IC Contact: thisavrou

[notglitching]

ACE Messages:

There's no greeting voice when your call goes to message—only a short period of static. Or is it whirring? Either way, it might not be the device causing the sound.


[[Open for ACE calls, IC mail, or other spammy things!]]

Comments

3/3! HA

[notglitching]

[For a moment it looks like he's done. Then—]

Provide ID verification.

[notglitching]

[One advantage of text? Miller doesn't have to put up with Rinzler glowering.]

System: dead.

[He didn't succeed.]

[warandpeace]

I'm going to be honest, and consider this a concern more than an attempt at consolation.

I'm not sure that the ship wouldn't have been blown up with us on it, anyway, if things didn't play out the way they did.

That's a matter better discussed in person.

TEXT -> VIDEO

[squadgoals]

[She's mid-way typing up another reply when her TAB starts exploding with Rinzler replies. For the first one, she keeps typing — for the next few, she finally sighs, concedes, and swipes up to his window.]

I'm fine.

No assistance required, but I appreciate the offer.

Everyone who's on the books at Normandy Securities has been told, as has the Aquarium staff. Nihlus is next on the list.

Yes, I'm with the mediators.

[There's a pause in replies, briefly perplexed by "ID verification" — then shrugs, flipping over to video, her expression calm, but worn around the edges.]

This enough?

[notglitching]

[...well, it's a good thing Miller's not trying to console him. Because the pause that follows that line is anything but reassured.]

Location?

[This is not a "later" discussion.]

[warandpeace]

At my diner.

[He gives the address.]

Traffic should be less in about an hour.

video + text;

[notglitching]

[The data reads as rote dismissal. The video feed isn't the proof he'd expected—or anything he thought she'd be allowed. Still, it doesn't seem to be a trick. No guarantee she isn't being forced, or that this isn't monitored... but it's not someone else typing out the words.

After a moment, the video feed returns. There's a wary cling of tension to the program's frame, unease approaching combat threat, but with no outlet to apply it. He doesn't like this. Not at all.

He nods.]

Violation?

--> action!

[notglitching]

[As close of tabs as Rinzler keeps on his allies, he didn't really need the address, but he accepts the permissions it implies. And eyerolls, privately, at the mention of traffic. Traffic was a concern for people who lacked their own transport.

He doesn't reply, but within about eight minutes, a lightjet dissolves to wireframe in the sky over Region One. Rinzler drops onto the diner roof with a light impact, scanning the structure for Miller's ID.]

Re: --> action!

[warandpeace]

[Perhaps for Rinzler, but traffic means he still has to usher the last customers out. To make "to-go" boxes. So when Rinzler gets there he's quick to escort him back to the kitchen where he's chopping vegetables.]

[So unfortunately a portion of this conversation gets to happen with Kaz putting tomatoes in a slicer. At least it's going very quickly.]

We were talking about the crash.

Do you think after the mess Ploiatos stirred up with that damaged Ingress that the Savrii would have allowed the ship to continue existing?

[Screw "hellos". Greetings are for losers.]

sorry for the slow! thought i replied to this...

[beautifulspaceraptor]

[ Well. It's a chance, and Nihlus has to take it. Needs to take it. He needs to try.

First things first: try and establish a baseline. ]

What is Program culture's stance on offspring and family?

Not a problem!

[notglitching]

[Culture? Family? That's the excuse he's running with? Rinzler eyes the line for half a micro in sheer, incredulous loathing. He should have shut off the TAB already.]

Family: code-siblings, bonded counterparts.
Offspring: user value.

[notglitching]

[In retrospect, Rinzler really should have figured that one out. Whoops. He'll at least stay out of the way until no other employees or customers are in the room.]

No.

Would have fought them.

[He still wishes they had.]

[beautifulspaceraptor]

Offspring: often intricately linked with family in a lot of species' cultures. Offspring are often born almost completely helpless. Family is needed to protect and raise them.

Many species have limited lifespans. Raising and/or protecting offspring is imperative to securing the future of the species. People who are willing to hurt young are generally seen as a threat to their society and their futures.

This is extremely simplified, but most users will react poorer to you trying to hurt the young vs trying to hurt an adult for this reason.

Additionally, younger members of the species also haven't completed mental and physical development. There are numerous ethical concerns about involving them in violence where it can be avoided.

[squadgoals]

I manipulated an employee of mine into stealing an Ingress signature, opening it, and encouraging others to join them.

[notglitching]

[Noise skips, harsh and scathing as the program stiffens.]

Lie.

[She didn't. He knows she didn't.]

[squadgoals]

[There's no change in Shepard's outward demeanor, save for her line of sight — from calm and unfocused, to a nigh laser-sighted stare into Rinzler's helmet.

Aha.]

You trying to argue for my innocence, here, Rinzler? Not going to work — I've already confessed.

[She gives the Program a small shrug, eyes still watching him carefully.

Of course. That explained how Chara would have known what to take in the first place.]

Think I was on the other side of this, last year. Times change, huh?

[notglitching]

[So it is about user values. User values, and user weakness. User excuses, so impersonal on their side. Many species. Most users. Nothing specific, of course—nothing that might connote a fault.

Such a sharp contrast to that you.]

Relevance?

[warandpeace]

These people aren't like the Cadacuns. Their resources were limitless and they were much better at managing and using the Ingress. Not to mention they were hell bent on controlling who had Ingress technology.

[Serious conversation to have while one is packing away some food. He'll get it over as quickly as he can, though.]

We wouldn't have won. They had too much of an edge on us. We can't guarantee they would have let us have the option to leave, either.

[beautifulspaceraptor]

It seems a lot of your conflicts involve legally underage humans.

I mean, asides from all of the issues previously mentioned, wouldn't you prefer more experienced people to pick fights with? You're a thousand years old, they're under 18 and plagued with hormones, growing pains and a lot of bad decisions.

Also, there's generally less unpleasant consequences for engaging in violence with legal adults.

[notglitching]

[A lot. Peter, Rinzler had known about—could hardly not have, after that message he'd been sent. Chara too, perhaps—though how (if?) Nihlus learned about that remains a mystery. But the user's implying... was that one supposed to be in beta too? It was larger than either of them.

...no. It's a distraction. Irrelevancy. It doesn't matter, and it doesn't answer his question at all.

Not the one he'd asked first.]

Why did you take my disk?

[notglitching]

[Already—why? The tension coiled through Rinzler's frame doesn't let up in the slightest, mask twitching in objection. She hadn't. She hadn't done it; it wasn't her fault, so why claim otherwise? Chara had planned the attack.

Rinzler had helped.]

Not like last time.

Purpose: admission?

[Not said (and strictly for whatever offscreen audience might be filtering her calls)—purpose: pretense?]

[notglitching]

[A skip of noise, harsh and irritated. Rinzler disagrees.]

Combatants: weak.

[warandpeace]

I'm not sure they're the type for combat.

The Artifixx spoke a language I better understood. [Though with less subterfuge.] I don't know that the Savrii would have gotten close enough for us to get a swing in.

They know a lot about what to use against us.

[He finishes up enough that he can leave everything to his staff to clean up and he hangs up his apron.] Have you been able to judge their combatants? [Because they did have that fun habit of throwing them under the performance bus.]

[notglitching]

Ranged attacks: also superior.

[Is Rinzler missing the metaphor, or responding in kind? A mystery for the ages. To the query, he only shrugs.]

Observation: minimal. Primarily engage noncombatants.

[The researchers on Thiri. On the Midway Hub. A beat, and he adds.]

Easily diverted.

[warandpeace]

[He almost mentions that it wouldn't have been a sure enough win in his opinion, not when the ship was already generating its own enemies. But he stalls in the middle of putting on his overcoat.]

What is it that you miss most about it? The Moira?