exsilium | voice;

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voice;

[ Now that a few days have already passed, there's not much point in moping quietly and ignoring the network for much longer. Hopefully things have settled down a bit by now... ]

It looks like people are already organizing a few missions of their own, which is all fine and good, but we need to look beyond supplies for the short term. Our new headquarters isn't fit for holding this many people, for who knows how long, so aside from supplies, I think we need to put an effort towards fixing that as soon as we can.

First and foremost, we need more power.

Especially if we want to get that Aristeas contraption back up and running. Obviously we don't have the tools and resources to fix that here and now, but I'm sure I can work out a few points in time where we can slip in and change how this place gets built. What I really need is anyone who can help out with the technical side of this, or even to lend a hand with the research, and a few volunteers to run around playing time tag. We're going to need to get our hands on and change blueprints and data and who knows what else.

[ Basically, a call for help. He might be in over his head on this one, with how much tech is going to be involved. That all rambled out, there's a small, awkward pause before he adds: ]

And hello to all the new Transports, I guess. When I first got stuck here, Exsilium had just gotten itself trashed by an army of monsters, but this arrival sure tops that one as the new worst entrance of all.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Gotta make folks let the mugs stay down if you want service like that, first!

( She says, nonplussed. The microwave-like appliance sang out it's completion, and she set her chair rolling toward it. Carefully pulling the large measuring cup out, she gestured for Caesar to head toward the tables before she carefully set the measuring cup down on the counter. )

You're walking like a zombie! How much rest have you really been getting?

( Pitched higher to carry his way, she pulled down the cutting board she'd use as a stand in for a tray. Once it's carefully settled on her lap, she reaches out for the water again. It sets on top of the cutting board, and she makes her very measured way after Caesar. )

I've been getting enough.

[ Which isn't enough at all, but he's loathe to admit it. He waits for her to get over to him, though what she expects next, who knows. Should they pick a table, any table? ]

And getting people to do that... That's more effort than it's worth, so I'll pass.

Means you're stuck on mug duty.

( She points out, though she doesn't contest how much effort it's worth. She's trained roommates in the past, but training close to 400 people is a task beyond even her energy levels!

Collette nods her head toward a table further from the entrance. A monitor on the wall behind showed scenes out of a rainforest; the AI had found some music to play along with it at a low volume. Earlier it'd been ocean scenes. The beach had been strangely nostalgic to see. )

You say? I don't know...

( She makes her tone teasing, poking at his claim without restating what she's already pointed out. Once at the table she's arbitrarily claimed, Collette carefully sets the giant measuring glass of hot, steaming water on top. )

Pour us out while I dig up the tea?

( She asks, though she's already set the cutting board on the table as well, twisting around to pull odds and ends out of her familiar messenger bag on the back of her chair. )

I like to think I'm the bigger expert on sleep than you are, Collette.

[ He's trailed along after her over to the table, setting the mugs down as she sets the water down, soon followed by the tablet and papers and pen. A measuring cup of hot water? That's given an eyeball, but, well, make do with what's around, he supposes!

He'll gingerly pick it up and go about filling the mugs. ]

What kind is it?

Edited 2013-10-13 01:32 (UTC)

I said rest! ( She tugs out her tablet, setting it in her lap before returning to pull out something in a small paper bag. Ah-hah! ) That's different from sleep! You can sleep all you want and never get rested. Here we go!

( Turning back around, she let the paper bag also rest in her lap as she adjusts herself. )

I brought three kinds, but I'm thinking the chamomile'd be nice right now.

( not the green tea. she doesn't want him hopped up on caffeine right now, even if she'd been planning to go with it before she'd laid eyes on him.

extracting a plastic bag from inside, she fiddled two infusers out as well, bending herself to the task of measuring out enough into each infuser. she hands him one as she finishes, concentrating on the second one. )

You get rest while sleeping, so I haven't a clue what you're talking about.

[ Water poured, he'll set the measuring cup back down and take a seat. The mention of chamomile garners an eye roll, too. ]

Leave off it, will you? First you want to help me with research, now you want me to go back to sleep. You can't have both! And as much as it pains me to say it, this may actually be more important than sleep for once.

[ And when the first infuser is handed over, it goes right into the mug nearest to him. Plop. ]

Research first, sleep after. Besides, even I know you catch more when you're properly rested than when you're overtired from too much reading!

( Said loftily, though she ruins even that with a snort and a grin. )

Plus I'm way better rested. If you nod off too soon, I'll keep reading. You're fast at this stuff anyway, you'll catch up whenever your brain's that fresh. Less napping, more regular sleep schedules! There's no excuse for otherwise up here.

( She plops her own infuser into the other mug. )

We need to be right, not hasty.

( As much as she hates saying that, since by her own nature, she's not particularly good at patience. Only she has to be, so her exaggerated sigh is at the mixed blessing of necessity and nature working against each other. )

Edited 2013-10-13 02:53 (UTC)

I've always napped throughout the day and never had a problem with it.

[ He'll just let the infuser be for now and pull his own tablet over, fiddling with it until it opens to the right place, some page, at the start of some book. ]

Besides, it shouldn't effect me badly. As much as I dislike the research end of this business, it is something I'm good at.

( She doesn't point out that different circumstances mean different results; he hadn't liked space the first time. She doesn't think he likes it much better this time, or the enforced, close nature of it all. He had the option of looking past it, literally or figuratively, but he was still only human. He'd taken Elmer's world hard; she feels he has taken this to heart too.

For all the crazy interesting differences between his world and her own, this sort of destruction, longtime poisoning of the world itself, she doesn't think there's an equivalent. She hopes not. )

Is that meant to be convincing? ( She grins, even as her own eyes are on her tablet. ) I know you're good at this. It's part of why I want to help, even if it does require thinking.

( Another dramatic sigh! )

Does it have to be? It isn't your business unless it's keeping you awake. As it is not...

[ Commence with the reading! Well, he already has, actually, since he's watching his tablet screen instead of her.

There wasn't much to compare what's happened here to what has happened on his own world, though. In his, they narrowly avoided having the entire Northern continent destroyed, so they had no fallout of that to deal with, while anything as oppressive had ended before he'd even been born.

With the exception of Harmonia, of course, but he has little to do with the land conquering superpower of the Holy Kingdom. For now. ]

Hmm. [ He goes on to make a thoughtful sound and scroll over to the next page on the tablet. ] You know, I'll never understand why you talk about yourself like that. Around me, at least. It's not like you're going to trick me into thinking you're dumb.

( She looks up from her own tablet, briefly startled. Most of what she says and does she doesn't even think about so much -- it's not a conscious behavior. She's used to acting a certain way, and so she simply does.

Collette falls into a temporary silence. In the end, she reaches out to swirl her infuser around her mug, pulling it up to let the water drain back out into her tea. )

I'm used to it, I guess.

( She's not sure what else to say to that. It's just easier if people don't expect much out of her. It's that knee jerk reaction to avoiding responsibility too, though she's been less and less good at the actual avoidance over the last year plus.

Collette sets her infuser down in the empty measuring cup, the glass singing out like a bell startled into ringing when the infuser slips out of her fingers. She flinches, drawing her hand back.

It's not a memory she feels should be bad, the sound of glass hitting against metal, or glass against glass. As if to avoid thinking about where it might come from (it's a flaw! how are we supposed to work with this? you can't get the kind of results we're being asked for like this!), she pulls back, leaving her tea on the table. )

Besides, you're my business. You don't need to be an inconvenience for me to care one way or the other.

( She doesn't like her own wordchoice, after the fact. With a shrug of her shoulders, she determinedly returns to reading. It's just difficult when she keeps losing her place in the same three paragraphs. )

Well, it's irritating.

[ To him. He expects more! From her, from other people. Is this how Apple felt whenever he was the one not putting his best work forward? He certainly hopes not, the idea of ending up anything like his old teacher an entirely worrisome thought (because next thing he knows, he'll be wearing glasses and writing history books and... how awful!).

The noise of the infuser against glass brings his eyes up from the tablet. The sudden movement away from the glass, the disinclination to pick her tea up now. What's that about?

He frowns, but doesn't pry. Instead, he takes greater care to set his own mug's infuser into the measuring cup without a sound once he decides it's done steeping. After that, he turns the frown down at the tablet instead. ]

And while I appreciate the concern, it really isn't that big of a problem, alright?

Does it actually bother you?

( She sets her tablet on the table, intent on a degree of movement right now rather than focus on the whys of silly little reactions. She misses the care Caesar takes to place his own infuser down; she'd have appreciated it for equally unknowable reasons if she'd seen.

The time it takes her to switch from her chair to the bench (or table chairs) is enough to give her a reason not to talk for the moment. She can sit on the point about him last time in space; this time being only worse, and without an immediate or clear end point in sight.

He knows that. He's also not the sort, in her figuring, to want t make a deal out of things that even are important, if it's not important in some more immediate sense. Getting by was good enough.

But not to her. )

Right, right. Here, can I get you to straddle where you'r sitting?

When you're only kidding around, it doesn't, but when you actually sound like you believe it yourself? Yes, a little.

[ Like, why would he be with a stupid girl? He wouldn't be! That should be proof enough that she's smart right there!

The request brings his eyes back up from the screen and he blinks, momentarily puzzled by it. Straddle his seat? ]

What? Why?

Sometimes I do believe it, for a little while. Like with why we were sent to New Mexico.

( She makes a turn around gesture with her hand, lips pulling up into a lopsided grin. Who knows? Maybe Caesar would be with someone not so smart... say, a pretty blonde! She could be really charismatic and undemanding! What if her only fault was being a total -- ahaha, no, she can't see him having extended tolerance for a total airhead, even if the airhead never got when he was fed up with her antics. )

I just learn from things, that's all. And right now I want to get my hands on your back. Scoot! You can keep your tablet on your lap for reading.

( Having taken the time to situate her own legs properly, she waits patiently for Caesar to follow suit. )

I thought you were joking about massage part.

[ And thus he's a little reluctant to do what she asks! They're out in the open. People might see! Not that it's anything particularly indecent, but...! He makes a face and looks around the cafeteria.

At least it doesn't seem too crowded, so, with a sigh, he picks his tablet up (because he plans to keep reading!) and gets up, but only briefly to turn around and straddle the chair. That done, he has to ask: ]

What about New Mexico?

[ He doesn't recall any particularly dumb moments there on her part. Well, aside from her failed attempt at getting a kiss out of him, but that was more humorous than dumb. ]

( She snorts, smile widening as he looks around. He's reserved enough about contact that she considers this a victory, much like it had been an unintentional victory that time she'd gotten him stripped half naked in the library.

... Though that hadn't been for fun reasons so much as groundbreaking ones. )

You don't remember? I told you after I licked your hand.

( #conversations-best-not-overheard-by-others-for-lack-of-context. (Not to say context made it any better.) Collette uses the table and a curious toss of her weight to inch slightly closer, then determines this is all good enough. She reaches out, settling her hand son his shoulders and firmly pressing her thumb into his trapezious as she started figuring out how much tension he's carrying in his shoulders. Her hands are firm and sure of what they do; fingers massage into the muscle in circular rotations, encouraging blood flow. )

What Sollux and I got up to?

[ That time with the shirt was for a good cause, okay!!! ]

Oh. That.

[ That he does recall. He'd been disappointed about that! But he didn't see much point in dwelling on it past that. What was done was done and recalling it has nothing to do with how his shoulders and back go stiff and tense under her hands. Or more stiff and more tense, as he imagines he hasn't really been relaxed since getting up to this awful place. ]

Yeah. That was pretty stupid.

( For all she isn't, in many ways, inclined toward patience, she holds a persistent patience as she continues to work at his shoulders, trailing here hands and thumbs downward along either side of his spine after a moment. She's more mindful of how low and how swiftly she does, stopping at his hip level to make the return, slow, circular motions over his tensed muscle back toward his shoulderblades. )

I won't be double dog daring Sollux again anytime soon. Triple, maybe. He won't do anything outside multiples of two!

( Kind of his duality theme going on, one that extends deeply into his personality. She doesn't refute that it ws dumb: she thought so. )

Though it did kickstart what got us here. I think you've installed steel here instead of muscle, C! These definitely feel like cables.

( Her warm amusement lingers as her strong hands and fingers continue their work. )

I think that would have happened without the sudden need to.

[ Not to mention it would have been so much less chaotic had it not been something that the Initiative needed to suddenly shove everyone away on. ]

Steel? Oh come on, they aren't that tense...

[ Only they are. They are and they only seem inclined to give a little as she works on his back. All the while, he's scowling down at his tablet, willing himself to concentrate on reading. ]

Mmm, you're right! They're even more, more like titanium... I think abs if titanium would have been more fun, personally, but to each their own.

( It's a light tease as she continues working. Having done this almost every day of her healthy life for herself since she was old enough to be shown how to, her hands have more than enough strength for one boy's back.

It's more that she settles into a lulling rhythm, talking in a similar cadence when she speaks. )

The Moon Base stayed multi-national, I saw that when I skimmed through first. We probably want to look at the first meetings discussing building plans. If we have those blueprints, we can make sure they all have the additions we want, if we rreplace them, right?

( She's not sure what sort of process will really be used, but she offers an idea of a suggestion anyway. )

It won't be that simple. They're designing the place, remember? If they notice too many inconsistencies, they'll scrap it and report tampering. We need to work subtly, influence the one big change we want and only that.

[ Which sadly means no bigger rooms or better bathrooms and so on.

Once she settles on a rhythm for working on his muscles, the tension slowly bleeds away. He eventually stops trying to browbeat the tablet into reading itself to him, since he's certainly not getting far himself right now. Now brainstorming out loud, he can do that. That requires less focus! ]

Makes sense.

( She says, mulling it over for a moment. She lets herself stay lost in thought, hands automatically continuin the steady rhythm she's fallen into. )

So concentrate on an extensive back-up generator system? Or a secondary power system, maybe, in case solar power fails, or something over loads the first system? I think that can happen. It should make sense, to build in those kinds of fail safes. I guess we need to make it seem worth the cost though.

( Chewing on her lip, she moves on to include his neck in her massaging, drawing her fingers down in steady pulls on either side, bringing them back up to rub at the connectors at the back of his head, where it met with his neck. She feels like his hair's getting longer. )

When'd you last get a haircut?

Just before heading off on that ridiculous Grasslands trip back home.

[ Sooooo. Like. Over a year. Over a year ago. ]

I'm not sure. A secondary system, a back-up, maybe better solar power technology overall. I'll go with what the engineering team suggests, as they should know better. Though I would like better emergency lighting when things do go down, that much is sure.

[ And things to light up the damn signs in the dark! ]

No wonder it's so long... mind if I try braiding it later?

( She grins, knowing he can't see her expression, but the thought amuses her. )

Have the better emergency lighting tie in with their suggestion, once they get back to you! That's another something with probably money attached, but if it seems worth it, I bet at some point we can figure out who'll suck it up and spend the extra money for those kinds of improvements. Maybe we can whisper it in a whole bunch of ears, while people are sleeping! Subliminal suggestion's supposed to be good for something.

( Wistful, amused sigh. She's back at his shoulders now, spreading her hands out to get over the blade of his shoulder and start working on the muscle on the back part of the bone. )

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wow i just realized his hair is probably much longer by now

yeah, i'd just sort of realized if he never had it cut, he's got... quite the head of hair now