robowest | [ WEEK ONE

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game: start

[ WEEK ONE – ARRIVAL ]

ARRIVAL

It's a surprisingly quiet ride. The passenger cart is nothing more than wood and a bit of cotton to cushion the seats but for some reason, even as the train hurtles along down the track, the cart remains silent. It only starts filling with noise when the passengers begin to stir.

There isn't any indication on how you got here. No grogginess, no injuries -- in fact, those who arrive with injuries might find them healed up completely (of course there are others who won't be so lucky) -- but in one blink and the next, you are here, on this train. Maybe you're even sitting next to a friend. Maybe a stranger.

Won't be any time to talk either, the train suddenly slowing down with enough of a jerk to throw its passengers back into their seats. A few seconds later, it comes to a complete stop and with a whistle, the doors open and a voice calls from outside. It's male, with a slight mechanical twang behind it and anyone who looks out the window towards the station can just about spot the portly man out on the platform.

"You might as well come on out, folks. You won't be getting any answers on the train."

Once everyone is out on the platform, the man stands before them taking an assessing look at each person. There is something very off about him, though he looks human enough -- but his eyes are too white, his skin too dry, and his hair is doesn't shine quite right. He is dressed in a flannel shirt, suspenders, and jeans, a cowboy hat atop his head and a badge pinned to his shirt that reads "Sheriff". After a moment, he gives a gruff nod and speaks again.

"Howdy. Real happy to see all of you. Explanations will come... Sunday morning, yeah. Give y'all a bit of time to meet each other. Settle in. Keys are on the table over there, hat and pistol in your room. Don't, er... Don't shoot each other right away but if you do, my office is over there. Go get some dinner, sun's about to set. Wouldn't want any coyote trouble."

And that seems to be... it. The Sheriff tips his hat and turns to head to the building with the large "Sheriff" sign on the front. There is a table nearby, keys neatly laid out for everyone with nametags attached to each one. An owl hoots in the distance and a breeze passes through the group. It's quiet again.

Welcome to game start! Characters will find their items in their hotel rooms and anyone who goes to visit the Sheriff after he leaves will find the station empty. On top of that, rulebooks will not be available to find until later. The Sheriff might be forcing it a little but it seems like the intent here really is to get everyone to interact with each other. If there are any questions, PM or hit up the plurk at

robowest!

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[ this is presumably on Friday. Friday night, actually, once Ash has stomped around and fumed and tantrumed enough for one day; eventually, he makes his way to the stupid human "hotel" and drags his stupid roboy body to the stupid door.

Did I say he's finished tantruming for the day? I lied. He slams the door open, walking into the room with heavy footsteps and a dark look on his face. Fortunately, he's not naive enough to think that he'll get a room to himself when nobody else has, and he's quick to notice the human teenager (filth) and the dog (pitiful creature.) ]

Wonderful. [ dripping with sarcasm. his thin eyes narrow even further as he glares at Noctis. ] And who are you supposed to be?

[honestly, noct's pretty much ready to conk out at this point. he's exhausted and stressed—

and honestly, being in a hotel room that he has to share with a stranger makes him incredibly uneasy. it's something that just never happens, something that normally can't happen. you know, the life of being royalty and having bros that are also your guards and all. but now it's just him and umbra (puzzling enough)...

and this guy.

but ash isn't the only one capable of sarcasm, and with an expression that reminds him of a person noctis isn't fond of, that doesn't help.]

Your roommate, apparently. [he probably shouldn't be sarcastic in return, but that sort of greeting did kind of ask for it.]

I don't have "roommates."

[ he says this rather decisively, lips pressing into a thin line as he stares at poor Noct, who doesn't deserve this jerk in his life. He's always lived inside the reactor. He's always been alone. Now? Sharing physical space with a human? And a dog? No, he can't imagine it, and he doesn't move from his place in the door. ]

So does that make me a ghost or something? I'm not putting that sheet over my head to play spooky.

[noct definitely doesn't deserve this jerk in his life, but he's got a pretty sharp tongue on him.

it's not like noctis is keen on this whole situation either, so ash isn't the only one.

but he sure as hell doesn't seem to make any effort to move from the bed he's already flopped on.]

A ghost? No, it means you don't belong here. Take your slave animal and leave. I won't have the air around me tainted with your human filth.

[ he says the words with real disgust. Of course, he's sort of stuck around humans no matter what... and in reality, he probably won't even spend much time in this room... but it's the principle of the thing. He wants to feel like there's something he has control over here. (hint: there isn't.) ]

Last I checked, I'm the one who laid down here first.

[just sayin'.

he's still not moving.]

You don't like it, you can sleep outside without all my "human filth."

[he doesn't even know that that means. is this guy an MT or something, noctis just doesn't know.]

[ he is indeed MT. Mechanical Trash. it's true...

he knew it wouldn't be that easy, but he was hoping it might be. Humans are stubborn, and he is really not in the mood to deal with it. His golden eyes narrow into slits. ]

You should be grateful I'm giving you a chance to leave. [ a pause. ] You really don't recognize me, do you? Truly amazing.

Could say the same to you. No idea who you're supposed to be, but it doesn't seem like you know who I am.

[or maybe he'd be less of a punk?

well, noct really doesn't expect that. he's got his fair share of enemies and people who want him legitimately dead. saying his name could honestly be Trouble, but he'll posture just as much.]

I don't pay attention to human leaders. You were all supposed to die.

[ that, he doesn't bother hiding... he sees no reason to cover up his loathing. Still, it's a bit of a mystery that he's not being recognized. ]

The Last Galerians who destroyed your world. Does that ring a bell?

Never heard of a... Galerian.

[not the first ones or the last ones. not even any that go in the middle.]

Sounds like some kind of RPG villain to me. [sounds fake, but okay, basically.]

[ uh oh, he's been found out. Ash doesn't seem to think the joke is funny. ]

Oh, I'm very, very real. [ finally, he takes a step into the room, still regarding Noctis. Never heard of a Galerian? This man must truly be an idiot. Or... he's very, very far from home. Ash is thinking he's far in the future. ] Tell me what year it is.

[sorry, ash. at least it's not the first or last time noct has compared something to a video game.]

756, last I checked. [i can't believe i had to go find a calendar timeline for this.]

[ i can't believe there actually was a year GOD BLESS ]

756? [ he sounds surprised by that number. That was almost 2000 years ago. But he also referenced RPGs - video games. Meaning he's from a more modern era. Perhaps in the future, they'd reset the calendar dates... meaning that it would, indeed, be very, very far in the future. Ash snorts derisively. ] Tch... None of us should have survived that long. This is ridiculous. All of it, ridiculous!

[ at least his annoyance seems to have shifted from Noctis for the moment. ]

Uh. No idea what you're talking about, but sure.

[though maybe it's for the better if he has no idea what's going on here. but everything being spoken about here is completely foreign to him, so noct's just.

well, kind of looking at ash with an arched brow.

they'll have to resolve this at least enough to sleep in peace, he'd really rather not die because he's rooming with a crazy dude.]

[ of course he doesn't. logically, there's no way he can be expected to know what Ash is talking about. But he's in such a Mood that he takes annoyance with Noct's ignorance nonetheless, looking at him with an expression of utter disdain. ]

The last recorded data input in my system prior to arriving here was marked 2528 AD. But I doubt that means anything to someone like you.

[ it's not that he wants to explain things, particularly - it's almost like he's explaining it to himself. ]

In other words, we're either at a point extremely far in the future, or this is some sort of spatial anomaly.

[last recorded data input? system?

...why did it have to be robots!?

that's definitely something that will leave him ill at ease, especially with them sharing a room. definitely not the best idea to get any further on ash's bad side until he gets more of what this is about, and.

you know, maybe ensure that he's not going to get killed in his sleep or something. umbra senses noct's unease, but really just eyes them both warily, still laying at the foot of noct's bed for the time being.

regardless, noctis listens to what ash is saying, and he generally understands it. in theory.]

Neither of those things sounds exactly easy to pull off.

[ any fear is to be expected. even in ASH's world, true artificial intelligences are illegal - after all, they lead to things like his mother. And himself, in turn. ]

Perhaps. I'm sure it's difficult for a little human brain to imagine such things are even possible. But with the right resources, either is doable.

[ the first is something that was possible in modern times - cryogenically freezing someone, keeping them alive. the method would be even easier for preserving a being of data like himself. The second... not so much. But he doesn't believe that it's impossible. ]

It's undoing them that will be difficult.

No kidding. Even if I knew anything about it, don't think I'd ever see that as easy. Sounds like it's gonna be a real pain, no matter what it is.

[at least it seems like they can agree on that much. robot or human, this is a pretty garbage situation with pretty garbage consequences.]

[ ash gazes at noctis, scouring his face and general appearance as if he's going to uncover an answer by doing so. Unfortunately, he doesn't. ]

You really have no idea what's going on.

[ it's more of a statement then a question. at first, he couldn't believe that - but he's interacted with more than a handful of humans now, and they're all behaving the same way. ]

You say that like you do.

[even if ash has grasped some kind of concept of how they got here, it doesn't seem like he's completely informed on their situation either.

mostly because nobody is.]

[ he wrinkles his nose, looking annoyed, before shaking his head just slightly. ]

Of course I don't. Do you know where I was before I got here? I was dead. My data was frozen, and I was locked in an endless cold void, waiting to be deleted. It's only natural for me to assume that one of your kind got ahold of the files that were left behind and decided to copy them into this vessel. Humans are greedy, and they wouldn't be able to resist the power that I held.

[ he talks and talks, although he's aware that most of what he's saying won't mean anything to Noctis. At least he seems to be leaving the concept of kicking him out of the room for no reason behind. ]

But the rest of this situation doesn't add up. All of you are so... clueless.

...You're pretty clueless too, then.

[not that it matters. it's true that most of what ash says kind of goes over his head, but the conversation is at least enough for him to sit up and converse like a real person instead of a lazy bum.]

We're all pretty stuck for answers. How we're here, why, how to get back. No need to go putting all the blame on us. Not like that sheriff guy was human either.

[it was pointed out to him that the sheriff wasn't, and after thinking back on it, he realized it was probably the truth, even if it was tougher for him to catch when he'd never seen a bot like that actually do anything but mindlessly attack.]

[ he hates to admit it, and so he won't, but Noctis is right. He's super clueless. In the first place, areas of wilderness like this essentially don't exist anymore where he's from... ]

That doesn't mean anything. Not all artificial intelligences are as intelligent as I am. Most of them are no more than slaves.

[ he clearly thinks the Sheriff is also on the enemy side, regardless of his non-human status. ]

However... For the moment, it seems you're correct. We're all displaced. How unpleasant.

[ash's intelligence isn't something noct's going to bother to question how smart he really is. he doesn't necessary doubt it, though that superiority complex there seems to detract a little from it.

but that will go unsaid, because sometimes, noct knows how to pick his battles.]

No kidding. We humans aren't thrilled with it either. All we can do is try to see if we can find a way out of this mess.

[he really, really can't afford to waste time here.]

[ unpleasant, indeed. Ash regards him for a few more moments, then crosses his arms. As much as he's loath to share space with a human, kicking him out is probably pointless. They're still his enemies, but for the moment, he has bigger problems. (It's just that this is the first time he's ever had 'bigger problems' than humans.) ]

It's a matter of time. That's all. [ he plans on leveling this entire place to the ground for the indignity they're putting him through... but he'll keep that to himself. ] Do you have a name?

wildcard HI ROOMIE

IT'S TIME

it's time........

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