acatalepsy_logs | Library Mingle Log

Entry tags:

Library Mingle Log

Who: Everyone!
Where: The Library
When: Throughout their time in Struxta
Rating: PG, will edit if this changes
What: The Circle gets together for some research on what this place is all about. Please treat this like a mingle log--feel free to put up a starter and tag around!

The Library (hopefully) promises to have the answers that the Welcome Committee and the general robot on the street don't. Characters can access the information by computer, and the Library has just about everything that's happened in Struxta.

That's thousands of years of information to wade through, so get to work!

[ooc: As it says above, please feel free to put up your own starter and tag around! Characters can have heard others chatting about the library or been told about it by the Welcome Committee or have just wandered in. If you come across anything of interest that you'd like me to edit into or link in the main post, please just let me know.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ day gives firo an apologetic look when he hears the exclamation, shrugging a little bit in helplessness since that's the at best scenario too. he has a feeling this might take longer if daylight doesn't get this right.

... which might be the case. he's no dialup here and he suspects even whitecrest would be struggling with this if they're going in blind. ]

We'll get something...?

[ you don't sound all that confident, day.

you also don't look all that comfortable, either, when asked the question. he clears his vocoder, trying to put his words together. ]

It's a pretty extreme way to achieve peace, yeah, but it sounds- [ ummm... ] -interesting, to followup. Something like this is being proposed back on Galateon, my dad's planet, but on a smaller scale. It'll be interesting to figure out how they really do this and stuff.

Plus- It's a real good angle for info, don't you think? All those memories and thoughts and stuff from everyone here? [ way too good of a thing to pass up, in day's opinion. ]

[Firo does not look consoled, but he nods noncommittally nonetheless; he still realizes that he'd find out pretty much nothing on his own, so he should be grateful for whatever they (read: Daylight) find out at all.]

Too good--it sounds like a nightmare if you've got secrets to keep. The information brokers back home are bad enough to deal with, and they're limited to what a person can find out.

[Which is an impressive amount, when you have their resources. But it's still not literally everything.]

What's your dad think about it?

[ daylight visibly freezes up at the question, unsure of how to respond for a few seconds because um.

yeah.

his plating slicks down, sticking painfully close to his frame as he tries to speak, ] Oh. Um. My dad? My dad. Right. My dad.

I, um, wouldn't know. Not really. He wasn't... [ at this point, it's pretty obvious why he's freezing up and stumbling about his words. all the same, he tries to answer proper. the least he can do for firo right now. ] ... alive... when I was born.

[ ... yeah... ]

[Firo watches in consternation up until Daylight lays it out. Then he nods, an almost businesslike movement. For all Firo's nosiness, he wouldn't want to drag potentially painful information out of someone. Besides, they're men, and men just don't talk about these things, particularly if it'll cause one to be so visibly affected.]

Didn't mean to pry.

[And since he has this family factoid in common with Daylight, he tries to pivot the subject, which is what he'd want someone to do for him.]

You made it sound like his planet isn't the same as yours. Where do you live?

[Did his dad emigrate? That'd be another similarity up in their family trees.]

[ daylight smiles at firo, trying to give a 'it's cool' flutter with his winglets to show no harm, no foul. firo didn't know about it and it's not like daylight started the chat with, 'by the way- i'm not cool with this, this, and this topic. can we avoid it?'

so. yeah. an accident. nothing more.

but the change of topic? welcomed and embraced, wholeheartedly. though firo possibly can't pick it up, he sends out a wave of thanks-touched-relief.]

Yeah. He was from Galateon. Technically I was born there too but eh- [ a vague hand gesture. so-and-so. ] Politics. Made it messy. My mom and dad ended up simply claiming Earth as my planet to keep it simple for my records.

[ which he doesn't mind. he has a lot more happy memories from earth than galateon. ]

[It's weird to hear about "Earth" as a birthplace, as if it's one unified land, when in Firo's experience it's anything but. Hell, neighborhoods within his own city view each other as foreigners.

He smiles and turns around to look at the library, more as a full-body fidget than out of a real effort to look for something.]

I'm from Earth too--guess that makes us neighbors. ...Never saw anybody who looked like you, though. Where exactly did you live? Ah--like what city? I'm from New York.

[Time is most likely the difference, rather than distance, but he can't imagine his world changing so much.]

Oh wow! No wonder you're so cool. You're from New York! [ planet buddies! and from the new york too! there's a chance the city he knows and the city firo knows are different, drastically so, but- yeah. it's really nice to know that the city that never sleeps still exists in other universes.

that has daylight smiling again, winglets fluttering once again now that he's eased back into the conversation. ]

A city? Oh no, no. I didn't live in a city. I lived in a desert town while growing up. Dust Tumbles, the Old Farmlands. Pretty much sun and dust storms and the occasional mean winter.

Right now I'm with my dad's starship, the Lornful Light, serving on it to help out other places that need a lending hand. Kind of like, um, what we're doing here now! [ a little thoughtful pause. then he adds, ] Just... You know. More organisation and rules and protocols of how to do it.

[Someone called him cool?! Excuse him while he tries not to beam like a child--that, after all, would not be cool.

He distracts himself by smoothing down his jacket and nodding along to Daylight's story. Being a big fan of westerns, he can just picture the little desert town and wants to ask more about it, but the rest of what Daylight's saying snags his attention too.]

A starship, huh? [As if he has a clue what that means, which he doesn't.] So all this running around and sticking our nose in other people's business isn't that new to you.

[Honestly, being nosy isn't that new to Firo either, but he'd need a little more self-awareness to realize that right now.]

Yeah! The Lornful Light - my dad's starship - has been doing it for a long, long time so they've got it down pat. [ he sounds very proud as he talks about his dad's legacy, looking proud and happy to be involved in it now.

it's always been a dream of his to follow his parents somehow and honestly? his dad's adventures are a lot of more fun sounding than his mom's adventures. (no offence, mom. pushing laws and orders are great and super important things to do... just not his thing.) ] I've been with them for maybe, um, a few Terran years. Give or take. If you round it off. Stuff like that.

[ not a lot of time to a galateion when they live for hundreds and hundreds of years but, you know, every day counts on that ship. especially considering the work they do. ]

It's kind of why I wish I had paid more attention to how they do things. I'm sure they've faced a problem like we're facing now. They've been through a lot.

[Hey, another similarity! Then again, Firo followed his father's footsteps into a life of crime, but we can't all be intergalactic heroes.]

Too bad Astoria didn't just call 'em up. Would've saved the rest of us a lotta trouble.

If you were there for years, you've gotta remember some of it, right?

Yeah... [ he laughs, flustered but happy. ] I find myself wishing the others were here too. They'll be a great help right now.

[ example: dialup and their amazing data management programs going through the library's records. they wouldn't be occasionally squinting at the screens like a total dummy as is the case with daylight here.

when he hears the question, he pauses. considers his reply. ] Ummm... Kind of? I have a faint idea of what the procedures and stuff are but, ah, executing them? Not so much.

Admittedly, I haven't seen a lot of action since I joined.

[ he is trying so very hard to keep the pouting out of his voice. he is. ~~(and it's not working.)~~ ]

[Firo almost feels like he shouldn't ask... But, well, he's immediately curious, so he has to.]

Why's that?

[It's hard to tell how old Daylight is, but something about him strikes Firo as pretty young, so perhaps that's why.]

I'm considered too young. [ here, he puffs out his cheek, clearly annoyed by that.

judging by the errant flicks to his winglets, day is no doubt thinking about all the times the 'too young' card was pulled on him during adventures. ] I'm just a hundred-and-eight, so I'm the youngest one on the ship.

[ meaning there are times he gets treated like a beeper. even by nightbreak and dialup! urgh! ]

[108? Given that he's talking to a huge metal person, Firo supposes he shouldn't be surprised. Heck, Daylight's still a lot younger than Czes, anyway.

Firo tries to hide an amused smile and shrugs.]

You've gotta put in your time at the bottom first--that's how it works at any company. [He says confidently, having never worked a legal job.] My Family didn't let me tackle big jobs until I'd been with them a few years, either. But if they have you around at all, that must mean they're planning on letting you see action someday, right? Don't worry about it.

[ ... that... that makes sense. it makes a lot of sense, considering how it was important to prove's yourself and your worth to an established group.

but he wishes it didn't make sense in his ~~pouting~~ thinking. mostly because it means it'll be a long, long time before he and the others in fireteam trialblazer would be taken seriously by the others on the lornful light. siiiiigh. ]

When it came to you working with your family- [ not with a capital f. mostly because poor daylight, sheltered as ever, is thinking of this business being an actual sort of mom and pop business. like what mr. darrison had when the old man was still kicking. ] -how many 'years' were 'years' for you until you started getting more serious jobs? Two years? Three years? Four years?

[ please don't give an answer that has it in the double digits. day may or may not got nuts in that moment. ]

[Firo can't keep from smiling anymore; he remembers being that eager, how he felt a twinge of agony every day that he didn't manage to do something amazing. He can appreciate someone's desire to start doing bigger and better jobs for their people--god knows some of the picciotto today could use that enthusiasm.]

Well, it was a year or two before they started asking me to help with things outside of the normal day-to-day work, every so often. [And given that he royally screwed some of the extra tasks, he wouldn't have blamed them if they waited longer.] It was five before I actually got promoted.

If you're already over 100, that's not too long to wait, huh?

[He shouldn't be talking given how much he was chomping at the bit, but he'll conveniently ignore that fact for now.]

[ daylight is unable to keep his reaction to himself so he lets his feelings known about the idea of having to wait five more years- ]

Urrrghh-[ he puffs out a cheek in frustration, looking very much like he was sulking at the idea of having to do more waiting.

the horror. the horror. it's enough to make him not realise he's actually gotten an entry of interest - something about the city's past, judging from the text in the entry - while he speaks out his thoughts on this. ] That's like twenty in Galateion years!

[ maybe more, seeing as how his parents knew most of the command and heads on the lornful light. his winglets flicks in irritation, almost batting poor meddy in the helm when they were zipping by. ]

How did you do it, Firo? [ he looks at him with big blue optics, pleading. ] How did you get your family to take you seriously?

Edited 2018-08-14 03:45 (UTC)

[Oh god. He can't look at those eyes and not feel put on the spot.]

Uh, well... Like I said, it was years of hard work... And then I had to go through the ritual and beat Maiza in a knife duel, and uh...

[To give a real, honest answer, he'd have to admit some level of "hell if I know." Of course he tried his desperate hardest, but he has no idea what it was that finally made them promote him.

And of course he can't admit that.

So when he sees the promising result pop up on Daylight's screen, he seizes onto it.]

Hey, did you find something?

[Subtle. Seamless. Smooth.]

[ ohhhhhhhhh.

daylight gets it now. firo is part of a Family, capital ‘f’ and everything. not family. maybe? he wonders if knife fights are a common thing where firo is. can he ask about that? he has a feeling that he can't just ask about things like that but maybe if he asks really nicely-

oh. did he what now? ]

Find something…? [ he looks back at the console - that's right! they were here to look for things! - and sees that something has popped up. ] Neat! We got something after all!

Huh... It looks like a report of some sort? [ one of the earliest ones too, if the dates are anything to go by? looks like his attempts to search through dates did work! that's pretty exciting. if only dialup was here with them.

but then he starts to read it and the smile from his face slowly begins to disappear. ]

Something about the city and a… virus? Where’s Meddy? They would be better for reading this up.

[Firo is the least subtle gangster, so Daylight could probably get an answer even if he didn't ask that nicely.]

Virus, huh? ...What's the matter?

[Look, Daylight, if that face is because it's too hard for you to understand, Firo's not even going to attempt to read it. He looks around for Meddy and waves--help, please!]

Hey, Meddy, check this out!

[ bweoop?, goes meddy as they zip back to the group.

curious to see what they've found, the little drone floats behind daylight's shoulder to read the entry on the console. their finials and fins twitch thoughtfully, the only signs that they're paying attention to this.

daylight can't help and ask: ] Anything sticks out to you, Meddy?

[ meddy beeps in the affirmative. they sound a little distressed, much to daylight's distress. ]

... What is it, Meddy? What did you find?

[Firo murmurs his thanks to Meddy and watches carefully for his reaction. The beeps and twitches don't really mean anything to him, so he nudges Daylight.]

You mind translating for me?

Oh! Right! Sorry about that. [ daylight needs to remember that not everyone knows binary basics or binary babble.

he turns to meddy and asks them to explain what they’re finding so far. in return, daylight finds himself getting a series of worried trills and beeps from his companion. meddy certainly sounds agitated. not scared, but definitely worried to the point of alarm. the poor bot needs a vacation after this.

it must be something big because daylight’s optics grow wide, blooming with light. he needs a moment to compose himself, not wanting to make firo worry. ]

Okay… So… This is a medical report, basically. A super condensed version of a medical report but a medical report all the same. [ he pauses, listening ] It’s talking about the aftermath of some sort of plague. The statistics of how many people died and how many are still recovering and the methods they’re considering to prevent this from happening. Things like that.

[His eyes almost start to glaze over at "medical report," because that sounds boring as hell, but he manages to steel himself to listen since Daylight is going through the trouble of telling him.]

Sounds like fun reading. So I'm gonna guess it's pretty bad by your reaction, huh? How bad? Like 1918?

[He was only 6 at the time and doesn't remember much of it, but he does remember that it was Bad, even by the standards of the slums that were always dealing with deadly illnesses.]

... 1918? [ daylight tilts his helm to the side, obviously confused by the reference firo is trying to use here.

this sounds like a difference in worlds' history, daylight thinks. the most memorable thing that happened in 1918 for daylight's world was the dust storms that ravished the old farmlands and turned them into-

well.

the old farmlands. ]

Um... Yeah. It's bad. Real bad. [ he looks back to meddy for confirmation. the little drone repeats a series of beeps and boops at him. ] Bad enough that it hit the population hard. Almost wiped them out? I think?

Library Mingle Log

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