kissthatgoodbye | |: 001. Video/Spam : Feels Just Like I Don't Try :|

    [ Public ]

    [It's not unusual for transmissions to start en route to whatever they'll eventually show; this one follows the floor for a moment, spins its focus past a wall, shows a glimpse of common room.

     Shows a partial view of a possibly familiar face, frowning in concentration, muttering more or less to himself.]

     Number of things nowhere near as simple as they should be: two so far. Well done, Admiral. Catch up to the twenty-first century, huh?

     [A few more small adjustments, and Alec is fully on screen, standing mid-corridor on one of the hallways. He beams, pleased with himself.]

     There. Now. Floor numbers go up or down? Is this thing actually on?  Hello?

     [ Spam : Open ]

     [Once his presence is successfully announced, it frees Alec up to investigate his new environment more thoroughly - and explore it he does, once he confirms what his research alone in his cabin has already told him: this place is nothing like Manticore. They seem to pride themselves on it, even. Additionally they're recovering from some kind of unusual crisis, and that leaves him a unique opportunity he doesn't intend to waste, especially not with what else his reading of the network has shown him.

     He covers his barcode with the collar of his jacket, and separates the Barge as he understands it into a grid, sets out to fill in the blank spots. He can be found poking around in the dining hall, the infirmary, the gym, the greenhouse, the art room, and lingering outside the pub, the maintenance office, the engine room. He even wanders down near Zero just to make sure he's left no corner uninvestigated.

    It's simple: act like he belongs here, see who takes the bait; he's friendly to everyone he sees, smiling easily, often waving in greeting if anyone looks at him. Evaluate, adjust, advance. As long as he has new surroundings to investigate, as long as he has new rules and social angles to learn, he doesn't have to think about why he's here, what it means, or what he means to do once he's sure of himself.]

     [ Private : Dillon Cole : A few days later, after this ]

    [No fumbling this time. He wants to be taken seriously and he expects this Dillon person is already familiar with X5s, too - enough to know that a few days is more than enough time for him to become competent with the communicator anyway, if nothing else.

     His speech is a little more formal, too, although he doesn't bother with being as starched and rigid as he's seen his clone on the network; he can, but he only needs the vague connection in this case.]

     Good afternoon, sir. I was told to contact with you a possible employment inquiry.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

That's a good strategy - it even works around here, pretty well. Usually. [A wry smile.] When it doesn't, though, it really doesn't.

Steve. Nice to meet you, Alec. Where're you from?

Seattle. [A beat. Then:] 2021. That seems to be pertinent info around here.

You sound like a Yankee.

It can be, yeah. Last place I was, was Washington, D.C. 2014.

Sure, that's me. Just don't call me a Yankees fan and we'll get along fine.

2014? Did you still have electricity?

[He cocks his head slightly, as though his curiosity is mild enough as to be inconsequential if Steve weren't to answer the question; the truth of it is that this is very important to him. He's done his research on Steve. This is the footwork part of that, but he's already laid the groundwork, and he's not sure what all the pieces he has yet mean, but this much he can ascertain: if Steve is from the same world as he is or not.]

[He frowns a little. Still?] Last time I checked.

You know, usually I'm getting that question in reverse, from kids who think we lived in the dark in the 40's.

What happened?

[Something deep, deep within Alec's expression shifts, something satisfied and almost possessive, so subtle it would be easy to miss. So Ben didn't get around to spilling every secret they have, or Steve didn't understand enough about what he did say. In all likelihood he didn't understand what happened himself, but Alec knows.

It's one of the few ways Manticore genuinely protected them instead of merely containing them.]

What, you mean you didn't? I've been lied to my entire life. [True. However:] In my world, D.C. was a smoldering pit of poverty and guerrilla warfare by 2011. No one chooses to go there. They just never got out, or never do once they go in.

[His lips quirk up into a wry smile.] We even had radios and telephones.

[Just not... palm-sized ones.

Anyway. He tilts his head, considering that.] D.C.'s not ideal, but it's not that bad. What happened? Just... things went downhill? Or...?

[Alec makes the appropriate expression of awe to go with his ooh finger wiggle at the news of radios and telephones. He's actually willing to bet that they aren't all that different from the ones most people are used to using back home now. They may have had electricity in the 40's, but they had a lot of other things that worked better without it than the 90's did.

He doesn't mind letting his consideration show at that question, though; does he say? How much? Licking his lips, he shrugs.]

June 1, 2009: it's just called the Pulse, back home. Wiped out 95% of the databanks in the United States, wrecked entire city grids beyond repair, a bunch of other things. It basically ruined everything.

Ah.

[It sounds a little - a little - like some of the areas of Europe he'd seen, after the Germans had rolled through. People managed, but it wasn't easy, that was for sure, so when Alec says it ruined everything, Steve can see how.]

And twelve years isn't enough for people to figure out how to live, uh, [whatsitcalled] off the grid?

No one's trying to fix things? Or are they?

Well. Some are. The Pulse was an attack, though, and I don't think I need to explain to you what kind of a damper that can put on recovery efforts.

Without the databanks, it became a lot harder to prove who anyone was, how much money they had, what properties they owned, where they worked. Everyone turned on each other: riots, land grabs, stealing anything they could carry and burning down what they couldn't. Fear does weird things to people, and the government was basically useless until it put martial law into effect.

Which took a while. DC was one of the hardest hit locations - not by chance, if we're speculating. War and all.

[Alec shrugs again.]

The middle of the country is where everyone that can fend for themselves ended up. The coasts are filled with everyone else. Toxic.

No. You don't.

[Steve listens quietly, and even though it sort of sounds ridiculous, how things fell apart... it sort of doesn't. He knows how the world works now, how literally everything is digital and computerized, how there are no hard copies or backups for a lot of things. He knows what a full-on wipe of all of that could do, and maybe that's why it's so... wrong, to him. So terrifying. Because it would make the world fall apart, just like Alec is describing.

He's seen what a depression can do, and this sounds... worse, honestly.]

It sounds awful, frankly. It was just the United States?

[The truth is, Alec is a little hindered in understanding what happened with the Pulse by being sheltered from it at Manticore. They received some models to study as it was happening, some emergency training added to their standard just in case, but it all seemed so far away at the time. Like it was happening to someone else because for the subjects of the transgenics program, it was.

He got more information, later, when he was being briefed for field operations. He understands it better, now, you've been out there living in filth and degradation, but he still has large gaps of knowledge that remain dark to him about what, exactly, happened.

Still, he can extrapolate. He shrugs.]

People learn to get by. Pretty much have to.

No. Other well developed countries, too. England. Japan. Brazil. I think Australia's completely off the map now. Mostly it's just a mess by this point.

...Canada seems to be mostly okay.

[He nods, quietly.] People always learn to get by.

[He does almost laugh, just a little, at the bit about Canada - but it's a dry laugh, because,] Yeah. It sounds like a mess.

Not a mess that people can't recover from, but... a mess that's gonna take a long time to sort out. You said it's been about ten years? [Or, he gathers it's been like this for at least ten years.] So you remember what it was like. Before.

[It's kind of a statement. But also kind of a question.]

Little over.

[He could give exact dates, but that's one of the things he wants to keep for himself, for his own reasons; he gets the feeling that for as much information as Ben willingly gave away to anyone and everyone, he was never quite that in touch with reality before he died. His context is... skewed. Alec's is not. Anything he ever learned is still right there ready to hand, his because he learned it, because he made it his. It's not important, not really, but he still wants to keep it to himself for now.

Instead, he shrugs.]

Does it really matter? That's not how it is anymore, and how it was didn't work, obviously.

Unless you're asking for a different reason.

No, it's not how it is anymore. Maybe starting clean's a better answer, anyway, but I was just wondering how familiar you were with electricity. Otherwise I was going to say, you're remarkably well-adjusted already.

So what do you do? Is there even a monetary system still in place, or do people just trade to get by?

[He laughs, both at the idea of the world as he knows it as a clean start, and at him not knowing what to do with electricity - or being well adjusted. He grins afterwards.]

I'm awesome, actually. Whether the lights are on or off.

Little of both. There's... okay you know all that middle ground that used to exist between dirt poor and super rich? All the people who could get by if they were just left alone, or were comfortable, or just almost there?

[Alec doesn't, but he's gotten good at converting factual data to anecdotal. Things he has never been accused of being: a robot.]

That's all just gone now. Either you got lucky and have your gold piled up high all around you, or you've only got enough to pay rent plus whatever you can steal. Or trade for.