2011-06-16 - A Divine Mess Hall

James was dreaming in Code again, not just any code, the night an old one script of the Turn X's OS. This is why he vanished from time to time. When these strange moods hit, much of the new rebull and mountain dew in the cradel just up and vanishes. But the dreams had become horrific undocumented code attempting to devour him, it had been enough for the Shadow Mirror tech guy. He also had several other projects he was into as well. He was just out wandering after having cleaned himself up and once again has an ear bud hooked up to some music player or another as he goes.

It seems that James isn't the only person up at this ungodly hour of the night. The most recent addition to the Crusader forces had been thrown quite quickly into action - having had two major firefights in the last week and somehow managed to come out of both unscathed and with her machines in working condition. It's a bit of a wonder for some, especially those who hadn't expected much from the amnesiac framerunner. She'd faced her former allies and rescued her brother when his Xeku was destroyed, and helped to drive off an attack from the Federation, so few would question Lieutenant Luddite's decision to put her on full flight duty as a member of his squad.

But Alina still had nightmares. Not about undocumented code, thankfully, but other things that torment her nights. So, the girl had found herself in the Earth Cradle's mess hall, which is nearly empty at this late (or perhaps early) hour. The white haired girl seems to be looking intently at a datapad set out in front of her, probably borrowed from Ascian. In her lap is a beaten up accoustic guitar which has apparently seen better days. Every now and again, she plucks out a note, seeming to be reading it off of the display.

Within moments, James Heller finds himself being 'guided' towards the Mess Hall as Ascian wanders through those same hallways and throws his arm over his shoulder. There's no words spent between the two, just Ascian being his usual friendly self. Most members of the DC had noticed that the Lieutenant had raised in spirit ever since his real sister had come to the Divine Crusaders. It's not to say that Ascian is the most popular of people amongst the Crusaders, but he's still actually quite popular. After all, he is a nice guy who will engage just about anyone - and has by now served to help quite a few people out.

Ascian didn't really 'need' to say anything to James. There was a slight... 'level'... of understanding between the two. Or at least, from Ascian to James, ever since James had erased the video of the mess that had occurred around Hera having her little outrage in the Mess Hall. When the two finally arrive, the young man kind of 'forces' James to sit down on the seat near Alina. Had he noticed that James was practically sleepwalking? After all, when woken up by such things, and then wandering around, one usually ends up moving about like a zombie.

"Hey, Lin." Ascian raises a hand, and has his gaze fall onto the datapad. "So /that/ is what happened to my Deus Mini. I was looking for it in my room." He really should get her one of her own, just like he'd done for Seril. "How goes the guitar practice? Catching up on any of your old melodies yet?" What's next, playing a lullaby by their mom, only they remember, that will somehow be played by their Orbital Frame, and lead them to their previously believed deceased mother!? This isn't Dolores, I.

James Heller has no issue with more ace pilots, Orbital Frames or not. More bodies out there the better, and when it came to Orbital Frames. While a wild card technology have proven to be quite effective so far after all. Then comes Alina she's new and he's looking her over for a moment - but he's a bit well tired and still muttering in code. At least until Ascian shows up and get them really awake, he's going to follow along without much fuss to the mess hall. He finally does speak up,

"Man working on a machine older than anything short of Britai can be a real pain, what's got you up at this hour anyhow?"

It doesn't seem to come as any great surprise when Ascian comes into the Mess Hall, althought the person that he has with him is a stranger to Alina. The girl looks up from her practice to offer her brother a small smile, and then a sort of shy look as she tucks a few strands of hair behind her ear, shrugging her shoulders. "You left it out. I didn't think you'd mind. Did you need it back?" She quickly reaches out a hand and wipes practice program off of the screen, returning it to the desktop as she nudges it across the table.

While getting a 'looking over' doesn't seem to bother her in the least, she does raise one eyebrow at James before offering out a hand. "You might want a name to go along with those wandering eyes. I'm Alina. Ascian's sister." Apparently she isn't too terribly fond of using the 'Luddite' name except in more official circumstances. The young woman's arms are graced with an interweaving set of metatron lines which seem to glow faintly in the dim light of the mess hall, looking almost like tattoos if one didn't know better.

She glances once between the stranger and her brother, shaking her head slightly, "The motions feel familiar, but it's not comming back to me. It's really weird how some things come back right away, and others seem to take more work." For instance, she seems to have re-learned a lot about piloting her Orbital Frame, but she still couldn't get the Vector Trap to work. Picky memories.

"Ah, no. You're fine. I was just wondering where it had wandered off to." Ascian chuckles and puts his finger against the little PDA like device and pushes it back towards Alina. "No worries, sis." The young man gets a bit more comfortable and watches as James 'eyes' his sister. He reaches out and pulls the headphones out of James' ears before Alina starts talking, so he'll actually hear what the girl is saying. "I have no clue what you are talking about." Ascian mutters in reference to James blabbering about the Turn-X. It wasn't that he didn't, it was more that... well.. it was easier to have him explain it - and let Alina pick up on it too.

James Heller was just sizing the new pilot up. He'd not met her in personal. The ear bud comes out at this point and he's back in the real world. "James, James Heller. As for the what I was talking about? I am one of the ones getting Gym's personal machine the Turn X functional again. The code on the OS is a nightmare and whoever did it left no comments."

The Turn X wasn't fully on line? Given what it's done already one can only guess what it will do if it's ever is back up to full spec.

He's now back out of his side world and turns off his music player.

"Also you see a big guy in a samurai helmet with a mask around here don't poke em much. Wodan's not a very happy guy if you catch my drift."

Just a standard welcome to the DC warning really.

"So how about some food or something for the lot of us?"

"It wandered off into my pocket, and then onto the table in my quarters, and now it's here." The white-haired girl replies with a playful tone to her voice, offering a small smirk and a playful flash of her pink tongue towards her brother. She lets her eyes settle on the datapad for a moment longer and then nods appreciatively, offering a more genuine smile, "Thanks Ian. I promise I'll bring it back in the morning." Pulling it across towards her, Lin taps her fingers over the screen and pulls up the tutorial program again, although she doesn't have much time to really focus on it.

Instead, the framerunner is inclining her head at the greeting from James, "So, you're a tech of some sort, or a mechanic, a designer maybe?" So many possibilities, and it's clear that Alina simply has no idea. No one has left her the short list of important people among the Crusaders, so that leaves her a bit oblivious to just who some people might be. "I'm afraid I don't know much about computers." Her eyes flash towards Ascian, as if she were verifying this with a second opinion. The fact is, she wouldn't /know/ if she knew much about them - which is probably the same thing.

The comment about someone in a samurai helmet brings a confused look to her features, setting the guitar down against her chair. "Does the Crusade employ some costume designer or something? I mean, it was strange enough seeing dinosaurs in trechcoats, but samurai?" Still, she takes the warning to heart - don't poke the samurai. As for the suggestion of food, Lin just shakes her head. "I should probably try to get back to sleep. I've got a patrol in the morning and my commanding officer wouldn't be happy with me if I show up half-asleep." She flashes a small grin to her brother, aka. said commanding officer.

"He means Wodan." Ascian puts a finger on the PDA, dives into the database folder, and pulls up the guy's file. "I don't know what his issue is really. He tries to be all mysterious and what-not. I think there's some deal going on between him and Sanger Zonvolt." Click, onto the related file - like it was some kind of browser. Something about 'srtmush.wikia.com' as a source.

"As for James." Type type, click. A profile image of James comes up - it's a bit younger than the guy is at the moment. "He's the only Earthen designer that at least has a /clue/ about Orbital Frames beyond 'Metatron makes them work again'. And the only one who gets the nightmare of a machine that is the Turn-X running." He shakes his head. After all, he personally doesn't know anything about the Turn-X either. "If you want, you can have Duat and Amit look at the code. They're both Metatron computers with infiltration&hacking systems implemented. I bet those Quantum systems can handle it much better than whatever computer you can toss at it over here.

Ascian then settles back down again - having had to stand up to touch the PDA. "As for costume designers. No, I am afraid that's... kinda how they all just... are here." He pulls his jacket off and pulls on the tight framerunner suit he is wearing underneath. "I mean, at least ours has a function - as does Asuka's..." puase. "The pilot of the EVA 02." pause. "This person." Hoppa, he taps on another PDA database entry. "Different system for using their unit, but a similar use of what they call a..." What was it again. "Plugsuit." No, nothing perverted about that /at all/. Plugsuit. Pssht. "Hrrm, leaving already?"

James Heller is really thinking about food at this point as he realises how long he's been up for, without any. He also think it's Maybell's turn to pull a week or so on the OS, he's got some other projects to wor on. Which are not as sanity draining as tht old beast. He nods a bit at Alina's reply about computers.

"Fair enough, not many other than Miss Browning are better than me in that field."

After all she's making self aware robots? Bioroids? Who knows forsure really.

"It would be unwise, the OS might not take kindly to intrusions like it. The thing's full of safeguards and such. I am working via a terminal myself when i'm working on it."

He's not bullshitting either. They haven't pugged any AI's into that machine and he doesn't know what would happen.

"No, it's personal choice and the Sword of the Magus, if he wants a helmet like that, he gets it."

Alina's eyes move over the various images and quick information provided by the datapad, although most of it probably will have to be studied for it to remain in her short term memory. As much as she hated to admit it to anyone - there had been some damage there, and she rarely picks up on names or faces without actually making herself commit them to memory. Pulling it back towards her, the girl 'bookmarks' the couple of pages so she can review them later, then tucks the datapad a little bag next to her that serves as it's 'carrying case' while it is off wandering with her.

"I wouldn't suggest plugging Amit into anything, actually." She not only takes in James's warning, but also looks to Ascian as she props her chin on one hand. "When I've tried to do anything with her, I end up getting this warning about the systems being locked to version one capabilities. I should probably get someone to look at it and see if they can't at last get her software up to the most current version." What Alina doesn't remember, and Ascian probably knows - is that the software in Duat and Amit had been limited during that first mission so many months ago - on the off chance that the Orbital Frames would fall into the wrong hands. It prevented anyone trying to pilot either Amenthes or Mayet from being able to unlock their full capabilities. Duat had already undergone a few upgrades - Amit, apparently had not.

As her eyes move back to James, the young woman offers him another of those small smiles, "You must be pretty good with machines and computers if they put such important things in your hands. I'm impressed. Do you ever design your own machines? I mean, I'd love to get a look at some something you've designed." It almost... almost seems as if the girl might be flirting, since she does seem to be quite interested. However, all too quickly, her brother's comments bring her attention back.

"I'm not about to argue with anyone's choice of clothes, although some certainly are more attractive than others. I'll take a runner suit over a samurai helmet any day." While she may not be wearing her own combat suit at the moment, Alina always seems to choose something suitably fashionable - perhaps a lingering afterimage of her time spent around Katharon's Quatre. "But I really should get going." She pushes up from her chair, grabbing the guitar and slinging it over her shoulder. "It was nice meeting you, James." Walking around the table, she places a small kiss to her brother's cheek. "Night Ian. I'll see you in the morning."

With that, she offers both men a wave of her hand, and then heads off into the hallway. Intent on finding her own way back to her assigned quarters - if such a thing is even possible without getting lost in the maze of corridors.

"Ehhh, I wasn't meaning a direct link." Ascian mutters, somehow feeling like James is insulting his intelligence. Sure, he may not know /much/ about coding. But by living around techies almost all of his life, and having to deal with Duat's constant upgrades, he's learned quite the thing or two. "They could simply be used to analyze flat code." The young man claims. He wags his hand and then moves it before his hand to let out a little yawn.

He doesn't quite follow behind Alina however. He just listens and nods. "Hrrm?" When she mentions the fact that Amit is still partially locked down to version one, Ascian however seems intrigued. "Oh. Right. I forgot about that. I'll see if I can look at that later with you. We may need to unlock that up at NUT. And since we're heading there soon anyhow..." He pauses, then shrugs again. "Should be no issue."

The young man then turns back towards James, whilst Alina wanders off into the distance. With his datapad in hand, he knew she couldn't get lost. "So James. Onto more serious topics." He suddenly grabs at the man's colar and holds him there. He's not being rough, he just wants the man to realize he is being serious, and won't run away. "Tell me what's going on with private Misaki's machine."

James Heller smirks a bit and thinks back to how he met wodan the first time. He is so lucky Lemon stepped in and kept him cleaving him in two. He nods a little bit more at Alina.

"Good meeting you, and take care of your self."

He's grabbed by the colar and doesn't seem to be well. He norrows his eyes a bit but doesn't seem too worried for whatever reason.

"What about the kid's mech? Ya I made it, what of it, you got a problem with it? take it up with your own superiors and the jackasses from the School. They are the ones abusing the remove overide I put in it in case something made him snap."

"Tssk." Ascian lets go of James and just shakes his head. "Can you remove it, or change the one who has control over that button? Because, from what I can tell, those folk should /not/ have access to it. If anything, you can claim it was a bug in the system or something." The young man mutters, eyes narrowing at James. "But seriously. What's up with that system? It seems to almost... kill Misaki, anytime he uses it. His entire personality goes ever further out of wack than normal. Come on, spell the beans."

James Heller is let go off and he looks at him. "I'm not in the School or the Bahram chain of command. So I can't do anything about that. As for the machine, oh I got some plans on it. I'm working on something, and your going to have to trust me but I may need some help on a few things. I assume you'd be in to that?"

Ascian sits back, and leans on the table for a while - tapping the surface with one finger while he ponders this. "I don't understand what you mean with not being part of BAHRAM, or The School, has anything to do with this. You built the machine. Can you at least tell me what that thing is doing? Even in short terms?" The young Lieutenant is getting a bit annoyed with the man in front of him. "But if you need help in saving Misaki's ass, I'm all for that. He may draw the blood from underneath my nails sometimes, but..." He wags his hand. He doesn't want to explain.

James Heller says, "I can't order the ones pushing the button around."

He shrugs, "Your going to have to trust me on this one but ya. That remote system was to save his ass, not get him killed." There is s high chance some of the systems in that machine James is not at liberty to say on all the tech that he's put into that machine.

"Without a sense of comeradey an fighting force is just rabble. You ain't going to leave him out to dry cause he's one of your people, right?"

Sneak. Sneak. Sneak. Seril is a ninja.

In her regular clothes today, the princess of the dead kingdom has wandered her way through the Cradle in the middle of the night. She'd gotten up so late to use the bathroom, and then found she was pretty damn hungry. Therefore, there she is. Naturally, upon reaching the mess hall and discovering Ascian there, she couldn't help but say hello.

Sneak. Sneak. Sneak. Seril is-- "-Wah!" --falling...flat on her face.

The La Gian princess lands solidly, having tripped over an errant extension cord. With one foot sticking up, she lays there on the floor, both arms extended above her head. She totally rolled a 1 on her stealth check. After a moment, the girl recovers, pushing herself up and glancing back at the cord tangled around her foot, "Uuu~... No fair."

Blink. On right. That probably got Ascian's attention. Closing her eyes, she forces a smile through the short-lived red impact mark on her face and greets both men, "Ahh, good morning~!"

"Something like that." Ascian replies to that last statement of James's. To call Suriel 'one of his people' is something he'd have a hard time doing. But he still conciders him someone he wants to have around. Maybe he just... happened to see something in him. Be it something to use, or something for the reasons of a nice person. Probably the latter - knowing the blue haired young man.

He's just about to get up and say farewell to James Heller, when suddenly. Bonk! The 'Wah!' had drawn his attention of course, and he can't help but stiffle a laugh as he sees Seril laying on the floor there. Well, until that worried big brother instinct kicks in. He gets off of the bench and quickly wanders up to the poor fallen princess. Or fallen angel - depending on what features one looked at - not that said feature was out and about in view.

"Hello there, little sis'. What're you up to this late?" Ascian whispers and kneels down before the girl. He holds out a hand to help her up, whilst using his other hand to help get rid of that tangled cord. "Are you alright?" He then follows that up with, and just smiles back at that little smile of hers. "It's still night you know. It's not morning yet."

James Heller is unaware of the ninja? Or is he respecting her attempt to be stealthy? Either way. Seril is now on her face and he's looking down, but she seems to be okay for the most part.

"Another all nighter, I need to stop doing that." he looks back to Ascian, "I'll keep you posted when I need you, there may be some things we'll need to collect."

He looks to the girl from the hollow Earth for a moment. "Been a while, and I'm looking into the shower problem still."

Helped up, Seril shakes her foot a bit to help untangle herself, "I had to go, and then I was hungry, so I thought I'd drop in down here for a quick snack." Freed at last, she folds her hands loosely in front of her chest, "And then I saw you, so I thought I'd surprise you and say hi! But then I got sabotaged." With the same foot, she kicks that cord, which accomplishes nothing whatsoever.

While standing, Seril dusts herself off, "I'm fine, it's just a little sore. I'll be fine by morning." With a shrug, she adds, "Since I was asleep and then not, I figured it must've been after midnight. I guess not quite." A blink is given to James, "Nyu?"

She turns her eyes upwards thoughtfully, tapping her chin. Shower problem? Shower problem... "Hmmm... Oh!" Fingersnap, "That's okay. Big brother told me what was happening. I just have to find something hotter to clean with."

"Alright." Is all Ascian really has to say to James. He'd just have to 'wait' for this guy to 'keep him posted'. So that was all there was to do, to acknowledge that he said this. His attention then quickly ends up moving back to Seril, who clearly isn't all /taht/ okay. After all, she did say she'd be fine again in the /morning/. "Here, maybe this will help." And like a big brother, he puts his hands against the sides of Seril's arms and then puts a little kiss on her bumped forehead. "There."

Sure, kisses aren't /actually/ a magical cure-all for pains and diseases. But he figured that the thought was what counter. The young man then stands up properly again and looks down at the girl before him. "Oh, by the way, Seril? I've finally have a date planned. A little change of plans, but Thursday, we're blasting off. Bring your pretty dress, because we're heading to the Red Moon." They'd arrive on Friday - thanks to the help of a little planned jump-drive trip.

"Think you can handle that? It'll be just you, me, and big sis." He adds onto that. To show that it wasn't just them two who'd be going. "Hope you still know how to eat like a princess though." What did that have to do with anything? Who knows.

James Heller says, "Oh that's good then if you got it solved." james muses for a moment and he does plan to keep Ascian informed but he's also now thinking about Seril, there are so many things going on around here. But one thing at a time and the focus is now on the young lady from La Gias.

"Red Moon huh?" He just seems to nod about that, as it's not his business to dig into that.

"So we leave tomorrow?" Seril bounces briefly, bunching her hands up under her chin, "Great! I already have a suitcase packed! I brought extras of everything!" She pauses, then leans forward a bit, "Big bro~ther! I told you I was gonna bring it, so of course it's already packed up! And the necklace you gave me is in there too. It'll all be fine!" Seril will, for the first time in her life, actually *look* like a princess.

Blink. "Eat...like a princess..?" She hesitates, her eyes searching. The girl has never shown Ascian any sort of inkling that she has what might be considered 'table etiquette', beyond how to use the cutlery. The look in her eyes when she fixes them on Ascian is something akin to a purple-eyed deer in headlights. After a moment, where she determines to figure out what 'eat like a princess' means via her own datapad, she tries to divert the topic, "What's the red moon?"

"The Red Moon, Mars." Ascian repeats for both James and Seril's sake. He smiles down at the girl, she must be tired to not have caught that one. But then, he guesses Seril is more used to people around here calling it Mars than anything else. Unlike the Mystic Moon - Earth - it wasn't really anywhere as important. "But that's good to hear. And yes, the necklace too." The young man nods brightly, smiling at the girl. Her entheusiasm was quite infectious.

As for eating like a princess? "You know, fancy dinners?" Ascian blinks. "Well, it really won't matter too much. Mostly, what I mean is, don't eat too much on Friday, because you will be eating a lot in one sitting." Basically, he's telling her that he's taking her out to dinner. "I want to treat my little sister like the royal princess she is, and deserves to be treated as." The Lieutenant grins, before turning about towards James.

"Well, I wouldn't call it solved. We need to think of a way to create a high-heat bath. Either using water, or another liquid that can be used as a replacement. But I'm sure the scientists at NUT can figure something out, if I give them the specifics I am looking for." He'd probably test with Seril, what she'd end up finding 'too hot' as a temperature, to decide what kind of 'heat' they were looking for.

James Heller figured it was such, but wasn't up on all his martian slang, as he's got his nose often in the Earth Sphere with various military operations about it. He did know however there was some pretty good local food there. But this isn't much of his converstation anymore and he's aware of it at the very least.

"Good older siblings do that, and I hope so." he seems somewhat concerned, but now isn't the time to bring up the matter.

"Right! Right!" Seril bows a bit in place, "Fancy dinners and Mars! I forgot that one... Ah, so we're gonna visit your home!" She gets quieter suddenly, looking down, "..Ah..I hope it's better than when you visited my home." She's already thinking she should read up on manners. Her parents never did teach her royal etiquette. They barely even acknowledged her existence, which only helped lead her into the tragedy her life has become now.

Ascian and James start discussing high-heat baths, other materials, specifics, and all sorts of science and research words that go in one ear and out the other. Seril's head tilts slowly to one side as she struggles to figure it out. She knows it's for her, but the point escapes her.

After a bit, her stomach rumbles and her face pales, "..Ah.." There's another bow to her adoptive elder brother, "I'm gonna grab that snack and rest up. I'll see you tomorrow!" She sure is mixing up her day terms today, huh? The girl turns, adjusting her jacket briefly before she strides to the service. All she takes is a muffin - Something set out for the evening watches - and dashes off in a billow of coat and smokey hair.

"No worries, Seril." Ascian chuckles. "My home doesn't exist anymore. But it was never much of a home to begin with. I now have a 'place' at the NUT facility there. But no real... home. To me, home is where my family is." He ruffles her hair as he says this last part. "You're where my home is." He just hopes that talking like this doesn't confuse her too much. "Either way, as I said, don't worry too much about it."

When the girl then decides to run off for food, Ascian just nods and turns to James for a moment. "I should take off too. I gotta make sure Alina finds her room well." So he wanders to the exit of the Mess Hall - but then waits for Seril to walk back out along his way, so he could wander out with her. He had some last minute things to quickly discuss with her off-camera.

James Heller says "Later Seril."

Once the young lady has departed for food he turns his attention to Ascian and just says this. "Go eat and talk to your sisters. I'll catch up with you later, though there is something I'd want to talk to you about then."

James departs himself likely to sleep and give up on the code abomination that is the turn X OS for a while.