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

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

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!]

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The Doctor shook his head. "Not as much as you probably think. Just that you were explorers and encountered an alien..."

Which was more than enough, really. "Cook is an important person to have along. Probably pretty important to have here too."

Kinner explains, emojis appearing as he does. A school of 🐟 emojis surround him, followed by a 💀.

"I run a fish shop around here. Kinner's Kippers. It's a pretty nice place, and the winter didn't hit me as badly as some other folks, so I got back on my feet pretty quickly. Had to find some new fishing spots, though, since a bunch of my favorites were on Fallen territory and I ain't in the mood to be one of their war trophies. I like my skull where it is. They're extremely territorial."

He nods in understanding. "So I've been told. Beheading and such. I'm glad you were able to get up and running sooner. Honestly, seeing people return to providing normal services helps everyone to recover faster."

He's glad Kinner feels easier to talk to.

"Tell me, do you make 'Fish-n-Chips'? It's been a long time since I've had that. It's one of my favourite Earth dishes."

Don't judge the alien! His emoji changes. Talking about all of this is actually making him a bit hungry. 🍴

Kinner sighs when beheading is mentioned, and a 🙎 symbol appears. "They're strange. They aren't interested in fish themselves, the Fallen can't eat, but they refuse to share their territory or the resources on it with anybody. Can't see how a little sharing would hurt them, but I can just find new places to fish. Easy to do."

The cook's expression brightens when the Doctor mentions fish and chips, and several 👍emojis swarm around him. That's right up Kinner's alley.

"Fish and chips? Yes, I do make those, as a matter of fact. Would you like some now?"

Kinner's not at his shop, so they'll need to walk back, but they aren't far. He's eager to help the Doctor out, and he's a little hungry himself if the 🍴 are anything to go by.

"I think, at the end of it, they're just very scared."

Which the Doctor is usually pretty good at putting people at ease. Well, no, but he helps people to look past their own fears to see the greater good.

He grins at the offer. "Oh, I would, yes. But, I don't have any money and apparently that's a thing here now. But I have a lot of things I could barter and trade."

Because he travels the whole of time and space. And he has a bigger-on-the-inside box stuffed full of all kinds of bits and bobs.

That makes Kinner thoughtful. "You know, I think that might be something all the incidents have in common. They may have been defending their claimed territory. Anyone past the torches was an intruder to them, and they kill intruders. We went on their territory for that scouting mission and to scavenge from Dia's ship, and they probably saw that as provoking them. It's immediately assuming we're hostile and refusing to talk directly with us that are the big issues here."

He nods, having put some of the pieces together. He's not a genius, but he knows a bit about how people think.

"Barter and trade are fine. What do you have to offer that I can use? In return, I'll be happy to fix up some fish and chips for you. Are there any drinks you'd like in particular? When we get there, I'll find you a menu."

Kinner's recently added coffee and tea to his menu, partly because it's been a pretty common request.

He nods. "Exactly. Very few things in the universe are evil, but evil and hunger look the same from the wrong side of the cutlery."

Since they're talking about food. Offering the food image seems appropriate.

"Well, I have tackle, if you need some of that. Probably even got a sonic bob around to attract fish. Otherwise, if there's some other hobby, I can probably offer something to help with that."

He has to consider the drink. "I've been spending a lot of time on Earth recently. I was introduced to this soft drink called Root Beer. Not sure if you have any of that, but I've discovered it goes well with fish and chips. Otherwise, tea is fine."

"I don't think they're evil. Desperate, harsh, and suspicious, but not evil. And they probably have their reasons that they're that way."

Kinner nods, picking up the metaphor. He'd probably seem evil or at least inscrutable to a fish, or a lobster. From what he learned about Things, the Thing probably didn't see anything wrong with what it did to Kinner and his team.

"Their values ain't human from everything I've heard, fair enough given they're aliens, so I reckon what looks like an attack to us is self-defense to them. I think they assumed some things about us, and we assumed some things about them. Maybe we're going to need some proper peace talks to understand one another better, but I'm not sure the Fallen would go along, and peace talks only work if both sides cooperate."

"That would work well for me. Aonic bob?" Kinner's curious, a ❓ and 🎣 symbol appearing over his head. That does sound interesting. "And I do have root beer, yes. Recent addition to my menu." Kinner sees his shop in the distance, picking up his pace a little.

Edited 2019-05-27 20:46 (UTC)

"Oh, I don't expect it to happen overnight. And I'm not going to go all blazing saddles there tomorrow or anything. But you're right, it will take both sides cooperating."

He wonders if he could set up the 'Osgood Boxes' 📦 📦 here and then give a lecture on the difference between war and peace. But then, there's no mechanism to make people forget. He sighs and shakes his head it's possible, but not likely to work right now. Kinner moving on helps distract him from his thoughts.

He hums. "Similar. Not from Earth, and not from your time zone, but I find such hardly matters here in the Nexus. If you find that to be a fair trade, I could pop back to my place before coming to eat."

Kinner agrees. "For a long-term peace, we're going to need more talks. A ceasefire's a place to start, though it also means we gotta be careful. If territory's as important to them as I think, I agree that they have the right to enforce their borders and we should make sure they're respected, though their approach comes off to us as very harsh."

The cook notices the boxes, but he doesn't ask what they are. He wants to respect that there are things the Doctor doesn't want revealed.

"I think that's a fair trade." Inside, Kinner's excited at the idea of having alien technology to fish with. 😲 and 🎣 emojis circle around his head. He's not even annoyed anymore. "I was eaten by an alien back in my world, so I admit the food metaphor hit a little close to home."

The Doctor tilts his head slightly in confusion and looks Kinner up and down. "You... were eaten? Um, forgive me for saying, but you're looking pretty good for someone who... is, you know, dead."

❓❓❓

Kinner nods, several emojis appearing. 🐄👾🍴👨‍🍳

"That's right. The alien which killed me had the ability to make copies of anybody it ate and assimilated. I was attacked when it was in the shape of one of our cows - I milked them as one of my duties as the expedition cook - and woke up here, in one piece. I don't know why, either, but I'm not about to waste my second chance."

He jerks his head in the direction of the fish stand. "Mind if I fetch you your drink, or would you rather get the sonic bob first?"

That's... the Doctor isn't even sure what to make of that. "Tell you what, let me go fetch you're payment and I'll meet you there."

After all, wouldn't good for the TARDIS to become noticeable. He meets at the place a few minutes later. He holds up the bob and presents it to Kinner.

"There you go, paid in full. Now, about that... alien eating you... How do you know that... you're you?"

The Doctor has is own existential crisis he's dealing with, so, why not poke holes at other's? Might help him.

"Interestin'. Does it work any differently than a usual bob? That isn't sonic?"

Kinner examines the bob for a moment, then tucks it into his coat pocket. He'll try it out later.

"That's a good question. First off, it turns out somebody wrote a book in another universe about my team and what happened to us. As fiction. My alien duplicate was in Antarctica and was killed. By another disguised alien, ironically. So I'm pretty sure I'm me. But I understand your worry. Those aliens have larger appetites than humans, and they like their prey alive."

He slips behind a drink machine to fix up the Doctor's root beer, presenting it to him. He'd made himself a lemonade. "Mind if I fix up something for myself?"

The Doctor points to a part before Kinner pockets it. "You just need to turn it on. Press that button there. It's alien tech. No battery needed."

The Doctor listens and shakes his head at the question of making something for himself. Why would he care? He's just glad to get something to eat. Maybe it was spending so much time on Earth, but he had gotten into the practice of eating fairly regularly.

"So, because of a story from someone else's universe, you think you're you and not this alien?"

Sure, keep them alive. The alien robots who wanted to become people felt the same. Actually, a lot of creature liked to keep their prey as fresh as possible. The Doctor purses his lips. ❓ ❓ ❓

"Unless you got here before you were eaten, but you said you were eaten." The Doctor is a scientist and none of this makes sense. He's tempted to scan the other man with his sonic.

"That, and the fact that the aliens' minds don't work the same way humans do. They get hungry pretty quick, and it's dangerous to be alone with one. Eating and digesting living creatures is how they reproduce. My eating habits haven't changed since I came here, though I don't know if they can eat normal food. I'd guess they can, if only to pass."

Just the idea of eating anything alive nauseates Kinner, especially since that was the position he was in when he died.

"There's a fairly easy blood test that can identify the creatures, but I haven't taken one yet. Might someday, to give everybody peace of mind. There may be other ways to identify one, but that's the way I know, and it works."

He has some ❓ ❓ ❓ symbols of his own, mostly because he's not sure what the strange symbol means. Some kind of test? Could the
stranger identify nonhumans? Kinner has nothing to fear, so he's curious.

"Last thing I remember is the creature grabbing my arm with a blue tentacle and forcing me to look into its eyes. I tried to fight free, but it was too strong, and it I felt an urge to sleep. Then I was out like a light. Next thing I know, I woke up here."

"Ah, so it hadn't necessarily eaten you or even possessed you. Well, that's good."

He considers the other man. "If you ever want to have a test run without all the poking and prodding, let me know. Alien tech set to human is a much easier way to confirm things."

Well, in the Doctor's mind. Besides, then he can show off and he loves doing that.

"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. "

"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.

"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?"

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.

"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."

"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.

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?"

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.

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