dualismail | (no subject)

Beer?

Whiskey. Let's hit the boardwalk. I'm sure there'll be a party.

[And Rick's is still the safest bet.]

I do love a good party.

Don't keep me waiting.

[Loki intended to make this meeting exceptionally covert, which meant they'd be unseen and unheard.]

Be right there.

[He shows up huddled in a warm pea coat and his usual gaudy shirt wear. He has to feign a grin to the occasional delighted, celebrating person. He's angry, furious that it's come to this. And he knows the Head's posturing has made its point.]

[God, these assholes might have taken away half of their advantages. Fuck them. He's almost as mad at them as the head. Maybe even a little madder. The Head's intentions have been malicious but intelligent. These people were idiots.]

[He catches up to Loki quickly as soon as he sees him.] Loki! [And goes in for a friendly bro-hug.]

Edited 2020-01-21 09:19 (UTC)

[Loki, in opposition, saw they advantages they'd known die, but knew there were others. They simply had to rethink this, re-evaluate.

There were always hidden doors. Once, the Head served others. Those others needed a means to service a faulty machine.

There was a way. He grins, returning Hank's embrace, muttering near his ear when they were close.] You're overselling this. [There was a teasing tone to it before he pulled away and turned to the bar, retrieving the whiskey, straight, he'd ordered for his friend and offering the glass before raising his stein of beer.]

To the end of rebellion. Long live the Head.

How dare you fuckin' assume I wouldn't hug you.

[His anger actually ebbs for words that are less angry. And you know what? You know what Loki? Maybe he wanted a fuckin' hug right now. Or he could be overselling it. He doesn't know.]

Right. Fuck the fucking idiot ass Heart.

[And he downs his whiskey like his throat is made of concrete.]

[Awkward, that, but he'll let it pass for now. He drinks to that, long and deep of that stein, before smiling and moving his head toward the way down to the basement.]

Somewhere more private?

[Well, at least the hug bit was a joke. Even if there's some real distress there.]

Yeah, let's go somewhere where you can give us some cover.

[He pats his shoulder heavily, ready to follow Loki. He'll trust him to find a good space. He doesn't want to bug the door guard to Rick's basement shop right now. He's sure they're probably entirely on edge.]

[He does bypass the entrance to the basement, so as not to draw undo attention to their journey, and heads for a back room instead, where the pool tables are found, waving a hand toward the doorway, which suddenly, for all intents and purposes, is just a wall.]

So, our hosts execute you openly now for defiance.

[He turns toward Hank, crossing his arms and leaning against a pool table.]

That is new, isn't it?

Yeah. It's new. He used to not do this. Asshole just would wipe memories- that's as bad as it got. [He looks around at the door, reaching out to touch the lack of it, and then turns back to Loki.]

He got scared. I found out when the blackout happened? That wasn't a random storm. A girl with her chip removed caused it to happen over his power stations, she summoned up storms and lightning to strike 'em because the Heart told her too. They fucked her up for a while because of it, too. He's doing this because they scared him.

Now, imagine if those fucking cunts had actually just told us about the doubles! If they'd told us about the power stations rather than instigate some fucking manhunt and then blowing our chance to do the same? Wouldn't that have been a fucking actual help. Now they're... fucking dead... because they didn't trust us. They should have just-

[He's so angry, too. Angry at them for stupidly getting themselves killed as well as angry at the Head for what he does.]

He uh... believe it or not, I think the fucker gave me some ideas with this.

Just a moment. Where is this girl? Was she one of the ones executed? If not, I may be able to find out how her chip was removed. If the memory still exists within her mind, I can force her to recall it.

[At this point, he would have given anything to have had the Tesseract with him. It's ability to travel through time and space alone would have been a boon. How could he have been so stupid as to simply hand it to Thanos?]

Alright then. Out with it.

Yeah, she's still around. But the problem with how she got hers removed is that she's still immortal. The could practically kill her and she could change forms and still survive it.

Now. Maybe, since you're almost immortal- [He points to Loki] -You or even Arkady would be easier than me... But that's for later.

[He makes a dismissive gesture.]

When Connor converted a bunch of androids into people? I was there. They spread it by touching, just traveled through a room like a wave. Now, these guys aren't androids, they vary a lot. But they all have programming and the capacity to carry a virus. And the Head at least will do this one more time, even if he doesn't do any more of these big fuck-off things. He has this celebration called Dualis Days. He'll have everyone out and within grabbing distance of each other like they are today.

That'll be cutting it real close for me. I first got here during Dualis Days. But it might be the best shot we got.

I'm resilient, but I prefer my brain remain intact if it's all the same to you.

[He doesn't like the idea of potentially becoming a vegetable, for example.]

Now, this Arkady...what makes you think she might be a means to ascertain the removal of these chips?

[He listens to Hank's explanation, nodding slowly as a dawning comes over him and he grins.]

Could we seize the copies in the same fashion?

I don't know about seizing them. I think we could disable the Head's control somehow. Honestly turning it off somehow is our only chance. We have a lotta tools at our command. [He counts on his fingers.] The power outage potential. The Head's ego. The way that he just laid a bunch of his current cards on the table as a threat.

Look, there's a guy here. I've seen him do some pretty miraculous shit in gaining loyalty. I'm pretty sure if we break the Head's control, then he can do the rest to get 'em on our side. He was the guy that pretty much broke the programming of every fucking android in Detroit. And got the nation to fuckin' eat shit about it.

[In a way, it's one of the reasons he's even alive now, and not damned to being slumped at a table with a bullet in his head.]

And if we don't... I don't know. Turn 'em off. Let 'em stay quiet while we get rid of the Head. I think we could do a lot more damage if we could get some iterations under our control.

The power outage and it's potential chaos made him miss his brutish brother. The God of Thunder would have been invaluable in the current situation, chip or no. He wouldn't be surprised of Thor, through sheer force of will alone, were able to overcome the chip's control and free them all. Gods he missed that man.

This other man, though, was just as promising, if slow. They'd have to play along while they found a way around the Head, or pray for a miracle in the form of Thor. Loki wouldn't argue with the fact that they needed an army, though. Shutting them down was out of the question.

"If we can disable the Head's control of them, you're certain this new man of yours could bring them to heel?"

Maybe they did need an army. And maybe some would need an extra push. But there was still the unfortunate problem that many in the city were still 'children', in mind or body, had been brought in as kids and weren't miserable being in the mindset and living the life. And he couldn't feel right sending emotional children onto the battlefield. He feels bad enough that their hardest-hitting fighters are teenagers.

But they'd fight with or without any sayso. The kids, though, he's not so sure. Markus somehow reminding everyone they're real, with real families to defend from being expendable, is the best outcome.

God he fucking hopes.

"Yeah, I'm pretty damn sure of it. He not only brought the androids around he'd struck some sense into the humans that'd been giving them a hard time. Including me." And that part he'd always own up to.

Right or no, when a city is besieged on all sides, sometimes all needed to fight. When the objective was survival, people often weren't allowed to suffer the luxury of innocence or choice.

"And do you believe we have time to wait for his solution?" Loki knew patience, but he also knew a time to strike, and the tension quickly mounting in the city seemed about to break. If something wasn't done soon...there would be none among them remaining to end it.

"Ask me again when we know where the Head's servers are. Back home with access to a factory and a television station he managed to turn a political movement in three days. He needs the resources. I think we should do our best to get 'em for him." Of course, technically Connor was the one to unleash those in the factory, and here Markus is working against a completely totalitarian state.

"Anything we do now... I don't think we know enough. Army or none. With that plague? He'd just wipe us out with a strategic dusting. We gotta find out where his whole... I guess 'him' is."

And he knows the 'long game' doesn't sound like the best response. But. "I think we oughta look for places to retreat to, too. And out of. Be ready to get the hell out of the city."

All good points and ones Loki couldn't hope to counter. They needed to disable the Head's complete control if they were to gain the upper hand, if they were unable to shut him down outright, and to do that, they needed to know where 'he' was located.

He nodded as Hank continued. They were all important pieces of information. "And someone capable of teleporting us to those locations, which would mean eliminating any restrictions on that person."

"Yeah. Gotta find out why these restrictions exist, too."

Because there has to be a reason for those specific numbers. Why only two miles or so? Why only certain amounts of space with psychic abilities?

"Don't get me wrong, I know the situation is pretty fucked right now. I'm pissed off, too." But all he can do is keep trying to get the information and resources for people with more abilities than him. That's pretty fuckin' frustrating in itself.

"I gotta... I don't know, I'll keep upgrading this fuckin' mod I've got. Maybe it'll let me help with the clones, too."

"Obviously, if we were not so restricted, the Head wouldn't stand a chance against us." He looks thoughtful, then he smiles. "I will see this chip removed, and then we'll see who comes out ahead."

"...Every fuckin' fiber of my being wants to make a shitty pun." He has a completely earnest face.

"I kinda hate myself for it." And he purses his lips, nods grimly, and lets that potential pun linger in the post-execution air, inappropriate and unspoken but very much felt in the horrible cockles off his being.

"So we get the information. We get resources for Markus. We get these chips out. Then we see what we do from there."

He fixed Hank with an even stare for a moment that clearly stated do not make that joke unless you'd like to be turned into something untoward but he didn't actually say anything, except in response to the latter.

"As you should."

He nodded, though, allow the conversation to turn. "Or disabled. I'll keep an eye on the bar, attentive for information. If something comes across your desk, call me."

The issue of having scathing, sandpapery dad residue on one's soul. Also growing up with 80s cop show reruns.

"Yeah, I'll put it up here and send you a text with some food cart rec. That'll be believable enough."

Hank crosses his arms, frowning hard. "We'll have a couple of people for him to work with. I mean... Somehow there are actual kids here. I don't know if they're born all fucked up by the head or if he lets 'em grow up a little and then does it to them, but they shouldn't have to live their whole lives like this."

In Loki's defense, his father was not a man who'd ever have been caught making a 'dad joke'. The meme was lost on him.

He nodded, though, crossing his arms in kind. "It's unfortunate, and we'll do what we can to spare them, but this is war."

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sociallychallenged - 2020-02-25 04:50 (UTC) - Expand

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morethanatrickster - 2020-02-27 06:38 (UTC) - Expand

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just after the executions

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Suicidal Reference

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