Character Express

[Cargo 3]

Violet paused and winced slightly. Oh fuck. That's going to do wonders for Jones' self-esteem.

"Huh," she said out loud. "You know, you're pretty good at this - I really thought we'd fooled you. So, before I go any further, how and what do you know?"

[Car 6]

Okay, thought Tamara. So this Æther isn't that similar to the ethereal plane. Whatever it is. It sounds like a large collection of universes or something.

"So what're you doing here?" she asked. "Do you have anything to do, or are you just stopping by on a trip?"

Please don't be trying to chase someone down. I've had enough of that for one day.

[Car 6 -> Dining Car]

Damien's face was evident of his suspicion, "Just enjoying a break really. Thought I'd take a break before I end up jumping back into the Æther. Do you mind if we continue to converse in the dining car?" He gestured toward the door.

"Well yes," Alastair continued, "it is my job after all. I know you two are agents of some kind, probably inter-dimensional, and that your presence here probably has as much to do with the spear as all the other anomalous individuals so far. As for how, let's just say that I know a good deal more about the United Nations than your average person, and nothing I know speaks to the existence of a UN Council on Xenotechnological Control. An interesting idea, though. I might pull some strings to have a proposal drawn up for a similar body's creation. Also, our ID protocols are completely different. The moment Jones showed me his card I knew you two weren't on the up-and-up so to speak. I just have a good poker face."

edited 8th Feb '12 12:54:38 AM by Gault

[Cargo 3]

"We do work for the UN, actually," Violet said. "Just not the same UN as you. Short version - our agency is assigned to travel to parallel universes in hopes of acquiring any useful technological/supernatural artifacts we can find. We didn't intentionally arrive on this train in search of the Spear, but when we identified it, it became the primary objective. That plan is now history. I'm not sure Jones would agree, but if you haven't noticed he's not really running the show anymore."

She shrugged. "So, I decided to come clean. You need all the help you can get to keep that thing under control, and knowledge et cetera power."

[Dining car]

"Sure," said Tamara. They headed into the dining car.

She wasn't sure if Damien was telling the truth or not. In the end, she decided to give him the benefit of the doubt. Pressing him on this issue wouldn't get him to reveal any more if he was lying. And if he was here for some other reason, it would come out in time. It always did.

"So tell me," Tamara asked, "what exactly do you do? You've said you're a summoner, but what does that mean? If you don't mind, that is."

Damien took a seat at a table and began to explain, "Well, in the Æther, there are over five hundred different planes of existence, some planes are like entire planets and some are a simple village and it's area. Most people who live both in them, can only move around within their plane of existence, but some people like myself, can jump from plane to plane with ease. When we can successfully jump from one plane to the next, we then learn the ability to summon beings from different planes. These beings can be enormous Leviathans to small little birds, but they fight for the sake of the summoner. In another way, we're also like conjurers, we can rain down lava and call forth artifacts to destroy our enemies. In the end, it means we fight to help protect the people of each planes of existence, while dealing with various monsters and such."

Sanderson took it all in, slow. Okay, he'd heard things that were more upsetting, and more crazy. The time SSD briefly lost control of the particle beams and they were used on ground targets. The existence of 33-S class mechanoids, fully sentient and adapted such they were unable to exceed human norms of strength, kept as slaves.

Alternate universes didn't quite top that. But still. "Regardless. You have more threat here then you apparently anticipated. More guns too. How do you propose to employ them, sir?" Formalized acknowledgement of chain of command, a conditional I'm willing to work with you so far.

[Dining Car]

Isaac and Alice sat out of earshot from Tamara and Damien, with extra distance just to be certain, and spoke softly.

"Bored now," Alice said. "We should do something unspeakably evil."

Isaac considered this. "Does it have to be 'unspeakably'? We can't plan an evil so evil we can't speak of it, now can we?"

"So true, so true," Alice granted. "Though really, the concept of 'unspeakably evil' more applies to reactions of others than anything else. But 'unspeakable in polite company-y evil' really doesn't have the same ring."

"Aight," Isaac said, "but maybe we should pass on the 'unspeakably' part. Y'know, we've agreed we don't do shit like raping, torturing without due cause, or imitating Jar-Jar Binks."

With a disapproving shake of her head, Alice said, "oh, come now, surely you can come up with a better form of jaywalking than that?"

Isaac considered, then said, "so, we don't do shit like raping, torturing without cause, or making jokes about arrows and knees?"

Alice nodded in approval and said, "much better. But your point stands either way. Perhaps standard-issue evil is appropriate at this time?"

"Sure," Isaac said. "You already got a plan, I take it?"

Alice said, "in case you haven't been paying attention, this place is positively crawling with the United Nations and its associates."

"So, you think we should harm and/or kill them?"

Alice feigned shock and said, "my dear friend, how could you ever accuse me of such malevolence? No, no, not at all. I was just thinking, perhaps their current level of trust is too high. High enough that they might freely exchange information on our dear sponsors."

Isaac nodded, understanding, and said, "aight, what're you thinking?"

Alice shrugged and said, "nothing immediately comes to mind, save perhaps finding... sympathetic souls? Or suckers. Suckers are good."

edited 10th Feb '12 3:46:29 PM by KillerClowns