(open) infodump meeting

[coolerjunpei]

WHO: jumpy coolerjunpei and OPEN
WHAT: The sequel to the prior secrets/infosharing meeting. Also, separately: Art Club.
WHERE: A conference room in an office building. Art Club is in a random apartment near City Hall.
WHEN: Sept. 14-15
WARNINGS: kromer probably. tba on the rest

INFO MEETING
[In Setsuna's absence but wanting to continue the usefulness of the info-sharing Secret Meetings, Junpei has taken it upon himself to spread the word about the newest physical meeting place. As before, nondescript handwritten flyers are posted around the most heavily trafficked areas of the city (with a scattering more in apartment buildings and less-popular areas), all reading roughly the same thing:

Infosharing time again. Under new management?

Come as you are, buzzkills only allowed if they bring snacks. 2nd floor conference room in the office building across from the bank.

junpei

It was cool when Setsuna could leave his mysterious network username but unfortunately Junpei is still living with his fool-ass choices... Regardless. It's dated for the afternoon of the 14th, and on the day of, Junpei has brought paper and writing supplies and a clipboard and a cardboard box for fun later to the conference room.

He's holding the clipboard because it makes him feel important, and occasionally flipping pages to squint at it while people wander in. Eventually:]

Uh, hey—Junpei here. If you were here last time, you know what this is about already, buuut if you weren't: we're planning, more or less. All of our information is spread around, so... this is an effort to get it all in as many heads as possible, when more of us inevitably disappear without a trace overnight.

[Ahem. Okay,] Last time we were also planning some projects, and Setsuna was going to help me make a drone to explore the parts of the city we can't physically get to, but he's gone, so... I'm taking applications for Drone Team?

[..........,]

That's all I've got. Let's mingle and do some info-magic.



(OOC PORTION: hello, please treat this as a FREE MINGLE and post TLs to your heart's content. Infosharing is the main goal but if you want to recruit ICly for a Project, feel free!! There are also SNACKS ABOUND. enjoy.)

DON'S SEMINAR (tm) | Yesod's Suggestion Box efforts | Drone Team & Kiosk database

Comments

ii

[indwelt]

[ Welt is not from her home and therefore he will perceive her.

Specifically, he is perceiving her drawing little guys, all of which are quite charming in their own right. The nice thing about art is that there's no barrier, no level of good or use of particular tools to qualify someone as an artist. All that matters is self-expression and the boundless creativity of the human mind.

Unlike Angela, he looks entirely at ease in the makeshift art club room, a sketchbook tucked underneath one arm. ]

Another one of your new experiences here?

[ Hi. ]

[worldexecute]

( Welt gets to have some birds for his little guys. They ARE cute, thank you. )

Not of my own choice. Don Quixote insisted on me coming, first off, and then ( to quote her perfectly ) "If thou'rt attending Art Club, thou must draw as well!"

( .............So. )

Are you an artist as well as a traveler and a researcher, Welt?

wtf those birds are so cute

[indwelt]

[ Damn, that impression was spot-on. She could make a living doing impressions, if only there were such things as wages in this city. Still, it's enough to get a smile out of him as he ambles over to take a seat across the table. ]

I worked as an animator for a decade. [ You pick up a lot of odd skills here and there after 80-some years of life. ] But it's been awhile since I've had reason to draw anything.

[ Impromptu art club is as good a reason as any. ]

Are you enjoying yourself, at least?

they're my favorite little guys.

[worldexecute]

( Wow, an animator... an incredibly useless job but the City probably? has? Saturday morning cartoons? Maybe??? They have television. Angela's just never seen any, her childhood was so awful.

She has to think about that for a moment, slowly uncapping her black marker for her next target: Judgment Bird. )

I'm not not enjoying myself. ( As long as she pretends her fellow librarians aren't here and taking notice of her, she can enjoy herself. It's... She doesn't know. She's not used to being perceived in a different area by them, doing a different activity than her usual, that doesn't suit her at all. At least, not by anyone who isn't Roland. Bestie privilege. ) Art's never been something I was interested in... at least, participating in myself.

( Learning about it? ...Sure. You can tell a lot about a culture, a people, based on their art. Art is human... )

What did you animate?

[indwelt]

[ It made him (read: his organization) loads of money so he could build giant mechas, so it was worth learning in the end. Incredible how much $$$ you can make off of gundamn merch. Probably a useless skill here though, and in a lot of other places. ]

As long as you don't dislike it and you're not being kept here against your will.

[ By Don's enthusiastic self or otherwise. As for him....he sets his notebook on the table. Flips it open to a blank page. ]

Robots. Specifically, a robot named Arahato. It was a pretty popular show back when it was airing. Would you like to see?

[worldexecute]

( She could leave if she really wanted to—she's spent the socially acceptable minimum amount of time at club, and she's talk to Don, so technically. If she really wanted to. She could leave.

...but she doesn't want to. Like the party, it's nice to be surrounded by people—to listen on their conversations, to see happiness instead of suffering. Normal things. )

Yes, please. Thank you. ( A robot... Is this robot a friend do you consider them their own person are they just a machine who should follow orders and not question th ) Does its name have any meaning?

[indwelt]

[ Ask him about the the time he stole the extremely high-tech AI named ADA that worked in his father's lab when he ran away from home as a teenager—

This is where any normal person would start drawing said robot in their sketchbook to proudly show off like a kid with a gold star to their parents. Welt, however, has not lived a normal life since he was 8, and instead of picking up a pencil, he holds out one hand palm facing up.

He's done this often enough before that there's no point in hiding it. A blurry image sparks into life above his palm: an oversized robot in the middle of a metropolis, dozens of small people crowded around at its feet. Instead of being a static image, it plays like a short out of a film. Specifically, it's a segment of an episode that used to play on TV. ]

Tesla never told me if she picked the name for a reason. [ AKA canon never tells me ] It was her creation to begin with. I just put the ideas to paper.

[worldexecute]

( Angela forgets her bird for a moment and stares at the... hologram, she supposes she'd categorize it, leaning in to watch the short. Next, her gaze falls to his hand, her expression teetering on the edge of something unreadable.

...She leans away, setting marker to paper again. )

I see. You did well—I'm sure they have something similar back in my city, but I've never seen anything like it.

[indwelt]

[ Not surprised, huh? It's nice not to have to explain for once, even if it makes him wonder even more what her life - and her experiences - must have been like before she arrived in this city. Certainly a unique individual, this woman.

He lets the miniature display fizzle out as she leans back, hand coming back to a rest atop thet able. ]

Sorry I can't show you more. I'm a little limited in what I can do here.

[ To say the least. Even his copy of Arahato had been a sad replica of his usual. The thought of recreating his constructs seems like a distant dream now. ]

[worldexecute]

( There are just weirder things than "some people can summon moving pictures from the palm of their hand" in the City, starting with "there is an entire tailoring community that makes clothes out of people they eat". )

It's alright. ( ... ) Is that an innate talent of yours, or is it something you're wearing?

( She asks like she's just asking about what kind of shoes he's wearing. Prada? Gucci? E.G.O.? )

[indwelt]

[ what the fuck

There's a bit of a lull between question and answer as he deliberates on how much of an answer to give. There are no figures here that would recognize his skill for what it is, no threat outside those already laid in place by the city here, but he's spent long enough needing to conceal his identity for any number of reasons that it's hard to break free of the habit now.

Finally: ]

A learned skill. [ Not a lie; he'd spent too many years under the tutelage of both Tesla and Einstein honing this particular power. ] I can make copies of most things I've seen before. It comes in handy sometimes.

[ Like when you need to show a new friend an episode of a television show you once worked on. ]

[worldexecute]

( She's fine with the silence; it must be something important and that he normally has to hide, if he's taking his time with an answer. Wings know she's done the same thing, so she doesn't mind—it makes the answer, when it comes, more interesting to her.

She thinks it might be magic, maybe. It exists in her City—why not other places? A lot can be explained by technology, but science, but certainly there's things that aren't exactly... )

You must have a good memory, too. ( She's slowly getting rid of hers and she can't wait to be free. ) What else can you do?

( ...Ah— )

Though if it'd be too revealing for you, you don't need to indulge my curiosity. ( A tactful aside for his lull. ) I find I'm quite missing my own abilities lately, so I'm fascinated by others'.

[indwelt]

[ It's kind of her to be so considerate, and he can't help but smile in response, further answers easier and more forthcoming than before. ]

Mostly just that. I can replicate any number of things but I can't create anything entirely new.

[ His eyes drop to his sketchbook, then sweep out to her papers and then across the entire art club room. ]

Maybe that's why I've always found the arts so interesting. The only limit to what you can make up is the limit of your own imagination.

[ Admittedly his own isn't all too great, the opportunity to stretch his mental muscles few and far between throughout his life. It's only recently that he's gotten the opportunity to sit down and look around, and jot down notes for his own personal interest rather than in the name of the world. ]

Other than that, I can do a little bit of healing. Nothing like what the docs here can do, I'm sure, but if you accidentally end up with a papercut before you leave today, I can fix that up for you.

[ Do AIs turned human also need first aid when they trip and scrape their knees? ]

[worldexecute]

( She smiles slightly, not yet tired of the fact she can bleed now--it is alarming but proof she's different now. Papercuts are fine, at least. Anything worse... )

That's probably about what I can manage as well... with bandages and such. ( Very ordinary, though she'd like to be able to do more if the case ever arises... but it probably won't, given how this city is. The biggest threat is one another at the moment, and all of her ... people ... are capable fighters. ) Can everyone where you're from do something similar?

[indwelt]

Nothing wrong with bandages. They offer a method of expressing yourself, if nothing else.

[ He thinks of all the cute little animal stickers March had always pulled out whenever someone on the Express cut their finger or scraped an elbow. Colorful things that had always stood brightly out of place against his more muted look, but he'd never had the heart to turn her down after seeing the smile on her face. ]

And no, it's...confined to a few people. [ Well. He pauses a little, then rephrases. ] There are others who can heal at a much more advanced level than I can, but their methods differ from mine.

[ To say the least. ]

I never had much of an interest in studying medicine when I was younger, but now that I'm older I can see the value in having such knowledge.

[worldexecute]

( She hasn't yet discovered the wonders of colorful bandages yet, give her another week and she'll think to find some—

She can see an opportunity to dig into someone's past further and returns to sketching little guys... this one this time. )

You were more interested in technology, I suppose. ( Since he used to play with father's coworker's inventions... Angela won't get jealous this time, promise. Nothing will go wrong in her little head today. ) Did you ever invent anything?

( KICKASS ANIMATION ASIDE she means. )

[indwelt]

[ An endless parade of Little Guys™...truly they are too cute.

Hers isn't an incorrect assumption, even if it doesn't fully encapsulate the truth. He had been interested in technology as a child, along with a whole host of other things: dancing, playing the piano, going stargazing....his attention as (rightfully) fickle as any other child's.

And while he'd like to answer her question in the affirmative, to able to boast about his own achievements, he can only answer with a rueful shake of his head. ]

Not really. You could say I was too busy following in the footsteps of others than trailblazing my own path.

[ But that's all going to CHANGE now!! Or was supposed to, before his ass landed in this city. ]

I had a lot of [ ... ] other business to take care of first. But I know plenty of brilliant people constantly on the cutting edge of innovation. It's really remarkable what hard work and a sharp mind are capable of creating, don't you think?

[worldexecute]

Especially when coupled with a distinct lack of morals.

( ...She just keeps sketching, like she hadn't said anything awful. Them's facts, after all. )

I don't know if you have anyone like that to worry about, but many a great innovation in the city I'm from was born out of... I believe the saying is "The ends justify the means". ( Her work, either time, was no different. She understands that. She's really no better than the City she was raised in, at least there, but here, taking a different approach, she hopes... no, she's probably still the same person. ) I've been told not to judge others by the standards my world has, though.

( thhhhhhhanks hythlodaeus!! )

...You could just say I'm curious ( peeking up at him a bit ) if where you come from is a little nicer in that regard.

[indwelt]

[ Angela really seems so normal and then every now and then she will say something Like That. Truly, a woman of mystery for the ages.

Well, it's fine. It's fine, probably! He's met people way more unhinged (outwardly) than her, and if sometimes he can't help but snap his neck around to stare at her whenever she says something so tonally dissonant then surely that's just a byproduct of his narrow worldview and not a sign of something deeply wrong with this woman.

Anyway. ]

That sounds like a very [ hm ] extreme way of looking at things.

[ Without knowing much more, he really can't make any further judgment calls, but somehow he suspects the place she's from is not one he would have liked to live in. ]

I think, as with all things, lifestyles and world views depend on individual locations and experiences. But I'd like to say the place I come from is a little nicer in that regard. I'd like to think that most people from Earth want to build a future where we can lift each other up rather than push each other down, and that we don't solely focus on the potential outcomes of an action without considering all its repercussions.

[ Here he pauses, his smile a little sad. ]

But I've been told I'm a little idealistic in that regard.

[worldexecute]

That's extremely idealistic.

( She won't hold back, even with a new friend(?), though she notes the sadness in his smile and... looks back down, drawing a second helper but, erm, slightly more murderous-looking. )

But you aren't the first person I've heard who thinks like that—who wants things to be like that. It would be nice, if it could be. ( Mm. ) It must be nice for it to be, but in the city I'm from, even the most altruistic, well-meaning notions are built on the sacrifices of others.

( Carmen hadn't want it to be though. She'd wanted to cure everyone, save them, from whatever "disease of the mind" infected the City, chained them to a capitalistic hellscape where you fought tooth and nail to be worth something, to have value. What had that wrought them all, though? Nothing but pain and suffering, and then some man's twisted desire to see it through no matter the cost—

Angela grimaces slightly and gives All-Around Helper another sharp instrument. )

Don Quixote thinks the City—ours—can change one day. Be better, kinder, all of that. It would be nice, but that's all it is.