tampered | Log; Ongoing

Current Music: RHPS Soundtrack - There's A Light (Over At The Frankenstein Place)

Log; Ongoing

When; Afternoon to Evening, Feb. 28
Rating; PG-13, just to be safe
Characters; BT

bee_dot_tee, Ingram Prisken

timediver_mk1
Summary; Lo! Meeting of (temporary) roommates.
Log;

Machiko patted the sheets one last time, frowning at them as she folded them and the comforter into crisp hospital corners. Vague memories of watching her mother make up their house's western-style beds for visitors tried to come flooding back. She refused to think about it. It was easier to stay here and stay sane if she didn't think about the world she'd left behind.

To soothe her nerves--meeting new people in real life always made her nervous, and today it was even worse, considering that she wasn't even herself, she was her character from The World--she filled a kettle with water and set it on the stove. Everything would be fine. There was a faint disconnect between this body and her emotions, courtesy of the fact that it wasn't her. And, quite frankly, she was doing him a favour. Most people didn't think beyond that.

This one would, though. He was intelligent--and ruthless-enough to experiment on a young girl. He'd think through the ramifications.

This had been a bad idea.

At least the ticking would be over, she thought as she dropped a bag of green tea into a mug and waited for the kettle to boil.

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Ingram took a quick stock of his items, which was all neatly packed into a bag. He had his personal computer, one change of clothing, and his flight suit. That, on it's own, should be enough for what he had in mind.

This was only phase one for Lyra. Lyra had talent but he planned on unlocking her true power and the quickest way to that is through hatred. To spare her, he was attempting to choose the easiest ways possible.

His hand crept up and gave a single knock on the door, announcing his presence. Ingram brushed his blue hair out of his eyes before anyone could answer the door, so he could keep up his professional appearance.

The kettle whistled at the same time she heard the knock on the door. Startled, Machiko jumped a little, then moved toward the door, twisting her long hair--now blonde, it shouldn't be blonde--into a careless bun, slid a single hairpin into place. She deadbolt unlocked the deadbolt and opened the door.

"You must be Ingram," she said, easily forcing a smile intended to charm. "Please, come on in. Can I get you anything to drink? Tea, maybe?"

She moved into the open kitchen and pulled the kettle off the stove, flicking the burner off.

Whether she was playing a game or not, Ingram decided to play along. He returned her smile with a soft one of his own, intended to indicate thankfulness.

"That is correct."

Ingram stepped inside and bent over to untie his boots. If he wanted a pleasant stay, he might as well follow customary rules. Sliding the boots of, he stepped into the kitchen with Machiko.

"Tea is a preferred drink. Thank you for taking the time to make some up."

He was smiling. That was a good sign. Right? Right. Of course. Even if he didn't mean it, the fact remained--no. No. She was going to be positive.

Even if all she could think about now was what Sora had done to her whenever she'd baited him. The collapse of her character onto the scenery. That hideous flashing red GAME OVER screen. All her work, gone.

With the ease of long practice, she waved a hand to gesture, It's nothing. "It's really no trouble. I was going to have some for myself, anyway. I have green and Earl Grey. Which would you prefer?"

"Oh? I will have some green tea."

Ingram glanced at his computer, still packed in the bag. He was going to need to record all her actions he noticed, for future purposes. It was his motto to use everything to it's fullest. But first, there was the small talk.

"So...BT. You seem like a rather interesting person. At least, I find it interesting to invite a stranger inside your house for a few days. We might as well get to know each other so what do you say to a fair trade of information?"

Machiko murmured an affirmative and grabbed a second mug, dropping in a tea bag and pouring in hot water. She steeped first her own tea, then his, and, when the process was completed, offered him the second mug.

She raised an eyebrow at him. "What do you consider a 'fair trade' to be?" A small sigh as her lips quirked upwards. "And you have the ticking to thank for my offer. It was beginning to get to me."

Mostly a lie. But of course, he hadn't defined 'fair trade' yet, so she felt no guilt at it.

"Hmmm. Wouldn't it be obvious but to make it easy, I will start off. Most members of this city are from the planet Earth. I am not. I am from the planet Balmar."

Ingram took teh second mug and took a light sip, the tea hot. Letting it moisten his lips, he continued.

"Now, this is where you offer an equal bit of information. Mostly where you are from."

She took a sip of tea, curled her fingers around the mug and absorbed its warmth. Even if her world had been shot to hell, the things which had comforted her once still brought her comfort. Maybe making a new life here wouldn't be so bad...

Just to toy with him, a way to test the waters, she asked, "Which me? The one you see in front of you, the character BT, or the actual me, the player, Machiko?"

Character and player? That was definitely interesting. The thought of Gilliam obliquely making the same reference about everyone he knew brought this thought to home. His face easily showed the interest he was feeling.

"I'd like to know more about the player. After all, you are what brings the character to life."

For future reference, Ingram would make sure to refer to her as Machiko in private and BT in public. In the end, that would most likely be more endearing in his opinion.

Machiko allowed a hint of a smile. "I'm from Earth, specifically, the contry Japan, though I speak some English. The year, last I checked, was 2010."

She allowed herself another sip of tea. Allowed its warmth to warm her. She closed her eyes for a moment. When she opened them, she fixed them on him. "My turn. My major hobbies are reading and collecting favours from people. And yours would be...?"

Now he understood why he was here though he was curious on what favor she'd call him on.

"The year from my point is Space Era 179. That would place me roughly two hundred years ahead of you. My hobbies? I have only a single hobby and that is to find someone's potential and bring it out. Beyond that, I have little time."

Ingram's forefinger tapped on the edge of his mug before he brought it up for another sip. Now it was time to push the limit. To see how far she would go until she refused to answer.

"How long have you been here in the city? I've been here on and off for nearly a year."

"I've only been here a month," she replied.

His only reaction to her pushing him had been to show interest. Not a good sign. Especially not with the hobby he'd stated.

The last time she'd tried to include a fellow manipulator in her schemes, she'd ended up burned. Badly. She wasn't going to take that risk again. Not with her actual life on the line.

"If you don't mind, indulge my curiosity. What is your experiment with that child, Lyra?"

"A full month and you don't have a swarm of men hounding you? How surprising. I'm sure some females out there would like to hear your secret."

At the mention of Lyra, Ingram's face went flat before his lips turned upwards into a smirk.

"I have no experiment with her. I just wish to conduct one without bothering her. She tends to be overly nosy and sometimes gets in my way."

Ignoring his wry comments about swarms of men, she focused on his reaction to the name "Lyra". How very interesting. And how very, very unbelievable. That nonexpression... Hmph.

But considering the way his face had gone still, the girl wasn't a subject to bring up. She could live with that.

She gave him an openly appraising glance, to let him know exactly what she thought of his answer, but dropped the issue. "I see. I suppose it's your turn to ask the questions, then."

No, Ingram would never admit that Lyra was one of his two soft spots. Regardless of that, he was still going to go forward with his plan.

"My turn. 2010. I assume gaming is a world culture then, no?"

"Gaming has become our social network. There are people out there who spend their entire days within netgames like The World and others." She took a sip of tea. "Reality was always painful, but with the advent of netgames, we found ways to avoid that pain. And once we started avoiding it, reality started hurting more."

Another sip of tea. Steam wafted into her eyes, made the world blur for a moment. She felt a frisson of fear; she'd gotten used to the Ketamine-like delay between her and her body. And now it was diminishing. Was she becoming her character? A terrifying thought, to be trapped forever as BT, the Wavemaster. ~~But perhaps not such a bad thought, if Bear were here, likewise trapped.~~

She chuckled. "Tell me where you're from. I know your planet, but what about your hometown? Where you grew up."

A blue eyebrow raised and Ingram prepared to give her an answer she probably didn't expect.

"I have no hometown and I did not grow up. The way you see me now is what I looked like when I stepped out of the cloning vat. Balmarian's have reached the height of their evolution process. So now, to keep impurities from forming, we clone ourselves. This has been going on for a long time. After stepping out of the vat, I was given my mission and I began it."

Machiko let her surprise show on her face. She shook her head, as if to say, You're teasing me, but then searched his expression, looking for hints of a lie.

This place was strange enough. Other people were strange enough. Why not believe him?

Mentioning his mission so obliquely... It was practically begging for her to ask. She elected not to give him the satisfaction. Just to dance along the edge of playing a player.

"I... see. Give me a moment to wrap absorb the possibility of evolving as far as it's possible, and then it's your turn again."

The end of the evolutionary chain. Wasn't the point of evolution to continue as long as was possible? So hadn't the Balmarians simply decided that they had reached the end of the chain, and stopped it themselves? After all, if they'd truly reached the end of the chain, then wouldn't it... simply stop on its own? But, of course, the only way to stop evolution would be to die out. Except for cloning.

She put a hand to her temple. Science had never been her strong suit and evolutionary theory was even less so.

Well, since it was utterly incomprehensible, she decided to simply stop trying to comprehend it. As with so much else in the City, she would simply have to accept it without thinking too hard about it.

{OOC: Okay, that one pretty much broke her brain. WAY TO GO, INGRAM!}

The Timediver took the time given to him to work on his tea, which had cooled down during the conversation. He kept an eye on her, waiting for a break.

Finally, she appeared to accept his explanation.

"This game of yours, is there a point beyond social networking? An ultimate goal? A way to win?"

Machiko shook BT's head. "There is no ultimate goal, no. It's as purpose-free as real life. Some spend the game trying to level up, complete quests, conquer dungeons. Others collect items, especially rare ones."

She had been a manipulator in the game, as she'd been too afraid to be in real life. And it had given her nothing. Just a lot of headaches, an encounter with Harald Hoerwick she never wanted to repeat, and the eternal guilt of knowing she'd given a child all the rope he needed to hang himself.

That game was more serious than anyone could know.

"No ultimate goal?"

Then why play? What would be the point? If there was no outcome, then there was no use. There must be something to keep people interested in it then. Especially to create different personas like this women did. So he repeated his thoughts.

"There must be something in the game to keep people interested in it."

She shrugged. "It isn't reality. For most of us, that's enough. The point of The World is to create your own goals."

Not everything was enjoyable because it had a specific purpose. If he couldn't understand that... well. It wasn't her problem. She had no obligation to anyone here.

"I thought, once, that I had discovered a way to win." The dark surface of her tea provided no answers. She stared into it anyway. "I hadn't. What I found didn't lead me to anything worthwhile."

Oh, Sora, she thought.

"I'm afraid I'm not much to familiar with video games. I'm only used to Burning PT, which I used to help me find applicants into my SRX program."

Back when he discovered Sample 55, the most powerful psychodriver on Earth, it was through that exact game. The boy's potential went off the charts when properly motivated. He had yet to find anyone like that in this city even though he would have liked too.

She shrugged. It was an elegant gesture, one she'd been trained to in her teens. "The joy of The World is mostly in player interaction. You can be whoever you want, do whatever you want, with few to no consequences. The World is a lawless place."

Ingram was disinterested to hear further about the game. If nothing from it could be used, he had no use for it. He pulled his cup up to his mouth and finished off his tea. With that set down, he decided to continue.

"Do you have a room prepared for me? I'd prefer to move my things in and get myself set up. I don't have too much time to waste but I do thank you for your hospitality."

Machiko nodded and set her mug on the counter. "Yes, of course. It's the second door on the right." Another forced smile, this one again intended for charm. "And you're quite welcome."

She would have to tread very, very carefully in the future. But that wasn't anything she couldn't handle. Or, at least, that was what she was telling herself.

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Log; Ongoing

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