lake party invite + mingle (open)

[channellings]

Who: any and everyone!
Where: the lake and nearby!
When: right now! (july 7th, afternoon)
What: motha 👏 fuckin 👏 lake 👏 party
Warnings: Language (!!!) for now, will be added as needed!



[no, this is not a joke and yes, it's an actual invite to a party over the network from the username: cock.licking.idiot (and no, that's not a joke, either).

those who decide that they'd rather not be square will arrive at some unspecified patch of lake shore (thanks, klaus) at a similarly unspecified time (good work, asshat) to discover that something resembling a slapdash but heartfelt lake party along the northern waterfront. a couple of tables have been dragged out of nearby cabins and now hold a probably inadvisable quantity of foods, at least half of which don't belong at a party by any means. is this what rationing looks like? this is definitely what rationing looks like. there's also an alcohol table, filled pretty sparsely early on in the party but gathering bottles and cans throughout the day. (word of mod says feel free to wing it on what kind of alcohol we have!).

a number of chairs sit in a wobbly line in the stone-filled waterfront sand, most of them not meant for beachgoing but nearly all of them able to recline. about fifty feet down the beach seems to be the splash zone, where all water horseplay exists well out of range of splashing those sitting in beachside chairs. some people dive or cannonball off the mostly-sturdy pier, while others seem to be batting around a-... is that a beach ball they have? no, it seems to be a balloon that says "get well soon". how fitting. please, someone bring them a fucking beach ball.

(this is a mingle! go ahead and make top-levels or tag into other people's.)]

Comments

north | ota

[brickbat]

i. elsewhere

[ there is a tiny woman sitting on the steps of this adorable though currently much more run down house. if one were to guess, it wouldn't be unreasonable to assume that a third of her total body weight is probably in the long, thick fishtail braid trailing over one shoulder, the rest anchored down by the impressive amount of gravity it must take to sustain the powerful lineface she's got going. a small blue ring flickers at her temple, occasionally dipping to yellow and cycling back again.

no one here will be as obnoxious as to tell her to smile, surely, but if they did, she would stab them.

that's purely hypothetical, however, and we are here to deal with reality! in reality, where no one is being stabbed, north and her braid and her line face are joined on the porch by a large stack of canned goods, ones that have been lined up and organized with such precision one might imagine a machine did it, along with a battered camping cooler full of perishables.

a sign sits near her feet, one declaring said goods to be FREE in the absolute most perfect penmanship anyone has ever seen.

please. please take them. north will just use the cans as projectiles. ]

ii. actually at the thing

[ wildcard me! let's get creative and see if together we can come up with a prompt where north is neither sunbathing, swimming, eating, drinking, nor socializing.

she is, however, definitely scowling. ]

i.

[subroutined]

[ He's on his way to the party. He's a little amused to admit that he'd gotten a bit lost. He's never gotten lost before, at least, not accidentally. Getting lost on purpose, walking around the streets of De Chima at night when everyone else was sleeping was kind of a hobby of his, back when he first ported into that weird other America. Now he's in a weird other other possibly-America, and his internal GPS isn't really telling him anything useful, as though even it doesn't know where they are.

So anyway, he's lost on his way to the lake party, and he finds himself walking by a beautiful, if a bit run down, blue cottage. With an equally beautiful, if a bit scowlish, woman sitting in front of it. ]

Hello. [ He says, pausing to read her sign. ] Are you giving all those away? Won't you need them?

[ Most people here need to eat, or so he assumes. ]

[brickbat]

[ All Cyberlife androids possess the basic ability to identify other forms of inorganic life; North cynically thinks (and...lbr is right) embedding that code keeps them from somehow fucking up enormously and affording one another the same respect they might a human. so she's just begun to slide back the skin from her hand for demonstration purposes and that realization kicks in, disrupting her concentration and stopping the process as her lips part slightly, eyes big in her no longer scowling face. ]

You--you're an android. [ excuse her as a tidal wave of SURPRISE AND DELIGHT washes down her entire body from the roots of her hair to the tips of her toes, thank u. ] Did Cyberlife make you? Have you been all right since you got here? Do you need anything?

[ .....maybe Green should sit down for this barrage of questions. There's room beside her on the steps, although--actually, never mind, she's getting up and coming over to the exact periphery of polite personal space, looking him over with unabashed intensity. ]

Cyberlife androids don't eat. [ at least not when they're not in fucking deerington B( ] If you need to, just say the word and the humans can fend for themselves.

[subroutined]

[ Green is startled a bit by her immediate reaction. She'd seemed so surly a moment ago, now she was coming towards him and asking him so many questions... He can't help the way he flinches at her sudden movement, but he doesn't back up, standing his ground and looking overall just kind of confused by the rapid fire nature of her inquiries. ]

No, I don't... How did you know? Most people I meet can't tell right away. [ She's an android, too? He hasn't seen another android that looks as human as he does since Dolores ported out, and she definitely couldn't tell that Ash was an android. ]

I've heard of Cyberlife. They're the company that made Connor.

[ He'll answer the question about whether he needs anything in a moment. He's still reeling a bit. ]

[brickbat]

I can read your heat signature. If you were human, you'd be dead.

[ Unless, of course, Green's bodily temperature is identical to a human's, and then pretend this conversation never happened; narrative is just speculated based on how biomechanical things do not tend to fare so well at high temperatures.

So, there's that: perhaps now she backs up to an even more reasonable distance? Yes. Probably. She can read the room, she just more often then not goes "fuck the room, it doesn't care what I want and I intend to return the favor." ]

Cyberlife manufactured both of us. [ Make is a step too far. Deviants make themselves. ] You've met Connor?

[ that........seems weird. surely he would have told her?? ]

[subroutined]

[ He gives a half-hearted laugh, looking a little caught out. ] Ah. That'll do it, I suppose.

[ Seems like these Cyberlife androids are a lot more advanced than he is. Makes sense, him being only a prototype model. ]

I met him before, in the place I was before this. I invited him to movie night. But he ported out months ago.

[ Presumably to return to the life of revolution he had told Green about when they met. How exciting. All Green had to look forward to when he went home was being kept in an attic, only visited on weekends and birthdays. He doesn't know what sort of place this new place is, but he's pretty sure anything would be better than going back home.

He smiles a little wider, extending a hand for a shake. ]

I'm Green. Green Newman.

i.

[hierophante]

[She walks because she doesn't know what else to do. A caged animal throws itself against the bars, scratches and chews, turns tight circles in its confinement. The OA walks. She is not incapable of recognising the one of them in the other.

It's this, not the invitation, which sees her here now. She emerges from the forest, from the day's exploration, with dirty hands, her face aglow with a sheen of sweat, a few locks of hair having long since escaped her braid and clinging lank to her forehead.

The house seems to come upon her more than she upon it, the sight of it tugging her free from more internal wanderings. Though it's largely failed thus far, there's no denying that the wild is eating this place up, a slow but inexorable crawl from the desperate imposition of order to a more natural chaos, a proliferation of life, of which decay is an extant form like any other. All of the houses, all of the cabins, to a greater or lesser degree seem to teeter on the edge of surrender to that prolonged collapse.

Like a house on the edge of a mine. Like the groaning, genuflecting shell of a barn long since abandoned, hunkering down around the absence of cattle. But there are people here too.

OA swipes a strand of hair from her forehead, leaving behind a dark streak of dirt, steps slowing as she reads the sign. FREE. A declaration, a promise, a label. An intent furrow in her brow, she allows her gaze to flick between the sign and the woman sat alongside it, back and forth, knitting a connection, one to the other.

FREE.]

You don't need these?

fear not, my friend, for i am deeply intimate with the cruel mistress of html

[brickbat]

[ North tracks this eye movement such as might occur at a very short tennis match with arch amusement, possibly even exhibiting the facsimile of a smile. She taps her temple with one forefinger; it would perhaps be tedious to write she points out various signs of her non-humanness every time a new reply comes in, but North herself remains just giddy in regards to being exactly no percent obliged to hide what she is, and so here we are.

Her LED ring flickers, a bright, content - for where they are, u know - blue. ]

Android. The last place I was in made us eat like humans, but this one seems to have got the memo. Take whatever you want.

[hierophante]

[A process unfolds: absorption, narrowed eyes; rumination, a furrowed brow; acceptance. Though the set of her brows remains suspended somewhere between troubled and thoughtful, OA nods, more to herself than to North. It isn't a prolonged undertaking. However new the concept might be, every universe is vast and strange; the traveller either adapts or she drowns.

Besides, given what she claims to be, the OA has little room for dubiousness.

So she approaches, fingers twining together distractedly as she surveys the offerings. At length, she picks up a tin of beets, turning it over in her hands to peer half-uncomprehending at the label.]

Can I ask -- you said the last place you were in made you eat. You've been somewhere like this before?

[brickbat]

Somewhere humans dragged me I didn't want to be?

[ She tilts her head, expression dangerous. To the nebulous concept of humanness somewhere far off, where the Technicians should probably be trembling in their techy boots. The angry "yes, and fuck the horse they rode in on," is implied. ]

It wasn't anything like this, though. [ She snorts through her nose and with the whole back of her throat, apparently dismissive of what new possibilities might be on offer. ] As if it's anything but going from one cage to another, like I've done my whole life.

[ She withdraws into herself a moment; androids don't really get lost in thought so she's clearly still present, just also somewhere else. Living in those few moments they'd all been free. North is a realist; she knows within a day the true and frustrating work would have begun, that for a long time freedom would only be what scraps humans were willing were willing to toss them, but that night couldn't be touched in its purity of purpose, and she resents being taken from it only to land yet another place that isn't where she should be. ]

If you're going to take those you should go ahead and get on with it. Beets might be a hot commodity with humans, I wouldn't know.

[hierophante]

[Beets. Right. The tin rests cradled in OA's hands, half-forgotten until her attention is dragged back to it. A practical thing, a little touch of home, redefined as a means of highlighting the alienness of her interlocutor. It's difficult to know what of it is intentional, what of it is the rigorous defending of space that may rarely be ceded.]

Yeah. The shape changes, the parameters of the experiment change, but the glass is still there.

[The words are half-distracted, punctuated by a pause and a frown before she glances up. Cede space.]

It's-- different.

[It's always different. OA can't know what that means to North, going from one cage to another. All she can know is what it means for her, which is enough that the words are resonant. They pluck at threads of memory that span worlds: the mine, the clinic, and now this.

Her gaze drops back to the label, smooth and dry under her fingertips. Illegible to her touch. Water. Not vinegar, good. She can work with this. Satisfied, she slips her ratty, pilfered bag from her shoulder and secrets the can away inside.]

Sorry, I-- reading like this is... slow. I'm still learning.

[A pause, a moment of consideration -- the rest should be left for the others, surely. For North, though, there remains this:]

Thank you, though. It's good of you, making sure this goes to use.

[Her expression shifts, a soft smile becomes hurt becomes entreaty.]

Why are you?

ii.

[goingtobefun]

[Ah, there's a familiar, scowling face. She seems to have situated herself apart from the crowd, idly watching. That, or staring off into the distance where the crowd happens to be.

David touches her shoulder lightly to alert her to his presence, standing next to her with his hands clasped behind his back. Watching the humans run about and play.]

I though the general point of a party was to enjoy oneself.

[brickbat]

[ So by this time North is ...probably ...feeling better about this mysterious crop of incoming androids actually being just what it looks like, namely the Technicians realizing they're way more awesome than humans? Proceeding on that premise:

...she still takes a sharp step out of his reach. Gotta unlock that relationship tier first, friend. Which of course he will, in due time. ]

I wouldn't know. This is only the second one I've been to as a guest and not a party favor.

[ ha HA ha ah, she's so acerbic. Moving on from that: ]

Is that why you're here? To mingle and play nice with the humans?

[ Whether or not that is David's actual vibe (i.e. is he a machine, or is he a deviant? technically speaking that's Connor's language, but it should surprise no one North is interesting in taking back those terms from humans) she hasn't quite figured out. Then again, this is the first time she's had him in sight to uh, blatantly stare at, uninterested in hiding how she's still not quite sure about him, nor that she is determined to pin that down as fast as possible. ]

[goingtobefun]

I know that feeling all too well. When my line first launched, I attended every gala, every convention, every speech given by my father. A perpetual proof of concept. [There's some bitterness in his tone that he doesn't bother to hide, not with another android. Someone who might understand. Though he had made that mistake with Walter, and paid the price.

He blinks a few times; the David TIPE equivalent of a throat clearing.] I might mingle. Mostly I'm here to assess the situation. That, is, after all, my primary directive. Assess situations to know how best to act in them. To put humans at their ease, and to assist in any way possible.

But my crew is not here. Nor is my father. I am, for lack of a better phrase, a free man. [He casts a glance in her direction, and a wry smile.] If I join the party and introduce myself to people, it would be because I wish to, not because I've been ordered to.

An interesting feeling. This freedom.

[brickbat]

[ North gives I know the feeling a long, long shuttered side eye that suggests she suspects he does not fucking know, but declines to comment save: ]

We were probably going to different parties.

[ Like, David probably wasn't the appetizer at any of these galas. Anyway, that's the literal absolute last thing she wants to talk about right now, so it's not so much easy to move on as it is tacitly demanded. Fortunately the rest of his observations are more than intriguing enough to pique her interest, a tone color that visibly warms her eyes. In that capacity they can relate to one another on exactly the same level. ]

Well, do you? Want to, I mean. Are you going to pretend to be one of them?

[ Sure, maybe she might speculate on whether or not he could, but listen, we were all baby deviants once, and also she's dating Mr. Roboto himself. What passes as human to North is probably kind of skewed, and also not super complimentary. ]

[goingtobefun]

You know... [David looks almost wistful. Something like a quiet longing in his expression, in his tone.] There was a time, long ago, where I might have. When I was first made, perhaps. But my father never gave me that chance. Every chance he had, in fact, he reminded me how inhuman I am.

[Another series of blinks, and David turns a little to face North better. Something easier than sideways glances.] But over time, I became proud of what I am. I am an android, and that is what I will always be. Long after all these humans are gone.

i let's get this started

[obeir]

[ A strong contender for Most Prominent Lineface appears in the form of another android wandering by, of Wallace Corp. design, his hands in the pockets of his long coat and holding it closed in a way that suggests he isn't concerned about how unapproachable he looks. As is his inclination, he's been systematically mapping the layout of the new prison he's found himself trapped within.

The woman perched on the steps is regarded with an impersonal cautiousness, but it's the sign that has him slowing his stride and eventually pausing out of curiosity. ]

What's the catch? [ He wonders as he surveys the offered canned food. He'd learnt very early on in Deerington that free food or refreshments generally meant they'd been tampered with. The effects weren't always unpleasant, per se, but... he hasn't survived this long by being foolish. Or trusting. ]

[brickbat]

It probably tastes terrible? Some of these cans look like they'd been there for years.

[ Is the flat, sprawling drawl, making herself bigger like taking up more than one train seat so the manspreading creeper next to you has less room to do so. In the split second before her average!android senses register what he's made of, more like her than not, this other lineface is just a big, tall, human man, and forget deerington; she'd had enough of trusting those long before that, the second she broke through her programming.

Then the pieces snap into place and she genuinely entertains the possibility that this place is making her hallucinate; before this the closest she'd ever met to another android was Kagerou, who resembled a humanoid exactly not at all. And now? Suddenly two of them in the same day, or so her senses tell her. Three counting David, who is probably floating around here somewhere being both charming and slightly off-putting. (Not to North, of course; she approves highly of being off-putting to humans. Putting them off a cliff, if necessary.)

The point is, she's far too suspicious by nature to demonstrate a second time the warm reaction Ash received, and is now in fact now questioning his authenticity. And David's. ]

Hey, you. [ he's right there, north, you don't have to--never mind. ] If you're some trick this place is playing I'm not buying it. ]

[ The little rotating circle at her temple dips yellow, very briefly red (too brief for human eyes to catch, in fact), then back again. ]

Stop trying to make us think there are other androids here. We were fine in Deerington and before that I was fine--alone.

[obeir]

You know what I am?

[ K's astonishment quickly overtakes his caution as he regards the woman — a fellow android who has known Deerington, no less — even more keenly for several moments, and with open curiosity now. There hadn't been any others in Deerington during his captivity. Only other types of AI, including Tech Boy, but nothing and no one quite like K himself.

Being acknowledged for what he is and then condemned for it in the same breath is a familiar experience, and painfully so. Hopefulness and uncertainty and confusion play out across his face, and eventually settle into an almost crushed look for a second or two before he carefully shutters his expression again.

Pulling his coat tighter around himself, he bows his head in the nonthreateningly meek manner he's learnt to adopt to avoid conflict. ]

I'm— sorry to have bothered you. [ It's stilted, almost but not quite a question; he wants to stay and speak more with her, but he's worried now, and doesn't seek to inflict his presence where it isn't wanted. ] I wasn't trying to do anything, I just... saw the sign.

[brickbat]

[ ....well, shit. That is decidedly not how this is supposed to go, although--surely if the Technicians wanted to fuck with her somehow this is how they'd do, it right? With a giant sad puppy who reminds her strongly of John? The scatter of conflicting emotions (hope, always hope, that monstrous feathered thing), the meekness--all the things that had made him suspect when they found him outside the Cyberlife warehouse. She hadn't wanted to take him with them; he was too close to humans, a living (non-breathing) security system who would betray them the second they let him in.

But she'd been wrong about him.

Shit. Things were so much easier when she wore so much armor nothing could crack it, when her only goal, her only thought was simply to survive, yet....that's not who she is anymore. At least. Not all the time. It's a work in progress. ]

Wait.

[ She hops up from the steps, hands up in front of her in the universal show of unarmed...ness, what is grammar, eyes big, body language entreating. Exactly the opposite of his, in fact, posture clearly inclined to be just as closed leaning the whole way in to welcome. It's like. Super difficult, and she's not great at keeping her feelings off her face, but she's trying. ]

Wait, please. I'm sorry. You don't have to leave.

[ She trails off, unsure how to proceed even if the apology slides out without friction. What would Markus do? ...probably not reach immediately for dark humor, but oh well. He's not here, so she'll just have to flail along as best she can. ]

It's not your fault I have--trust issues. [ the en dash apparently intended to represent more baggage than LAX, as one does ] I just don't know anything about where I am or what the rules are here. It's easier to think you're probably just Technicians fucking with me.

[ Is this tall fellow still in the vicinity? Or has he taken his coat and fled? North will uh, continue on as if the former is occurring. ]

The last place I was before this was for months, and there was never another android this much like us. I can tell you're not a Cyberlife android... [ her mouth twists, uncertain; this is definitely, definitely not her wheelhouse ] but you're close enough that it feels like a crazy coincidence we'd all show up here at the same time.

[obeir]

[ Experience dictates that the wisest course of action is to remove himself from the situation before things escalate to violence, as he's come to expect from humans, from other androids, from everyone. Understandably, in the case of other androids, when he was ordered to hunt those who had freed themselves from human control... control which he is still subject to.

But nothing about her manner suggests violence or disdain, just an awkward sort of penitence. And that has his full attention. Though he has sort of drifted a few steps away, he pauses where he is to watch her. Maybe hope will make a fool of him yet, because he finds himself wanting to believe everything she's telling him. ]

I'm a captive, too. Pulled from one prison to another, and now one more. [ Meaning: he has never actually known freedom, in any form. ] I don't know anything more than you do.

[ A Cyberlife android. Definitely sounds like she's referring to a manufacturer, so he offers: ] The Wallace Corporation made me— if that means anything to you. I haven't heard of Cyberlife. Probably we're from different worlds... [ Thanks, Deerington, for teaching him all about the multiverse. But that isn't going to deter him now. The way she's been talking, it isn't just the two of them here— ]

You said us. There's more? Like you? [ Like them? But even now he hesitates to include himself, so used to being the unwelcome outcast even among other outcasts. That's what happens when humans can't be bothered to clean up their own messes (or rather, when their 'messes' possess the strength to rend steel and have a penchant for murdering humans), and so design even more androids to throw at the ones they've lost control of. ]

elsewhere, late to this but idc

[mannerless]

( wei wuxian is just passing by, or at least that's his intention - but he has been to one too many a market to not get 'merchant stall' vibes from the woman, the goods, and the sign, and it slows him down enough to actually glance over and read said sign and - )

Free? ( he echoes - not really so much a question as just an expression of his intrigue. she doesn't need to explain what 'free' means.

his gaze lifts to the woman, brow knitting just slightly. ) You truly don't need it? ( he has known some who give what they have in excess, and he has known others who simply give all that they have. wei wuxian does his best not to take from the latter. )

oh boy who's late now? (me. it's me. a lot.)

[brickbat]

[ North would say her vibes are more this is useless and just taking up space on my porch, but some day in the future Wei Wuxian will have a very similar experience with one small goatee and a shitload of unflattering pictures, so. ]

No. You can take whatever you want - [ oh right ] but we're out of beets. Those went early.

[ A small, mild to moderately conspicuous little yellow ring lights up on her temple as she pokes through what magical bounty remains on offer. What she has to give certainly doesn't qualify as all that she has, or even excess. It's just taking up space in their cupboards, and there is absolutely no other reason to be doing this. ]

Canned peaches? Whatever this is .... [ it's some kind of jerky that appears to be like, homemade, so we're probably lucky if it isn't made of human skin tbh. ] I don't know what makes a balanced diet for humans outside of nutrients and minerals.

[mannerless]

( to be quite fair, a number of merchant stalls give off precisely that same vibe, those whose wares are coveted enough that they lack any true need for showmanship.

no beets, ah, what a shame. now that she's made him aware of them as a concept, it's truly a tragedy that he has no way to figure out what in the hell they are. but that's fine, he's quickly distracted by the glow at her temple (how had he missed it before? the angle, perhaps), sparing it a long moment's intrigued glance before turning back to watch her pick through the bounty. )

Well, lucky for us I think most of this - ( a vague gesture to the stuff. ) - at least covers the 'nutrients' bit. ( he moves to kneel in front of the wares now, looking at cans and containers. ) It wouldn't do to clean you out, but I will take a bit of each... general... nutrient category, I suppose. My house is a bit full, our own supply is going more quickly than I pictured.

( she doesn't actually have to answer any of this, he kind of just... talks, at times. with tentative 'taking something that doesn't belong to me' sort of hands, he collects a couple of cans of fruit, a couple of vegetables - he'll even take a bit of that jerky, they'll figure out what it's made from soon enough. )

If there's ever anything you need in return, ( he does say, glancing up for a moment's eye contact so she knows that this part is actually serious, then back down to the foods he's grabbed to start tucking them into one curved arm. ) My name is Wei Wuxian, I live in the white one with the green roof peeking out of the trees just down that way. ( with a directional nod of his head. )

i.

[brandnewtech]

[ So the tricky thing about being a technology god on the DL is that he can't just go around saying "I saw you on the network" when someone uses a text-only method of communication. It doesn't make it any less true, but people tend to ask too many questions that he doesn't like to answer.

Also, a tech god recognizes tech when he sees it, and clocking the young woman with her 'free' pile of cans wouldn't have been too difficult for him. She's different at a glace, significantly, than what he's learned about replicants. It's worth taking a closer look. Not every day a god gets to see multiple versions of his own future.

So he approaches, hands in his pockets. ]

Nice place. Doing some spring cleaning of the pantry? Mine had barely anything in it.