Well I will go down with this ship

[dollyoftheeol]

Who: Dolly & whoever
Where: End of Line
When: Right after opening, before there's a crowd.
What: A new arrival!
Warnings: Doubtful

Comments

[firefixit]

Fire nearly jumped off her bar stool at the sudden scream. A woman in the uniform of an EoL waitress was kneeling in the middle of the floor, and Fire was reasonably certain that she hadn't been there a few nanos ago. A rerez?

Grabbing her nearly-full glass, Fire dashed over and knelt next to the program. "Hey there," she said softly. "It's okay, you're safe. What happened?"

[dollyoftheeol]

Dolly wasn't as low on energy as some newcomers were, but her system didn't seem to know where energy was most needed, causing her circuits to flicker and flare, sputtering at random, "There was a riot." She said, brow furrowing in confusion, "I was..." She blinked down at her arm, finding both her sleeve and her skin undamaged where moments ago she'd been spilling pixels all over the place.

She blinked up at Fire, eyes wide, "I'm dead."

[firefixit]

Fire's eyes softened in understanding. She'd gone through a similar wake-up, convinced that she was derezzing until she'd woken up. As it happened, she had derezzed.

"Ah. Not any more. You've been rerezzed. It's a long story, and probably one better told after something to drink." She passed the woman her glass - she'd been drinking light green, one of the mildest of the drinks on offer at the End ofd Line. "My name is Fire, by the way."

The woman looked oddly familiar - had she known her prior to the coup? Fire had been a frequent visitor to the club back then, just as she was now. But, try as she might, she couldn't access a name.

[dollyoftheeol]

"Oh." That ... well it mostly made sense. She accepted the glass, draining it in two quick swallows before replying: "Dolly, I work here, or ... worked here, I suppose, if you're right about having died. That would kind of put a kink in the whole keeping a job deal."

She ran a hand through her hair, "I think I need to sit down." A pause then, realizing that she was still kneeling on the floor, "I am sitting down. Good for me."

[firefixit]

"Nice to meet you Dolly. Maybe we should get you off the middle of the floor, though," Fire said with a smile. "There's a couple of couches over at the side of the room." She indicated them with a nod of her head, then got to her feet and held out a hand for Dolly. "Also, it's likely that you'll get your job back. The Grid lost a lot of good programs, and from what I've seen, the End of Line has been a bit short-staffed recently."

[dollyoftheeol]

She gathered her feet under herself easily enough, though it took her another moment to actually rise, accepting the offered hand for support, "Couch is probably a good idea, still feeling a little glitchy." And the fact that her circuits were still flickering and sputtering, especially down one arm and across her chest, was probably part of the reason why.

"I shouldn't be glad for that." She said in reply to the comment about being short-staffed, "But I am, since I don't think I'd be suited for anything else, this is what I was made for."

[firefixit]

Fire glanced at the flickering circuits as she guided the other program across to the couch, hoping that they didn't indicate anything going seriously wrong. But Dolly was aware and talking and moving, so it didn't seem that she was in imminent danger of deresolution.

At Dolly's comment, she nodded. "I can understand that. I was glad to go back to my line of work when I rerezzed." She threw a sideways smile at Dolly as they reached the couch, and she settled back into the padded frame. "It's been happening a lot, recently." After a moment, she asked, "Will you tell me what happened to you?"

[dollyoftheeol]

The stuttering slowly faded out to an even glow once she settled, drawing one leg up beneath herself, "He was here, the Son of Flynn." She shook her head, "We weren't supposed to know it was him, but we all did. He went upstairs to talk to Castor and then..." She made an eloquent gesture with both hands, something exploding, "Everything erupted. We went from neutral to war zone in a matter of moments. There was some semblance of sides, the Resistance, the Guard, the rest of us caught in the middle."

She shook her head, fingers twisting into the ends of her hair for a moment before drifting to her upper arm where she'd been grazed with a disc moments before, right where the worst of the flickering circuits had been "I got winged." Her hand slid to her chest, again right where the worst of the flickering had been, "And then I got hit." She shrugged then, "And you know the rest."

[firefixit]

Fire nodded, understanding. "No wonder you rerezzed screaming," she said. "Okay, here's a very short version of what's happened since - you'll probably want to access one of the terminals here for the details

[dollyoftheeol]

She had looked a little startled at the news that the club had been entirely blown up. The last she'd seen it was definitely taking some damage, but nothing that they wouldn't be able to repair. She was understandably attached to the place, she'd been written for it after all. She just nodded, letting the rest of the information sink in, still weaving her fingers through the ends of her hair, letting the curls pull free from her grasp now and again.

"So we've got ancient history, mixing with dieties, mixing with the rest of the common folk, ISOs and Basics alike?" There was a half-brittle laugh, burying her face in her hands a moment later as the giggles bubbled over, shoulders shaking with suppressed mirth, "And you're positive I'm not still in a million drifting pixels and this isn't all just happening with the last of my systems firing at random?" She'd rally herself soon enough, she always did buckle down and get to work regardless of what was happening, but she figured she was allowed a few moments of hysterics, given the

[firefixit]

Fire let her giggle for a few microcycles, a small smile on her face, then playfully poked her in the shoulder. "Hmmm. I'd say that you're definitely not a million floating pixels. You feel nicely warm and solid to me."

She went a little more serious then, dropping the teasing expression. "I know how you feel. I went out with a disc to the chest as well - I felt myself come apart, only to come back right where I'd fallen . . . but over two hundred cycles later." She rested a hand on Dolly's shoulder, unconsciously trying to ground the other program through physical contact. "This new Grid is a good place. It has its troubles, but it's so much better now that Clu's gone." Her smile flickered back. "With all the rerezzes, business here seems to be booming."

[dollyoftheeol]

She shook her head, "I don't think it's been quite that long for me, but still, any amount of time spent just ... not-being is more than enough." Touch was, indeed, a good way to ground her, even though she wasn't the most touchy of programs, but any help reminding her just where her parameters were was a good thing at the moment.

She nodded a moment later, "And if it's been good for business that means it's good for me too, since it means I've got work to do, even if it's not the same place I started out in, it's still the End of Line, and I'm still a waitress here. That's ... that's all I need for now."

[firefixit]

"I don't doubt that Castor will welcome you back, as flamboyantly as ever," Fire said with a smile. "Some millicycles, it's as crowded as it used to be after the biggest Games."

A thought struck Fire. "Do you have anywhere to stay? If you lived on the outskirks, your place might not be there any more. A lot of the outer sectors are still waiting for repairs."

[dollyoftheeol]

"Oh I live in one of the apartments downstairs." She said giving a jostle of a shrug, "And I don't figure those have changed much." Her brow furrowed, "Makes me wonder, though, if mine's even still there. I'll have to look into that. And if it's not, I'll key myself into one of the others until I can talk with the bossman."

Her smile spread once more, Castor was one of the few people she called by name, at least to his face, "And I don't doubt that he'll welcome me back, end up making a bigger production of it than I did on my own." She shook her head, "It's a good thing I don't embarrass easy."