exsilium | voice;

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[ 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.

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( She hopes she'll get to creatively work spoiling into a rewards system. He just has to know what it's like beforehand!

Or something of the sort, as she brushes his hair aide with her fingers, trailing up his neck again. )

Chin down.

( She prompts, a non-sequitor tied in to her massaging. )

I keep forgetting how much or little you know... patents are a way of saying this idea for something is yours, and people will pay you for using it or buying it. It may or may not bring fame, but if it's good, it usually brings money. So maybe that'll be important? Making sure it has more than the one, special for us function?

[ Hey! He's not a dog! He's a boy! ~~Let's pretend those two are different at all!~~ ]

How long is this going to take? I really was planning on reading...

[ Though he puts his chin down as asked, while lazily slumping against the back of the chair he's facing, arms crossing to rest on the top of the backing as he does. ]

A way of saying an idea is yours. That sounds about right for what I was getting at, so yes, that'd be what we would bribe people with. Only we can't leave anything too advanced in the past, so that's going to be tricky.

( If she ever gets his leg to twitch while rubbing his belly, she just might lose it laughing.

Just saying.

She makes a sort of grunting noise to show she heard his question, though she doesn't bother answering. )

The problem is once you leave something more advanced, you make it easier for people to build off that into different, newer things. I'd be careful! Or accept that even thinking about this means we're making bigger changes than we know how to watch fall out.

( She thinks on the Andalites, and on the Yeerks. )

People are smart. Give them a reason to start thinking outside the box -- ( heh ) -- and they'll go crazy places! So maybe a more effective way of harnessing solar power? Just that. Something simple and... harder to use badly.

( She concentrates on his neck with his chin tucked in and down, glad to see each time he's relaxing a fraction more. The reading will still be there later. Well, unless the network's down! But what won't wait is health, or things like stress and tension, not in her experience. She just wants him to feel better, and he's being stubborn about her saying so. "I'm fine!"

Bear bottom's he's fine, mentally (where she admits he copes well) or especially physically (which he mostly solves by ignoring).

Oh goodness.

When had she turned into her mother?!

This extremely horrifying thought makes her grimace and pull her hands back down along his shoulders, slipping over them to work on the connectors from the front of his shoulder to his pectoral. )

That's got to be doable!

Is that what this place uses? Solar?

[ Like he would know for sure! Technical specs aren't going to be his forte at this level, no matter how many times he goes over them, which is why he recruited engineer-type people. ]

Is solar even any good as an energy source? Sure, the sun is always there, but obviously it isn't enough to fill all the needs we have up here.

[ Could they improve upon solar panels? Make them more efficient? Again, he wouldn't know and that's a little frustrating. If he had the energy to be frustrated, anyway, but right now he more feels like nodding off-- ]

...! [ Despite Collette still working, he sits up straight rather abruptly. ] I'm going to fall asleep at this rate! I think that's enough.

It's nowhere near enough, really.

( Said with a smile and a quiet sigh, considering she slides her hands around his waist and leans enough forward to rest her head on his shoulder. It's terrible for balance, but she's sure she can get her hand back fast enough to catch herself on the table or her chair before she faceplants if Caesar jumps up and leaves. )

Solar's powerful! No idea how powerful. I think you need a lot of panels down on Earth... or something. Look. ( Giving him a squeeze. She wasn't so far behind him that this doesn't just look like someone leaning comfortably on someone else; tired like so many people are. ) Don't go undoing all the good work I've just done! Silly. This stuff is important, I get that. But so's you having that brain of yours at top power! Work with me here, C. Being up in space for a couple of days had you messed up enough, and back then you had half as many reasons to be running from nightmares, too.

( She's glad her head is down; she has to end up smiling at how ridiculous this is, in different ways. Convincing him to sleep was never supposed to be difficult; and she's not trying to now in an effort to sabotage what he wants to work for. She understands being frustrated and at dead ends well enough herself! )

Please?

[ There's an uncomfortable silence from him at first. While Collette may thrive on contact, Caesar is still (and most likely always will be) reluctant about it in public. Still, he tries not to tense back up, because she isn't exactly wrong. He's tired and stressed, just like everyone else. He also doesn't vent it like everyone else mostly does. No crying or yelling or fighting, just ignoring it.

He makes a small, grumbly sound and relaxes against the chair again. ]

Just so you know, my brain is always at that. [ Yeah, sure. Right. ] Even in space, though you're right about how much I dislike it up here.

[ At least the assassins are long gone! ]

But I'm sure I'll get used to it. There really is no other option.

( She is thankful to the gods she's not sure she believes in for the fact those assassins are gone. She breathes out in a sigh of contented relief when he does his best to relax. She's aware he doesn't enjoy this so much in public; she gives him another squeeze with her arms before letting her arms start to relax. )

Not for the moment. If it gets too bad, you can go on one of those supply runs. It'll help get you grounded again.

( She laguhs a little, lifting her head back up. )

Not that it's always such a good thing! Anyway, let me help. I can do this much, at least!

( Saving him the embarrassment of her kissing him again in public, she unwinds her arms from around his waist, bracing herself with one and bringing the other to his back, sliding up to his shoulder again for a light squeeze. )

It's really tempting to do nothing but supply runs, to be quite honest, but that'd be a waste.

[ Partly due to him having more important things to do! Being capable of them and so on. Though laziness will always play a role in it, where having to run off and do something isn't so appealing. It will take some time for the unappealing nature of playing fetch to be surpassed by the unappealing nature of being trapped in a small moon base. ]

One or two might do you good anyway. That's not a waste, of energy or time.

( Using him as the rest of her anchor, she settles herself back until she feels her center of balance is more in her favor than against it. She resumes what she was doing earlier, rubbing down along the muscle on either side of his spine. )

[ Despite her still working away at his back, he half-twists about to look glance over a shoulder at her. ]

Only if it's several days long and somewhere in a nice city.

[ Civilization, please. ]

( She smiles. )

L.A., in the summer, early 1990's. My hometown!

And what exactly would we need from there?

Ask Billy for his shopping list. There's a whole bunch of hardware stores! Food stores, too. It's a city. What don't we need from there right now?

And just how do people do this so-called shopping for supplies? Surely we don't have the right kind of funds.

I have some money set aside. Other than that...

( She moves back up to his shoulders, falling quiet. Otherwise it's the same stealing as everyone else. Much as she hates it, she can also think of creatives ways to do this -- do that -- with none the wiser until closing. )

Marques don't count. Maybe you can do stupid dog tricks for change...

[ seriously tho ]

The Initiative's been able to hand out money before. Wouldn't there be a way to do that again?

( she snorts, giving one ear a flick with her fingers. )

I meant in American dollars!

( she laughs, giving both shoulders a squeeze when her hand falls back down. )

I'm pretty sure the Initiative either stole or replicated the stuff which wasn't coin. Unless it all really lasted thousands of years... maybe it did? But in useable quantities?

[ When her hands fall back down away from his shoulders, he takes that as a sign that he might be able to read again! So he turns away, attention turning back to the tablet. ]

Stealing may have been difficult. [ Unless they could go back in time as well, but then why the Transports at all? ] If they replicated it, wouldn't it be possible they brought how they did that up here with them?

Ask! It's not like any of them expect us to stay in the past long enough to be tried for anything. Can't keep people who disappear in jail... if we were stupid enough to do something worth being caught over.

( With her hands on the chair now, she watches him, reluctant to get moving again. )

That is true...

[ No past prison can hold a Transport for very long, so there isn't that much of a worry. ]

I'll ask once I get a chance to.

Good.

( Feeling like she's passed her stamp of approval on, she falls into silence, eyes drifting from him to take in the whole of the cafeteria. It's polite to let him read, and after a while, she leans sideways to snag her tablet and try to do the same.

Tries being operative. She seems to be reading, indulging in shifting and more upper body focused fidgets, up to and including setting her tablet down and taking time to shift and pull her legs around so she's sitting more properly.

Her tea she leaves untouched on the table, chill and unmoving )

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voice;

scruffy silverberg...

eternally so

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