After the “breakfast” he’d had, Reid was biting at the bit to do something. Eating a little, talking with Anya (or whatever) a little, glowering at the cafeteria a little… Yeah, the novelty had worn off. And he’d been way too nice to Anya, anyway, ‘cause without any proof of anyone’s superhero identity around here? Chances were they were crazy.
Reid knew his junior high science.
Although he’d practised up his penmanship on the bulletin board, a lot of it had been nothing more than shit he’d thrown out to see if the flies would land. Away from it, all he carried with him was the extreme, extreme hilarity then experienced when chatting with “Harry Potter.” The warm and fuzzy afterglow was just too strong to forget quickly. Being a great guy like that, obviously Reid would have to include his little buddy.
He found Tyler in the library, with a chick in a wheelchair and another dude. So, without further preamble, Reid immediately came up and slung an arm around Tyler's shoulders, even if it hurt his back. He spoke only to the other warlock. "Mission time, Ty. Let's go."
Rukia looked up, closing her notebook. "Good morning!" she said, genuinely glad to see Tyler, and even happier to see that he didn't appear to be injured. "Thanks for coming to find me, I--"
But before she could continue, Captain Harkness arrived. The smile she directed toward him was no less genuine, but perhaps a little more calculating, than the one she had turned on Tyler. The Captain had information she might need, and he seemed like an intelligent man to bounce some ideas off of. "Good morning, Captain. It's nice to see you as well."
When the other boy commandeered Tyler, Rukia assumed that he was the smart-ass from the bulletin board. He hadn't even bothered to say good morning, after all. She was tempted to comment, but decided that it was better just to ignore the little beast.
Addressing the two who had actually greeted her, Rukia said, "Tyler, I know you must be busy, so I won't keep you long. And Captain, please, have a seat if you would."
Tyler returned Rukia's grin, even as they were interrupted by a tall male with a bright smile. He looked friendly, and Tyler opened his mouth to introduce himself in return when Reid popped up behind him and attempted to drag him away.
Shooting the blond a Look that clearly said Keep your pants on, he turned to give the Captain - was he military, Tyler wondered? - a smile and nod. "I'm Tyler Simms, and this is Reid Garwin. It's nice to meet you." Which it was, even if his partner in crime disagreed with him.
Turning back to Rukia, he tugged the copy of his map out of his pocket and held it out to her. "Here's what you wanted. I hope it helps you some, although it's not much, really."
Captain Jack sat down, himself, grinning at Rukia. "I need a bitchin' chair like yours," he said, jokingly. "Wheels make everything better. Kind of like plasma canons. But not as 'splodey."
Even as Tyler's look at his friend seemed to read 'keep your pants on', Captain Jack would have been quite at peace with the exact opposite happening. Both of the boys were quite nice looking, though probably a bit on the young side if he was being honest with himself.
"Nice to meet the both of you too. Are you joining in on the brain-eating technology chat, or... I'm taking it you have somewhere else to be?" He laughed. "Oh well. I'd hate to interrupt anyone's super secret action."
He cast a curious eye toward the map, but made no move to intercept it. Rukia's people seemed to like sharing, so he'd no doubt find out what was going on eventually, via Gin or some other means. If there was on quality the Captain had that most people considered good, it was patience. It happened when you were incapable of dying; there really seemed to be no point in rushing for anything, any more.
Reid's expression was one of placid tolerance, changing only enough to raise his eyebrows and answer Tyler's unspoken response with a Who, me? look of his own, still leaning lazily on the other's shoulder. It was only the 'bitchin' chair' comment that spurred any interest in "Captain" Jack. "Sorry, took that brain-eating technology seminar last semester. Total bore," said Reid, shaking his head in mock disappointment.
Pressing his lips together, he then made 'reluctant to leave, but life awaits' face. "Well, it was nice talking to you..." He shot a look at baby boy.
Rukia took the map, grinning up at Tyler. "Perfect! I'll make copies to distribute, and I can get this back to you by the end of the day. This could turn out to be a big help, Tyler." And it might. Rukia didn't know of any way to get to the roof yet, but if one was found, a map of the area would certainly help.
"I'll trade you," she said to Captain Harkness as she arched an eyebrow. Honestly, she felt like she could probably get around fine without it, or at the very least on crutches, but the nurses insisted that she use the chair. The 'plasma canon' comment didn't quite make sense, since she didn't know what plasma was, but she gathered that it made things explode, and the Captain seemed to like that. He and Renji would probably get along...
Rukia continued to ignore the blonde, Reid. It was a matter of principal.
Tyler shook his head at Rukia as he handed the map over. "No, no, it's a copy, I've still mine back in my room. I made an extra for you, so you can do whatever you like with it," he explained.
"It's nice to meet you, too," he added, turning to Captain Jack. "We'd stay longer, but..." Rolling his eyes, he shot a pointed look at Reid. "Alright, Alright, I'm coming. Maybe I'll catch you later?" he added to Rukia, then let Reid impatiently tug him away.
Jack waved at the two boys as they moved off. "Kids," he commented to Rukia once they were out of earshot. "Always in such a hurry."
He laughed. "Well, I've tried to wheelchair thing before, but it didn't really take. It's kind of nice to be babied sometimes, though, right? Even if the circumstances kind of suck."
Rukia just smiled at Tyler, and shook her head a little. Such a nice kid; she didn't know why he was hanging out with such a punk. Then again, people always said that of Vice Captain Kira, and his friendship with Renji.
"Yeah, I'll see you later," she said to Tyler as the two boys left. Tucking the map into her notebook, she turned to Captain Harkness. "I'll be posting copies of this soon. It's a map of the roof." She saw no harm in telling him what the piece of paper was, since he would find out soon enough. She would have to get a copy of it to Captain Hitsugaya right away. Perhaps if Renji was meting with him later in the day, she could give him a copy at lunch.
Rukia chuckled at Captain Harkness' comment. She remembered being babied, of course, when she had been hurt or sick. And it was nice, in a way, but she also hated feeling useless. Folding her arms over her chest, she sighed. "It would be nicer if I the nurses would just leave me alone. Though somehow I think you would enjoy the attention more than I do..." She gave him a sidelong glance before continuing. "About what we discussed before, can you tell me how they work? The... implants?"
"The roof?" Captain Jack asked. "Is there much of anything interesting up there?" In his experience, other than a great place to pull a dramatic pose, roofs were normally pretty boring. Unless that was where the badguys had set up their dimensional portal generator or something.
He grinned at her. "Don't know what would make you think that," he said, his tone indicating that no, he knew exactly what she was thinking and thought it was utterly hilarious.
He slouched comfortably down in his seat, stretching his legs out. "Well... it really depends on the kind of implant we're talking about. They can be large and clunky, or something really tiny like those nanobots I told you about before. It's hard to know, since we don't have a clear idea of exactly what sort of tech we're dealing with."
"I don't know," she said, shrugging. "But it's good to know the general layout anyway, in case anyone gets up there." In Rukia's opinion, maps were essential for strategy, and depending on where the exits were on the roof, that might shed some light on how to reach them.
At Captain Harkness' obvious lie, Rukia just arched an eyebrow, smirking slightly. As he continued about the implants, though, her expression grew serious. "Well, if implants are being used here, they're not 'large and clunky'; one would think that someone would have noticed them. I'm also curious about how signals might be sent to implants. Supposing that's what is being used to control the prisoners here, could the radios play a part in... broadcasting such a signal?"
Jack nodded. "That's certainly true," he said. "It's a good idea. I'd hate to think of the kids wandering around on the roof with those birds around."
"They'd have to be small enough to not be obvious, but that's still a pretty big size range," Captain Jack said. "Or they might have even scooped out some of your brain to make room. There's a lot of the brain you don't really use." He gave her an apologetic shrug, since it was kind of a gross thought for most people. "There are a lot of different ways they could be signaling. Radio's pretty archaic for the kind of tech we're talking about... it'd probably be some kind of subspace. But there's no way of knowing. They could have gone cheap and are just using UHF or something because they don't actually care if they slowly microwave your brain."
"Yeah," she agreed, "It's best to know where you can duck for cover in a situation like that."
Rukia made a vaguely sick face at Captain Harkness' explanation. You could take out part of people's brains without them knowing it?? That hardly seemed possible. "Well," she began, trying to make sense of all the strange terms, "I'm not familiar with 'subspace' or 'UHF'. But if those require a lot of technology, then do you think the people here could be using them? I'm only acquainted with the basics of modern technology in Heis-- er, two-thousand... Five? Six?"
"That's the thing," Jack said. "At this point, there's really no knowing what level they're at. I mean, it looks like an institution circa late twentieth, early twenty-first century. But obviously they've got better tech than what Earth would have at that point, since we're all here. They've got time manipulation if nothing else. So I mean, either it's way further in the future and they're just pretending that we're in the past, or they've got something non-earth helping them out. There aren't that many species that can mess with time, and one of the major ones is completely extinct, so..."
Almost as an afterthought, he added, "UHF is twentieth century stuff. They used it to carry television and other communication signals. Subspace you won't get to for another couple centuries."
For some reason the thought of an entire species of people - aliens - going extinct made Rukia sad. She wanted to ask Captain Harkness more about them, but that probably wasn't a productive direction at this point.
"Okay," she said, thinking, "so we don't know how advanced they are, or what kind of implants they might be using... But supposing they were in, well, people's heads. There should be scars of some kind. Or could they be in other parts of the body?"
There were too many unknowns. They didn't know what or where the implants might be, or how Landel was communicating with them. There might not even be implants, for all Rukia knew, but if it was possible where Captain Harkness, it might be possible here, too. Then there was also the chance that whatever means Landel was using to manipulate the prisoners was not technological in nature.
"It might not even be something physical," she said, frowning. "We might all be under a spell."
"There wouldn't necessarily be a scar. If it was nanotech of some kind, they could just inject it in to you with a regular needle," Jack said. "I mean, those things can be transmitted by just touch, given the right circumstances. As you now know." Thinking about the empty child made him shudder. "Or they could have just gone in through your nose. Or the corner of your eye. Hell, early in the twentieth century, doctors gave people lobotomies that way... just gave 'em a black eye for a week or so, but no actual scar." He sighed. "None of which is really that helpful, I know. The best I can say is that we wait until some poor idiot gets themselves killed. Then we scrape up the body and do an autopsy, to see what we can find. It might not even be tech. There are parasites that can do things like what we've seen so far, and they communicate by simple telepathy." That was an even grosser thought, which was why he hadn't originally planned to bring it up.
He frowned. "I really hope not," he said. "If it's them, we are so fucked."
After the “breakfast” he’d had, Reid was biting at the bit to do something. Eating a little, talking with Anya (or whatever) a little, glowering at the cafeteria a little… Yeah, the novelty had worn off. And he’d been way too nice to Anya, anyway, ‘cause without any proof of anyone’s superhero identity around here? Chances were they were crazy.
Reid knew his junior high science.
Although he’d practised up his penmanship on the bulletin board, a lot of it had been nothing more than shit he’d thrown out to see if the flies would land. Away from it, all he carried with him was the extreme, extreme hilarity then experienced when chatting with “Harry Potter.” The warm and fuzzy afterglow was just too strong to forget quickly. Being a great guy like that, obviously Reid would have to include his little buddy.
He found Tyler in the library, with a chick in a wheelchair and another dude. So, without further preamble, Reid immediately came up and slung an arm around Tyler's shoulders, even if it hurt his back. He spoke only to the other warlock. "Mission time, Ty. Let's go."
Reply
But before she could continue, Captain Harkness arrived. The smile she directed toward him was no less genuine, but perhaps a little more calculating, than the one she had turned on Tyler. The Captain had information she might need, and he seemed like an intelligent man to bounce some ideas off of. "Good morning, Captain. It's nice to see you as well."
When the other boy commandeered Tyler, Rukia assumed that he was the smart-ass from the bulletin board. He hadn't even bothered to say good morning, after all. She was tempted to comment, but decided that it was better just to ignore the little beast.
Addressing the two who had actually greeted her, Rukia said, "Tyler, I know you must be busy, so I won't keep you long. And Captain, please, have a seat if you would."
Reply
Shooting the blond a Look that clearly said Keep your pants on, he turned to give the Captain - was he military, Tyler wondered? - a smile and nod. "I'm Tyler Simms, and this is Reid Garwin. It's nice to meet you." Which it was, even if his partner in crime disagreed with him.
Turning back to Rukia, he tugged the copy of his map out of his pocket and held it out to her. "Here's what you wanted. I hope it helps you some, although it's not much, really."
Reply
Even as Tyler's look at his friend seemed to read 'keep your pants on', Captain Jack would have been quite at peace with the exact opposite happening. Both of the boys were quite nice looking, though probably a bit on the young side if he was being honest with himself.
"Nice to meet the both of you too. Are you joining in on the brain-eating technology chat, or... I'm taking it you have somewhere else to be?" He laughed. "Oh well. I'd hate to interrupt anyone's super secret action."
He cast a curious eye toward the map, but made no move to intercept it. Rukia's people seemed to like sharing, so he'd no doubt find out what was going on eventually, via Gin or some other means. If there was on quality the Captain had that most people considered good, it was patience. It happened when you were incapable of dying; there really seemed to be no point in rushing for anything, any more.
Reply
Reid's expression was one of placid tolerance, changing only enough to raise his eyebrows and answer Tyler's unspoken response with a Who, me? look of his own, still leaning lazily on the other's shoulder. It was only the 'bitchin' chair' comment that spurred any interest in "Captain" Jack. "Sorry, took that brain-eating technology seminar last semester. Total bore," said Reid, shaking his head in mock disappointment.
Pressing his lips together, he then made 'reluctant to leave, but life awaits' face. "Well, it was nice talking to you..." He shot a look at baby boy.
Reply
"I'll trade you," she said to Captain Harkness as she arched an eyebrow. Honestly, she felt like she could probably get around fine without it, or at the very least on crutches, but the nurses insisted that she use the chair. The 'plasma canon' comment didn't quite make sense, since she didn't know what plasma was, but she gathered that it made things explode, and the Captain seemed to like that. He and Renji would probably get along...
Rukia continued to ignore the blonde, Reid. It was a matter of principal.
Reply
"It's nice to meet you, too," he added, turning to Captain Jack. "We'd stay longer, but..." Rolling his eyes, he shot a pointed look at Reid. "Alright, Alright, I'm coming. Maybe I'll catch you later?" he added to Rukia, then let Reid impatiently tug him away.
[ Going here.]
Reply
He laughed. "Well, I've tried to wheelchair thing before, but it didn't really take. It's kind of nice to be babied sometimes, though, right? Even if the circumstances kind of suck."
Reply
"Yeah, I'll see you later," she said to Tyler as the two boys left. Tucking the map into her notebook, she turned to Captain Harkness. "I'll be posting copies of this soon. It's a map of the roof." She saw no harm in telling him what the piece of paper was, since he would find out soon enough. She would have to get a copy of it to Captain Hitsugaya right away. Perhaps if Renji was meting with him later in the day, she could give him a copy at lunch.
Rukia chuckled at Captain Harkness' comment. She remembered being babied, of course, when she had been hurt or sick. And it was nice, in a way, but she also hated feeling useless. Folding her arms over her chest, she sighed. "It would be nicer if I the nurses would just leave me alone. Though somehow I think you would enjoy the attention more than I do..." She gave him a sidelong glance before continuing. "About what we discussed before, can you tell me how they work? The... implants?"
Reply
He grinned at her. "Don't know what would make you think that," he said, his tone indicating that no, he knew exactly what she was thinking and thought it was utterly hilarious.
He slouched comfortably down in his seat, stretching his legs out. "Well... it really depends on the kind of implant we're talking about. They can be large and clunky, or something really tiny like those nanobots I told you about before. It's hard to know, since we don't have a clear idea of exactly what sort of tech we're dealing with."
Reply
At Captain Harkness' obvious lie, Rukia just arched an eyebrow, smirking slightly. As he continued about the implants, though, her expression grew serious. "Well, if implants are being used here, they're not 'large and clunky'; one would think that someone would have noticed them. I'm also curious about how signals might be sent to implants. Supposing that's what is being used to control the prisoners here, could the radios play a part in... broadcasting such a signal?"
Reply
"They'd have to be small enough to not be obvious, but that's still a pretty big size range," Captain Jack said. "Or they might have even scooped out some of your brain to make room. There's a lot of the brain you don't really use." He gave her an apologetic shrug, since it was kind of a gross thought for most people. "There are a lot of different ways they could be signaling. Radio's pretty archaic for the kind of tech we're talking about... it'd probably be some kind of subspace. But there's no way of knowing. They could have gone cheap and are just using UHF or something because they don't actually care if they slowly microwave your brain."
Reply
Rukia made a vaguely sick face at Captain Harkness' explanation. You could take out part of people's brains without them knowing it?? That hardly seemed possible. "Well," she began, trying to make sense of all the strange terms, "I'm not familiar with 'subspace' or 'UHF'. But if those require a lot of technology, then do you think the people here could be using them? I'm only acquainted with the basics of modern technology in Heis-- er, two-thousand... Five? Six?"
Reply
Almost as an afterthought, he added, "UHF is twentieth century stuff. They used it to carry television and other communication signals. Subspace you won't get to for another couple centuries."
Reply
"Okay," she said, thinking, "so we don't know how advanced they are, or what kind of implants they might be using... But supposing they were in, well, people's heads. There should be scars of some kind. Or could they be in other parts of the body?"
There were too many unknowns. They didn't know what or where the implants might be, or how Landel was communicating with them. There might not even be implants, for all Rukia knew, but if it was possible where Captain Harkness, it might be possible here, too. Then there was also the chance that whatever means Landel was using to manipulate the prisoners was not technological in nature.
"It might not even be something physical," she said, frowning. "We might all be under a spell."
Reply
He frowned. "I really hope not," he said. "If it's them, we are so fucked."
Reply
Leave a comment