the paper, and bites his lip.

look at your life, Charles. look at your choices. ... nope, these are still excellent choices to be making at 3 AM on half a joint, two hours' sleep, and a glass of cheap local booze. these are the best choices ever.

he sounds remarkably calm for someone who's planning something completely ridiculous.]

Does, ah ... anyone out there have access to an image editing program? Something like, oh, let's say ... Flash? Something comparable?

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I do believe I could be of assistance, good sir. I've got some good stuff on Janis but it shouldn't take too long for me to make you copy of it. What's your poison? Bootleg disk or pirated download [She snickers]

Somehow, I knew I'd hear from you, Claudia. ... [normally he wouldn't touch pirated media with a ten foot pole on sheer principle, but - well, it wouldn't be the first time someone involved with Dethklok has been a hypocrite]

Disk, please.

Just call me your friendly neighborhood pirate. [She snorts]

How should I get it to you? Carrier pigeon? A knock on the door? A clandestine meeting in a dark alley?

[he chuckles, despite himself. he's not used to dealing with people who actually have decent senses of humor]

A knock on the door isn't a bad idea. My roommate's hardly ever around, and it's good to see people face to face once in a while.

[She laughs. She'd half expected him to go for the dark alley. It seemed fitting, somehow. Oh well]

You got it. Where do you live? I could bring it by later.

"I got some command and control image manipulation stuff in my armor, but I don't know how advanced yer looking for. This is mostly for battlefield intel."

Nothing quite so formal, I'm afraid. This is more for some things I'm looking to do for public relations.

It's kind of you to offer, either way. [have a thin but professionally pleasant smile] Charles Ofdensen. A pleasure.

"Jim Raynor. Pleasure to make your acquaintance. PR is a thing more people probably need to do here so I'll keep an ear open for ya. Most of what I got is com and tactical gear so, probably a bad fit."

At the start, yes, Mr. Raynor. But you'd be surprised. Occasionally tactics come into play. At least, they did where I'm from. We'll see. ... How long have you been here?

"Round'bout half a year. Long enough to know the tactical situation here is a nightmare and the bars don't have good enough booze ta make up for it."

He shrugs a bit.

"Mind you I'm just speaking from a military point of view. Given how lately they've been pullin in singers and fashion models, I can't even begin to think from that mindset."

They really don't seem to discriminate. One of those singers is from the band that I manage at home, actually.

Half a year... You must have seen quite a lot. I'd be interested in your perspective of things, if you don't mind. I'll even buy you a round of that questionable alcohol you mentioned.

"Ya know, talkin business its probably best to go sober. When a drunk talks about hamburger time, they're just goin on about nothing. When a sober soldier does, its about the time when 50 or so kids got turned into hamburger one afternoon by the other side. Some things just don't translate well."

[he can't help but wince slightly at the use of "hamburger time". it's a long story, one he pushes back and moves past]. Alright. Do you have a preferred meeting place, then?

Edited (icon malfunction) 2013-08-14 19:17 (UTC)

"Seein as how this is more professional than anything I'm usually finishing up my weapons tests at the initiative training grounds before breakfast. While I know most guys don't like to move before 7, 7:30 work for ya?"

I train at the Hold most mornings, myself. 7:30 should be just fine. I can meet you outside the armory.

"Right. If you see a 9 foot tall black power suit with a skull design on the helmet that's me too, just means I couldn't get out of the tin can, but I'll be doin my damnedest to get out of it. See ya there."

((If you want to go action its fine, if you want me to set up a log I'm good with that, you're call there))

Sounds impressive. I'll see you there.

[and the next morning, he's there, hair still damp from his post-training shower, dressed down in jeans, a leather jacket, and a grey t-shirt. normally he would have suited up, but he'd been pressed for time enough after training as it was]

Walking out of the armory after checking his rifle Jim waves to the newcomer.

"Hey. You the fellow I was meetin up with out here??

[Fenris doesn't really sleep a lot anyway. His dreams are often haunted by memories long taken from him, only to vanish with waking. So he's up to listen to this]

...What is a Flash?

Ah. Hello, Fenris. Flash is ... it's something that people can use to change how pictures look, on tablets like this. It's easier to explain by showing you, once I get a copy, I suppose.

But ... Hm. [fuck it, it's 3 AM, he's buzzed, and he's got nothing better to do than explain computer software to a magic elf that kicked his ass at swordfighting] Say someone drew a picture of me, on a piece of paper. And then you decided you wanted to add to it, or change it. You'd just take a pen and ink, and make the changes.

With an image on these tablets, you can't do that, obviously. Flash would be the equivalent of having a pen and ink.

[Fenris is silent for a while, trying his best to understand. Technology is still a mystery to him, medieval as his world is, the technology largely belongs to the Dwarves, and they like to keep it to themselves]

...So it is like magic...but not?

It's science. Some people say magic is science that's still unexplained, but.... I've seen enough of both to be able to say there's a difference. ... Anyone is capable of science. It can be learned and controlled much more easily, from what I've seen.

And it had less chance of attracting demons to tear our world asunder.

Always a mark in the plus column. ... I've had to clean up fallout from demonic summoning. It's not pretty.

[And lo, he gets another cool point]

Ah, we have people like that in Thedas. Templars, we call them. They manage mages and any...trouble they might cause.

I suppose by that definition, I'm somewhat like a Templar, myself, then.

[he sounds amused as hell. probably because his "mage" isn't anything like what Fenris would expect]

It is a noble life to take. One that faces a lot of dangers of its own, but noble all the same.

[He would not expect that at all, nope]

I'm flattered you'd think so. ... Honestly, I just consider it my job. It's what I do, I don't really ... I don't really think about it.

Yes, the Templars often have much the same attitude.

Fastest way to render an image is to go into the VR program and save a flat composite. Photoshopping your life with some better options?

Not my life - just possibly some others'. I'm working on some PR mockups - or at least the brainstorming phase.

Charles Ofdensen. Nice to meet a fellow burner of the midnight oil.

Mockups for what? Not a lot of PR out here. Kind of a nice break, actually.

Tony Stark. Pretty much always.

That'd be telling, don't you think? Surprises are more effective.

Been here a while, have you?

[ smirk ] Of course. Far more.

You could say that. Long enough to be a longer resident than most, anyway. Why?

You sound pretty relaxed about it all. Generally, the newer Transports do a lot more complaining mixed in with their small talk.

Yeah, well, they haven't had enough time to get used to all the rain. They should abduct more English people - bet the transitions would go smoother.

Not a bad idea on the surface. But all they'd do is stand around and talk about it, anyway.

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2nd Contract

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Hey! At least Jim's use of the phrase wasn't as dumb as Murderface's

True.....

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action's fine by me!

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Voice

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yessss good

so sorry this whole week has just been 'concentration what's that'

you and me both, it's all good

oh boy yay

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