fh_trips | Kellerman's Resort, Tuesday Morning and Afternoon, October 13th

Entry tags:

fall break 2009: kellerman's

Kellerman's Resort, Tuesday Morning and Afternoon, October 13th

The weather at Kellerman's continued to be favourable, as the autumn sun shone down on the fields and streams of the area. The staff of the resort were busy but happy to help, bustling through the corridors and courtyard.

The boards outside were advertising a white water rafting trip today, for anyone willing to go out and risk the rapids; for the less adventurous, a trip to see the Cascade Falls might just do the trick.

[[ Cottage and Room List | Rooms | Activities Barn | Indoor Activities | Outdoor Activities | White Water Rafting | Cascade Falls | OOC | OCD up! ]]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Scarab," Dinah said, trying to assimilate that. "You have software in your head? Alien software?" Okay, that one was new.

"Well, hardware actually." Jaime reached back to rub at his neck. "Welded to my spine. But there's an artificial intelligence component to run it all."

"Wow. How did that happen-- Ohhhh. That's who you were talking to," Dinah realized. "The AI?" She leaned forward, chin on her hands, studying him. "How-- when did this happen? Why?" She bit her lip. "If you're good with telling me. I guess it's not really my business...."

"Hey, you told me about your thing." Some of it, at least. "And there's no reason to keep it secret now. I mean, it's a pretty boring story." Jaime's grin was sheepish. "Seriously. I found this weird rock, took it home, and while I was asleep it bonded itself to my spine."

"Owwwwww!" Dinah winced, fingers clutching her mug, eyes widening at him. "Spine? It's welded itself to you? Did it even ask?"

The suggestion of permission made Jaime snort in amusement. "The Scarabs were never programmed to ask for permission. I'm licky mine had been damaged because they're mostly designed to overwrite your personality while they're there."

"Whooooa. Why?" Dinah asked, looking at Jaime-the-aspiring-Texan-dentist with new eyes. "What is it supposed to be doing? Can't you get it out, or..."

"Well, it's not really the Scarab's fault that it was built by a crazy race of inter-stellar conquerors... And, really, it's a good little bug for the most part. Or... it was..." jaime trailed off sadly.

Then he shook his head. "Anyway, no one can even find the Scarab if it doesn't want to be found. Reach stealth technology is pretty much impenetrable. My mom thought I was on drugs when I first tried to explain it to her."

Dinah had to stare at that bit, gesturing in a semi-flail of being overwhelmed, then finally gulp a breath, and say, "So... it's supposed to conquer things? People? Us? But you're not letting it." She paused. "Is that why I didn't hear it, only you? That Reach thing?"

"That's what the Reach wanted it to do, yeah. But the Scarab and I both agree that that's a bad idea. Like I said, it's not a bad guy."

"As for why you didn't hear it... maybe? Or maybe you just didn't have time. I mean, it's not like you'd understand it anyway. Scarabs don't precisely speak English, you know?"

"That might do it, yeah," Dinah had to admit. If she couldn't understand it, she might not notice. It wasn't like she was exactly focusing at the time. She tilted her head, watching Jaime, marveling. "I totally didn't guess. So it's-- it's an AI, that evaluates, oh, strategy? Tactics?" She paused a second, looking worried. "It doesn't hurt now, does it?"

"Tactics, yeah, but... it's more of a tool for forming strategy. It tries to figure out what weaknesses people have and then comes up with ways to counter them. So it talks a lot. As for hurting? No. Not usually." Only if he armored up or down, and he hadn't had to do that for a while now.

"With the scanning... thingy." Dinah took another sip of hot chocolate, trying to make that all fall into place, and slowly nodded. "So you were using it to see if I was okay when I fell in the water?" She frowned, tilting her head. "Has it evaluated me?"

"Yeah," Jaime nodded, "that's probably what you heard. The Scarab is actually really good at medical diagnosis and stuff."

Then he paused to take a long sip of his own hot chocolate. "And... yeah. It doesn't turn off." He sounded apologetic about that.

[and now my phone battery is running low, so I may disappear...]

[sp is yay, take your time]

"Thanks," Dinah said soberly, a small smile on her face. "I appreciate you checking on me." She grew more serious. "That has to be rough. Does it even take a break while you sleep?" She held out her hand in front of her, and grimaced. "It was forever before I could turn this off, either."

"Hey, you're a friend." Or she was. Before she found out he'd been lying to her. Now... well, he'd just have to wait and see.

"And I've got to admit that it took a while to get used to the dreams." Nightmares. Whatever.

Alien dreams in another language of conquering worlds... Dinah so didn't envy Jaime what that must be like.

"So you're keeping this on the down-low, even here?" she checked. "No telling people?" She could understand that, really.

"Trying to," Jaime sighed. He didn't seem to be doing all that good a job of it. "I mean... I don't want to weird everyone out. And most of the people who have found out so far have been more than a little freaked out by the idea of an alien weapon system scanning them for weaknesses and planning ways to neutralize them."

Dinah grimaced. "Yeah, that's... not a good way to make friends and influence people here, I'd guess." She gave him a sympathetic look. "But that's not you. You're the one keeping it in check, after all. Even if Scarab is damaged, you're not acting on what it's saying." She tilted her head. "Do I want to know hwo it says to neutralize me?"

"Whether it's me or not, I now know a lot of stuff that people don't want me to." Jaime shrugged. It wasn't fun, really, but he was unfortunately used to it.

"And... I don't know? Do you? The Scarab is very good. Most of the ideas it puts forward are really hard to counter, so it might just be depressing."

Dinah kind of got that, from all the stuff that had leaked through people's skin into her brain, the first few months she was in Fandom. And before that.

But that second thing, that deserved serious consideration. Did she want to know? Well... if there was something there she couldn't counter, better to know about it now. "Yeah. I do."

Jaime took a deep breath and then spent a moment conferring with the Scarab. Just to get the details down right.

"Telekinesis is the easy one," he eventually said, voice soft. "The Scarab recommends energy based weapons. A laser or electricity or something similar. Hard to avoid and not enough mass to be easily manipulated."

"And two options for the touch telepathy thing, depending on what goals were in play. Direct electric current as a defense. You'd probably have a hard time paying attention to any thoughts if every time you touched someone you got a major electric shock. And overwhelming mental experience as an attack. The Scarab estimates that it would take you a minimum of two or three minutes to recover if it dumped the contents of its memory bank to you when you touched me."

Dinah nodded, face set, thinking hard about that first one, and swallowed. "Probably not, yeah. If I got tasered, well. I could maybe manage to get the taser away from someone. But I'd still be messed up." She let out a slow breath, tracing the rip of her cocoa mug. She thought of the leather jacket and kevlar panels in the coat she wore in New Gotham, and made a note to mention what he'd said to Barbara. She might have another idea. Not that that would help hits to the head....

She swallowed. "And yeah, shock when I touch someone-- it's hard to do anyway, sometimes. Most people are never aware it's happened. The only time anyone's felt me is when they were telepaths themselves. Professor Atreides says that I have a very light natural signature." Dinah bit her lip. Probably from wanting not to hurt anyone, and denying it so long. "But if they knew. Or could detect it. Yeah. That would-- I'm getting better, at shielding, and telling what's me, and what's someone else. But I've been knocked out before, when what was in someone's head was something really awful."

Jaime stared at his own mug of cocoa in order to avoid looking at Dinah. "The Scarab has schematics for something called an Arc Projector. It's sort of like a taser, but with no wires or anything. A lightning gun, I guess. That's what it would recommend to take you out at a distance."

"I'm not a threat, though. Does it know that?" Dinah had to ask, hating how plaintive she sounded. "I don't like knowing stuff that's in people's heads most of the time. Either it's painful or it's boring, and there's only a couple people that it's... comfortable." She sighed. "And the TK-- I try so hard not to cheat here, to only play with it against people who have magic or TK of their own. I don't want to freak anyone out, or hurt them. I'm learning to use it as a weapon to protect me. And other people." She bit her lip, studying him. "Can it tell that?" Then, even quieter, "You can. I hope?"

Edited 2009-10-14 19:29 (UTC)

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