[Nexus LOL] Technomagic was Never meant to work like this

[chocolatechipbadass]

It's a beautiful day in this neighborhood Nexus. A really beautiful day.

Six-winged birds singing, flowers blooming everywhere one looks. From far off in the distance on the other side of the Nexus people wandering the Plaza will hear a sudden loud noise and feel a very minor shake but there's no invading force. No colossal calamity to be bested. Now for the poor sod who used to own the internet cafe that's just been blown to smithereens in a cascade of firework trails raining down it's a very bad day. Tina's still swearing about Aimbots and cheaters while waving around a game controller that isn't plugged into anything while the fire burns. She's not going to stop when the potions shop next door catches flame either.

But alllll the way back in the plaza? There's no sign of trouble. Maybe the faintest glimpse of fireworks. The smell of gunpowder mingling with a bitter herb and a touch of...ozone? Honestly with all the pollen in the air it's difficult to tell. Precisely Because it's the Nexus the fallout from this ill conceived haze may not be easily noticed at first.

A flicker of a little symbol over someone's head while they're reading a book. People cutting off mid conversation to glance at their conversation partners. Or rather, over their heads. So many little 😮 popping up over heads as confusion starts to spread only to rapidly dissipate into a myriad of other little pictures when people seem to realize that whatever the flavor of the day weirdness is, it's not seemingly dangerous. Is there a rhyme or a reason to them? What could it mean? Are you affected?


[Please refer to THIS POST in the OOC comm for an explanation of what's going on. The TL;DR to this Nexus LOL is that a character's innermost thoughts will be visible to anyone who is observing them whether they're speaking or not, but they will exclusively be communicated via Emojis. The OOC post has some guidelines for using these emojis in tags and some rules so please check there before posting in. Threadhopping and mingling are required for this post as there is no real Question Asker so Have fun!]

Comments

[outpostcook]

"A copy of me had been made back home," Kinner says. "McReady killed it, but that means it had succeeded in digesting me. It's got very powerful telepathy - it puts its victims to sleep so they don't struggle. The copies take the victim's memories, skills, appearance, and personality, so you can't trick them with questions."

He thinks about the Doctor's offer, then happily nods. That actually wouldn't be a bad idea, to have confirmation that Kinner's human from a third party.

"If you want to test me, I'd be happy to go along with it. Might give people more peace of mind dealing with me. "

[not_the_question]

"Bit worse than Dream Crabs, then. What's the point in making the copy?"

🦀 They only digest your brain. He wonders, though.

"Tell you what, that can be my payment for the next meal." He offers a small smile. Negotiation is a wonderful thing.

[outpostcook]

"They spread through the copies they make. They don't have a stomach so much as dissolve you and add your matter to theirs. One's all it takes to devour a population. Every person who's eaten and changed into a Thing increases their numbers. We only knew it could replace people because we caught it feeding on Charnauk, our lead dog. We had a man alone guarding it when it escaped." Kinner swallows hard. He knows exactly what must've happened to Connant. "We put things together after that."

🧠🦀❓ Kinner wonders if the Brain Crabs are related to the Thing or hunt in a similar way.

"Sure. I'll take that offer. Next time, I'll take one of your tests as payment. What are Brain Crabs?"

[not_the_question]

He hums quietly as he listens. It's obviously hard to tell that story. "Not brain crabs. Dream Crabs. They're aliens. Attach themselves to your head. Stick the equivalent of a straw into your brain and dissolves it for food. But there's anaesthetic. They create a heavily realised dream world for you to exist in. So you don't feel any pain."

Well, not much pain anyway, not unless you figure out what's going on.

[outpostcook]

"That's not too diffent from what ours did, minus the dream world, and ours wanted more than people's brains. It wouldn't want anybody struggling and raising the alarm, so it put people to sleep first before it ate them. When I woke up here, my memory was still off in places. Probably from it reaching around in my head."

Kinner never woke up, and he isn't sure it would have changed anything if he had. He goes to fix up the fish and chips he promised.

"All it needs is a touch, and it can change a living thing into one of them."

[not_the_question]

"And you just called it 'Thing'. It didn't tell you what it would call itself?"

Honestly, humans lack such creativity when it comes to aliens. He watches with maybe just a bit of excitement as the man goes to prepare the food.

[outpostcook]

Kinner shakes his head. "No. The individual we met in Antarctica made no effort to talk with us. If we were food to it, humans don't talk to cows. The copies only talked to us as the humans they pretended to be, to maintain their disguises."

It would make sense if language was one of the many skills Things absorbed from their victims. It would have learned English immediately, through absorbing Connant.

"Food's ready. Want else anything on it? Ketchup?"

[not_the_question]

The Doctor grinned at the plate. He scowled at the mention of ketchup. "Vinegar and salt."

He's more British than anything, if he's going to try to blend in as a human. "Well, I talk to cows, but then I'm not human."

He shrugs.

[outpostcook]

"Vinegar and salt? I can do that for you." Kinner adds them to the fish and chips. He's learned to acclimate his cooking to the variety of species and cultures in the Nexus.

The cook comes out with the fish and chips, still warm, placing them on a table.

"Our biologist, Professor Blair, was the one who had the idea to unthaw the alien so we could study it. He didn't plan for anybody to be eaten, but it was a reckless thing to do."

[not_the_question]

"Oh, Yes. I met him. First day I came back after being gone a long time. Not reckless. Well, yes, reckless. But I would say, human. It's what you pudding-brains do: try to make sense out of chaos."

He picks up a chip and studies it before taking a bite. He thought, since he had eaten at the Frost Fair, he wouldn't be hungry, but there's something about Fish and Chips - he's always hungry for those. His emoji changes 😌. He's almost content, which would surprise him, if he knew.

"Quite good."

Take the compliment, he doesn't dish them out often.

[outpostcook]

"I take it if you met Blair, you met his dog. That dog's special. Isn't exactly a dog, either. Remember the alien you mentioned? Bob is a member of its species." Kinner's met Bob long enough to know exactly what the dog really is. "What was your impression of Blair?"

He's relieved that Things aren't all bad, though he's still instinctively uncomfortable around one. Blair was killed by a Thing, too.👽🐕👴🏻

"Glad you like 'em, sir." Kinner's humble, though he's worked at cooking long enough to trust his food's quality. "My fish are pretty well known here, so I'm glad they're good for you."

He can't help but be a little proud.

[not_the_question]

He should be proud. "I've travelled all across my universe, and several parallel ones besides. These are worth making a trip to have."

Blair hadn't revealed that about himself.

"I'm... not sure. He was funny." Off. But then the mention of the dog. And the Doctor pales. "He said the Dog wasn't really a dog. It seemed friendly enough to me..."

But now he's worried. "How closely should I pay attention to them?"

[outpostcook]

Kinner's emoji shifts. 😊 "Thank you. If you ever would like another, consider my shop open, and we've already decided next time's payment."

Kinner understands the concern, since a friendly Thing was a hard pill for him to swallow, too. But Bob proved that Kinner could trust him, so Kinner's giving him a chance. Still, he has a bad reputation to overcome. Maybe that's why he gets along with Blair.

"Blair's harmless, and so is Bob. Bob's a Thing, but he has no interest or intention of harming anyone. The one who attacked us, he says, was unusual and not a representative of its species's government or policy. He planned to come to Earth to kill it. As for Blair, he had a bad time in his world before he died, so he's got a lot to deal with. He's completely human, just an eccentric one. And I don't like him."

He sighs, not comfortable with a Thing himself but willing to try and overcome his prejudice. "You're welcome to keep an eye on them, but they aren't a threat to anybody in the Nexus. Bob keeps what he is a secret, mostly, to avoid scaring people."

[not_the_question]

He smiles again. 🤝 "I appreciate that. And if that bob works well enough here in the Nexus..."

He lets the idea drop. He had agreed to that being payment for this one and the sonic scan for the next. He really doesn't need to negotiate a long-standing agreement at this point. Besides, he's more interested in the information he's getting.

"So, Bob can talk. And it's as I thought - the issue with the one who attacked the humans wasn't how they considered it. I'll have to talk to Bob sometime. Blair - I found to be mostly harmless. He does like to talk. A lot. Good for gathering information."

Bad if you don't want to talk endlessly. "I tend to keep an eye on everyone anyway. Just some more than others."

He continues to eat.

[outpostcook]

"Bob doesn't talk, not exactly. He uses telepathy. All members of his species have very strong psychic abilities. However, I wouldn't be surprised if his thoughts read differently than a regular dog's. He's a lot smarter, for one thing."

Kinner doesn't doubt that Things and humans see the world very differently, though he hasn't talked to Bob enough to know the details.

"Some of us were willing to assume it wasn't evil when we found it. The one we met made no attempt to communicate with us. One of our scientists, Connant, was on guard when it escaped, and I'm afraid from all evidence he was its first meal rather than a conversation partner. People reported nightmares about it when they fell asleep with it in the base, even when it was frozen."

Kinner fixes up some grilled salmon for himself to eat.

"Care if I join you?" Kinner smiles. "But yeah, Blair does like to talk. And he's on the arrogant side, though he's trying to do better. When I knew him back at Big Magnet, he was even worse."

[not_the_question]

The Doctor gestures as he listens. "It's your place."

What is he going to do, say 'no'? The Doctor huffs a bit of a chuckle, he can't imagine worse. But okay.

"What's Big Magnet'?"

[outpostcook]

"Oh. That was the name of the research station where we worked. There were thirty-seven of us in all. A biologist, a meteorologist, a cosmic rays specialist, a physicist. Not even getting into the mechanics and pilots. We had those, too."

Kinner sits down with his salmon and some lemonade. 😋

"If you've met a man named James Palmer, he had a counterpart on our team. Bart Caldwell. They're almost the spitting image of one another in build and somewhat in personality. It's interesting to learn that there are two strikingly similar people in different universes."

[not_the_question]

The Doctor hums as he listens. "Well, that's how parallel universes work. Everything's the same, but just a little bit different. People dead in one are alive in another. Different names for the same person. That sort of thing."

It's all old hat to him. This is... basically his life.

[outpostcook]

"I'm not a scientist, just a cook, so it all took some getting used to. Have multiple versions of the same person, alternate universes...it's interesting, though. So old Caldwell could be Palmer, just a version of him from my timeline with a different name and past."

Kinner forks his salmon. "I wonder if there are other versions of myself out there."

[not_the_question]

"Probably. There are for most creatures."

Just not Time Lords. There was only one of them, by and large. Most of the others weren't Time Lords. And as far as he had found, he was the only Doctor - in this incarnation, anyway. Rumours abound, but those were just rumours.

[outpostcook]

"I wonder how many of those other Kinners got eaten by an alien cow." The cook smiles as he continues to eat. "Glad you like my fish. I can give you my business card if you ever want to make a reservation in the future."

Kinner's proud of how his business has grown over his time in the Nexus.

[not_the_question]

"Seriously? I pretty much just ensured that you will always have enough fish and you expect me to make reservations?"

Yeah, he might've forgotten to mention just how good that tackle is until now.

[outpostcook]

"Thank you," Kinner says, bowing his head slightly. "For making sure I'll have plenty of fish. I'm not sure I can repay you."

Palmer looks at the tackle, pulling it out of his pocket. "There's something special about this, other than it being sonic. How does it work, so I know how to use it in the future?"

[not_the_question]

"I told you. Press that button there." He gestured to it. "You mean other than the fact it's from a different planet in the future?" He shrugs. "No. That about covers it."

He smirks. "it's just very good tackle.

[outpostcook]

Kinner carefully looks over the tackle, then puts it away again. "Thank you very much. I mean it."

He smiles in response to the smirk. "In all seriousness, if you ever want to eat here, just let me know. I'm here at the shop during weekdays and Saturday afternoons."