Re: Intense Struggle Season 2! (Round 2: Infinity Express)
01-04-2011, 08:49 PM
Originally posted on MSPA by Pinary.
Lloyd burst out laughing. Having gone through more than one racy novel before, he was hardly shocked by what he saw, and as far as interfere-able situations went, it was some of the lowest-hanging fruit around. It only took a few minutes' searching out in the rest of the car to find a camera, and a few compromising shots later, he had what he wanted. The memory card went into an envelope, a random comm ID number and a large sum of money were written on the side, and the instant blackmail threat was set oh-so-casually on the bedside table. Based on the clothes that were strewn around, both of the beings involved were high-status in some way or another, and shots like that could ruin careers in many societies. With any luck, the two would panic, their trip would be plagued by stress, and their carefully-laid plans to keep seeing each other would come apart at the seams.
His work done, he checked the closet, grabbed a towel from the middle of the stack, and left, taking the pen he'd used with him as well. A good pen, like a towel, could have many uses, and he was hardly going to pass one up.
-
A few minutes later, he repeated his earlier performance with another technician, this time slamming the man's head with a cupboard door instead of something likely to burst and spray them both with drink. This time, he managed to glimpse another section of the keycode, leaving him missing just two more digits. Hopefully, he'd only need to do this once more until he had access, and once he did, he'd be ready to go.
Reconnecting the alcove's stasis unit to power, Lloyd moved on, heading down the hall and over to the next car. Entering, he found another crowd of frozen people, these seeming perhaps high-class than those in the last. Grinning, he set about his work, throwing a bit of chaos into peoples' lives. He didn't have to, of course- he could've just moved on by and continued his quest for the keycode- but it was comforting, a little slice of the routine he'd always lived. For the briefest moment, he could pretend to himself that he wasn't at risk of taking any number of weapons in the back at any second, instead immersing him in the act of tearing these peoples' intended plotlines to little bits. Ruining the battle could wait a bit longer- he wanted to have a bit of fun first.
-
Had Reudic not just had a compilation of cultural data dumped into his mind, he wouldn't've fully understood why Lloyd was messing with the antique jukebox in the corner. Floating up behind him, he saw him switching the track from "Beethoven – Symphony No. 5" to "Lou Bega – Mambo No. 5", and while he now recognized the reference, he still couldn't bring himself to care much for what he could only term Lloyd's 'antics'.
Lloyd, focused on making his selection, didn't immediately notice the viridiofloran coming up behind him, and when he did, he started a bit and whirled around. "Ah, uh... Reudic! Excellent! Glad to see you," he said, his tone making it clear that he wasn't all that glad to see the less-than-sociable plant monster. "How're things going?", he continued, sidling around the jumble of vines and moving behind the bar. In an effort to appear casual, he started pouring assorted things into peoples' drinks.
"Recently, I have become acquainted with many aspects of culture," he said, shocking Lloyd enough to make him squeeze dish soap all over the bar around the glass he was aiming for. "Among those aspects, as you can tell, was human English."
"Well, that's just, uh... That's great!" In truth, Lloyd had no idea if that was great or not. He hadn't paid Reudic much attention in the last round, and he wasn't sure if being able to talk was likely to make him more or less likely to poison, absorb, and slowly digest him. "How'd you manage that?"
"In my curiosity, I inadvertently connected myself to this train's computer system," Reudic explained, "and it automatically provided me with sufficient cultural knowledge to communicate effectively. It inserted into my mind a large amount of information about human literature, culture, and entertainment, and-"
"Hang on," Lloyd asked, frowning. He could smell a plot hole a mile away, and even though he wasn't in a novel any longer, he could still feel something fishy about Reudic's story. "You're not human, and the majority of people on this train aren't human either. Why would it give you human cultural knowledge? I mean, did it fill you with information about martian culture and in-jokes as well?"
"No, it did not. As far as I can tell, it equipped me to be best able to communicate. At the moment, my pool of others to communicate is largely human-dominated, making that culture likely the most useful."
"Oh." Lloyd deflated a little, halfheartedly pouring sink cleaner into a business-thing's glass. "I suppose that does make sense, yeah."
The two lapsed into silence, Lloyd disappointed and Reudic disinterested.
After a few moments, Reudic spoke up. "While I was connected to the systems," he said, "I discovered a message that appears to have been sent by a contestant in a similar battle to this one."
Immediately, Lloyd's attention was fixed on Reudic. "Someone in another battle sent you a message? How, why? What did they say?"
"Not me particularly," Reudic responded, his slow, careful speech contrasting with Lloyd's quick, urgent fascination. "It was sent to anyone who could receive it. I do not know how it was sent, but the person who sent it called himself Vandrel Reinhardt and claimed to be in a similar battle to our own. He sought out allies to overthrow the 'grandmasters' running the battles and fight for the freedom of the combatants."
"Well, this is great! We should, uh..." He trailed off for a moment, conflicted, but he quickly brightened back up. "Sorry! I was just saying, we should get in contact with him! If we can get some sort of connected, organized resistance going, maybe we could stand a chance of blowing the grandmasters' plans to bits!"
"Quite possible. I have already sent back a response, in which I expressed my support for his cause and told him of the Monitor, and as long as we continue to have access to the appropriate equipment, I intend to continue communications with him."
"Ah, brilliant! This is just fantastic!" Instantly, Lloyd was done messing with trivial bits of assorted aliens' lives. He had a chance, a real shot to take down the Monitor's plans, and that was more important than anything he could do to these people. Rubbing his hands together, he headed for the door.
"Follow me," he said. "I've got an idea."
-
Several minutes later, a third technician had been smashed on the head and the keycode had been obtained. Grinning madly, Lloyd punched it in and turned to Reudic. "Alright, this is it." He brought up the train's control menu on the screen, grabbed hold of the faucet of the nearby sink for support, and punched a button.
"Time to throw this battle off the rails."
Lloyd burst out laughing. Having gone through more than one racy novel before, he was hardly shocked by what he saw, and as far as interfere-able situations went, it was some of the lowest-hanging fruit around. It only took a few minutes' searching out in the rest of the car to find a camera, and a few compromising shots later, he had what he wanted. The memory card went into an envelope, a random comm ID number and a large sum of money were written on the side, and the instant blackmail threat was set oh-so-casually on the bedside table. Based on the clothes that were strewn around, both of the beings involved were high-status in some way or another, and shots like that could ruin careers in many societies. With any luck, the two would panic, their trip would be plagued by stress, and their carefully-laid plans to keep seeing each other would come apart at the seams.
His work done, he checked the closet, grabbed a towel from the middle of the stack, and left, taking the pen he'd used with him as well. A good pen, like a towel, could have many uses, and he was hardly going to pass one up.
-
A few minutes later, he repeated his earlier performance with another technician, this time slamming the man's head with a cupboard door instead of something likely to burst and spray them both with drink. This time, he managed to glimpse another section of the keycode, leaving him missing just two more digits. Hopefully, he'd only need to do this once more until he had access, and once he did, he'd be ready to go.
Reconnecting the alcove's stasis unit to power, Lloyd moved on, heading down the hall and over to the next car. Entering, he found another crowd of frozen people, these seeming perhaps high-class than those in the last. Grinning, he set about his work, throwing a bit of chaos into peoples' lives. He didn't have to, of course- he could've just moved on by and continued his quest for the keycode- but it was comforting, a little slice of the routine he'd always lived. For the briefest moment, he could pretend to himself that he wasn't at risk of taking any number of weapons in the back at any second, instead immersing him in the act of tearing these peoples' intended plotlines to little bits. Ruining the battle could wait a bit longer- he wanted to have a bit of fun first.
-
Had Reudic not just had a compilation of cultural data dumped into his mind, he wouldn't've fully understood why Lloyd was messing with the antique jukebox in the corner. Floating up behind him, he saw him switching the track from "Beethoven – Symphony No. 5" to "Lou Bega – Mambo No. 5", and while he now recognized the reference, he still couldn't bring himself to care much for what he could only term Lloyd's 'antics'.
Lloyd, focused on making his selection, didn't immediately notice the viridiofloran coming up behind him, and when he did, he started a bit and whirled around. "Ah, uh... Reudic! Excellent! Glad to see you," he said, his tone making it clear that he wasn't all that glad to see the less-than-sociable plant monster. "How're things going?", he continued, sidling around the jumble of vines and moving behind the bar. In an effort to appear casual, he started pouring assorted things into peoples' drinks.
"Recently, I have become acquainted with many aspects of culture," he said, shocking Lloyd enough to make him squeeze dish soap all over the bar around the glass he was aiming for. "Among those aspects, as you can tell, was human English."
"Well, that's just, uh... That's great!" In truth, Lloyd had no idea if that was great or not. He hadn't paid Reudic much attention in the last round, and he wasn't sure if being able to talk was likely to make him more or less likely to poison, absorb, and slowly digest him. "How'd you manage that?"
"In my curiosity, I inadvertently connected myself to this train's computer system," Reudic explained, "and it automatically provided me with sufficient cultural knowledge to communicate effectively. It inserted into my mind a large amount of information about human literature, culture, and entertainment, and-"
"Hang on," Lloyd asked, frowning. He could smell a plot hole a mile away, and even though he wasn't in a novel any longer, he could still feel something fishy about Reudic's story. "You're not human, and the majority of people on this train aren't human either. Why would it give you human cultural knowledge? I mean, did it fill you with information about martian culture and in-jokes as well?"
"No, it did not. As far as I can tell, it equipped me to be best able to communicate. At the moment, my pool of others to communicate is largely human-dominated, making that culture likely the most useful."
"Oh." Lloyd deflated a little, halfheartedly pouring sink cleaner into a business-thing's glass. "I suppose that does make sense, yeah."
The two lapsed into silence, Lloyd disappointed and Reudic disinterested.
After a few moments, Reudic spoke up. "While I was connected to the systems," he said, "I discovered a message that appears to have been sent by a contestant in a similar battle to this one."
Immediately, Lloyd's attention was fixed on Reudic. "Someone in another battle sent you a message? How, why? What did they say?"
"Not me particularly," Reudic responded, his slow, careful speech contrasting with Lloyd's quick, urgent fascination. "It was sent to anyone who could receive it. I do not know how it was sent, but the person who sent it called himself Vandrel Reinhardt and claimed to be in a similar battle to our own. He sought out allies to overthrow the 'grandmasters' running the battles and fight for the freedom of the combatants."
"Well, this is great! We should, uh..." He trailed off for a moment, conflicted, but he quickly brightened back up. "Sorry! I was just saying, we should get in contact with him! If we can get some sort of connected, organized resistance going, maybe we could stand a chance of blowing the grandmasters' plans to bits!"
"Quite possible. I have already sent back a response, in which I expressed my support for his cause and told him of the Monitor, and as long as we continue to have access to the appropriate equipment, I intend to continue communications with him."
"Ah, brilliant! This is just fantastic!" Instantly, Lloyd was done messing with trivial bits of assorted aliens' lives. He had a chance, a real shot to take down the Monitor's plans, and that was more important than anything he could do to these people. Rubbing his hands together, he headed for the door.
"Follow me," he said. "I've got an idea."
-
Several minutes later, a third technician had been smashed on the head and the keycode had been obtained. Grinning madly, Lloyd punched it in and turned to Reudic. "Alright, this is it." He brought up the train's control menu on the screen, grabbed hold of the faucet of the nearby sink for support, and punched a button.
"Time to throw this battle off the rails."