Morph #3: The Struggle. [Action/Video]

[xenamorph]

[As weird as it was staying in Spock's guest bedroom, they were polite enough. Still, she really didn't spend much time there.

At first, she'd spent a lot of time just flying around, but it didn't really ease the tension. Something was missing. She was having trouble sleeping. She had so many nightmares, she lost track of which ones were which, and she'd wake up in the middle of the night, screaming into her pillow.

And then she'd fly again.

It wasn't enough.

Something is missing.]

[Video]

"So, um. Can anybody show me how to program that... battledome thing? And what else do you people do to entertain yourself around here."

[She stops for a moment, staring blankly at the camera as visions of violence and blood fill her head, before she blinks and snaps out of it.]

"Uh. So, if anybody could help me out on either end, I'd appreciate it."

[Action]

[She's going to be at the battledome today, trying to figure out how to make it work. She needs to...

Something. She's looking for something. She's not sure what.]

Comments

[Video]

[asthehawkflies]

I'm pretty good with the system there if you need help. What kind of thing are you looking for?

For entertainment... usually I shoot. Or spar.

[Video]

[xenamorph]

"I'm..."

[Sparring. More images of violence flash through her mind. A bear, tearing through human Controllers like they were flies. An elephant trampling hordes of taxxons and hork-bajir. An eagle diving into a controller's eyes, a wolf working with the pack to bring down a-]

"... uh, I dunno, I guess I just want to program... home."

[Video]

[asthehawkflies]

Home's a pretty big thing to try to program but I'll see what I can do to get you up and running. Want to meet at the Battle Dome. I'm heading up there soon anyway.

[Video]

[xenamorph]

"Yeah. I'll see you there."

[She goes to close the book, but remembers at the last minute to throw in-]

"Thanks."

[Video]

[asthehawkflies]

No problem. See you soon.

[Clint shows up at the Battle Dome a short while later, lingering near the control panel. He has his bow in it's case and the quiver slung over his shoulder and a bag of clothes to change into since he's probably going to be working out for a while.]

[Action]

[xenamorph]

[Rachel, meanwhile, is just wearing fairly uninteresting clothing and carrying nothing but her journal. Although, if somebody was paying attention, they might notice that all of her clothing was loose, simple, and easy to slip out of, and that she had another layer underneath.]

"Hey. Sorry if I kept you waiting."

[She seems a lot less uncertain now, if nothing else.]

[Action]

[asthehawkflies]

[Clint offers a small smile when she shows up, outwardly friendly but he's taking in her appearance, the frustration that she's displaying. Interesting.]

You didn't. I spend a lot of time here training most days.

[Action]

[spohkh]

[Spock spends a lot of his time at the battledome.... when he sees Rachel he notices that she is...

...anxious?

The Vulcan approaches.]

Greetings Miss Berenson... are you well?

[Action]

[xenamorph]

"I'm fine. Just trying to figure out how to work this thing, I keep hearing about it."

Re: [Action]

[spohkh]

The simulations? I know them extensively... do you require help? [Spock was trying to be all nice again...]

[Action]

[xenamorph]

[And she appreciates that, even though she's really not entirely sure what she needs.]

"Um. Okay, is there a way to sort through what other people have already programmed into this thing? I kind of want a forest that isn't freezing."

Re: [Action]

[spohkh]

Of course. [Spock gestured to a computer terminal with lists of scenarios and simulations that have already been created.]

You may sort through here, or create one of your own. Was there anything in particular you were looking for..... other than a place with a higher ambient temperature?

[Action]

[xenamorph]

"Um. Just a forest, I guess. With-"

[Charging into battle, the team by her side, Tobias leading the way as they all move as one to tear apart the Controllers in their way. Their pitiful resistance is crushed beneath the might of their morphs, shrugging off their bullets and dracon beams like the stings of a gnat-]

"With... wildlife? Hawks, mice, stuff like that."

[Action]

[windandrain]

[Saori is at the Battle Dome as part of her usual routine, of course. The minute she learned how to use it, she started coming daily to make use of the facilities.

Only today, she seems someone as confused by it as she was initially. And approaches. A pretty young girl, obviously...frustrated.]

Hello. Would you like some help?

[Action]

[xenamorph]

"Sure, if you're offering."

[Action]

[windandrain]

Of course. What would you like to do?

[She moves over to the console and pulls up a list of scenarios she uses regularly. Ranging from a Japanese garden in the summer to a hellscape covered with forty foot tall oni to a tag-scenario.]

[Action]

[xenamorph]

"I..."

[A Hork-Bajir stands amidst the bodies, Taxxon and Human controllers strewn around her, bleeding, dying, another Taxxon comes into the fray and she turns to face it with a scream of defiance-]

"Uh, I'm thinking maybe I'll try to program my home. I mean, the house. Just the house. That seems simple enough."

[Action]

[windandrain]

Alright.

[She blinks...

and pulls up a small menu.]

Here. This is a base. A blank field I use. You can add to it with this. Start there.

[She takes a step back so the girl can work.]

[Action]

[xenamorph]

[She starts working with the controls. She starts with her bedroom- not the guest room at Spock's house, but the one at her home, the one that was now rubble and glass in a smoking crater. From her perspective, it's only been two months since it was destroyed, yet it seems so long ago she has to struggle to remember where everything went. The bed, the dresser. The corkboard on the wall- she left it empty, she didn't want to try and come up with the notes she put up...

and after a moment, she steps back.]

"I think it's ready. Do I just... go in?"

[Action]

[semper_cogitans]

[Robert's not exactly doing too well himself, though for strikingly different and nearly-opposite reasons. Having come back only the day before from yet another jaunt into the less-than-cheery insides of the rogue Malnosso's laboratories, he wants today to do something... reassuring.

And since it doesn't exist in Luceti, he has to make it exist somehow.

Were Rachel to look at the control panel at some point, she might see this thin but obviously-intelligent scientist at the controls, fingers diligently typing out strings of text as he modifies one of his already-massive scenarios of Linden, the complex glittering sprawl of which can be seen just inside. It might remind her a little of some of the alien vistas she's been in, but the sky is essentially her Earth's.

He shouldn't be too hard to interrupt, if she's curious to know how he's doing this.]

[Action]

[xenamorph]

[In the end, it's not the technique that grabs her- it's the size. That landscape she glimpses seems impossibly large to fit in such a small space.]

"Can you really make simulations that big?"

[Action]

[semper_cogitans]

[Robert doesn't quite startle as the strange voice behind him sounds - he's more aware of his surroundings than he used to be - but he still has to suppress a slight flinch as he turns to face the blonde woman behind him.]

... Ah - w-well, it is... variable, and... in t-truth, the simulation feels larger than it... a-actually is.

... But, yes, they can... certainly be quite e-expansive. [As she can see.]

[Action]

[xenamorph]

[Wow, it sounds like she startled the crap out of the poor guy.]

"Sorry if I scared you. I'm just trying to get used to how this place works."

[Action]

[semper_cogitans]

[No, he just stammers like that with everybody. Especially strangers.]

Do not apologize... [He smiles, nervously and entirely too self-consciously.

The exact opposite of Rachel - he has "I am a target" written all over him.]

Are you... i-interested, in the simulations...?

[Action]

[xenamorph]

"Yeah, I was trying to get the hang of them."