[21:20] <> [21:22] ( Wai! Vast mysteries! ) [21:22] <> [21:22] (As long as they're not too vast to shoot.) [21:23] ( Nothing's too vast to shoot. The vaster it is, the easier it is to hit. ^_~ ) [21:23] <> [21:26] <> [21:27] * Tim is in the common room, chillin'. Yo. [21:28] * Vernon is sitting down, leafing through some design papers. [21:29] ( *eyes the ship name* ) [21:29] ( ^_^ ) [21:29] ( The time has come to introduce Vernon and Tim to Mr. Explosive Decompression. ) [21:29] (It's not my fault!) [21:29] ( Hey, you could've suggested a name at any time. ^_~ ) [21:29] * Isis is reading. Sun Tzu's Art of War, in fact. How very stereotypical. [21:30] * Chako is in the common room only because she has already beaten the punching bag up a bit. She's lounging. "At least this brick's better than what we went in last time." [21:30] (How long is this trip supposed to be?) [21:30] ( "Way too long." [21:31] (Amen.) [21:31] <> [21:32] * Charlie is just chillin' on a couch. [21:33] * Tim eyes Lenin back. [21:33] "Da, now ve are movink. Do not vorry, she iz on de autopilot." <> "Straight she vill go." [21:35] * Chako grins and says, "Well, if the engines were mounted right, anyway." She winks in a geek's direction. [21:35] * Tim chuckles. [21:35] * Vernon grins. [21:35] Well, I *think* I put enough duct tape on there... [21:36] * Isis lets her eyes appear over the top of her book. [21:37] <> "Now, Lenin, you know diz part, da? Ve are here." <> "And ve need to get to vhere dis satellite, she iz now. Da?" <> [21:37] (Vernon tinkers with a little remote control. Suddenly, an alarm blares. "BUBBLEGUM FAILURE ON ENGINE TWO.") [21:38] * Charlie is curiously watching the bird. [21:38] * Vernon blinks and looks at Lenin. [21:38] ( *cracks up* ) [21:38] * Tim blinks at Lenin. [21:39] * Chako looks at Lenin. And at Vladimir. "What in the hell are you doing?" [21:39] "You vill be seeink." [21:39] 2d6-7 [21:39] * Atom[Angel] rolls for Chamelaeon (2d6-7) and gets -1. [21:40] ( o_O ) [21:41] <> [21:42] ... [21:42] ... [21:42] * Isis raises an eyebrow. [21:42] "There, he iz done. Vonderful, Lenin." <> [21:42] * Charlie tilts his head, staring at the map. [21:43] * Tim eyes Vernon with an "Are we as doomed as we think we are?" look. [21:43] * Vernon peers back at Tim and nods imperceptibly. [21:44] <> [21:44] * Chako looks at the map, and laughs. "Oh, Space Fucking Jesus. I said we'd need a crazy, but this is too much." [21:45] * Tim blinks and eyes the notes closer. [21:45] "Vhat? It iz too much to believe he iz a smart bird?" [21:45] * Isis puts her book in her lap. "I'm guessing there's a real good explanation as to why you are letting a bird do the astronavigation." [21:46] ("Ma'am, why are you letting the penguin drive the car?" "Because he has his license and I don't?") [21:47] 2d6-3 [21:47] * Atom[Angel] rolls for Vernon (2d6-3) and gets 3. [21:48] * Vernon peers at the equations, and then back at the bird, his eyebrows raised. [21:48] "Ov courze. I cannot do it, and he can. Iz there a problem viz thiz?" [21:48] Smart bird is one thing. An astronavigaional genius bird is something new to me. [21:49] * Isis sighs and picks up her book. "If the bird screws up, he's as dead as we are. Presumably, that's reason enough to trust him. If he makes a move for the escape pods all of a sudden, I'll cut his legs off." [21:49] Problem? Not if he's as good as you say. Then it's just fine, by me, and I will sing the bird's praises in my off-key voice for as long as he can stand it. [21:49] I've done some navigation, and these figures look incredibly good to me. [21:49] "I got him vrom a gypsy ship. He vas born in de depths ov de space, and he haz never vailed me." <> [21:50] Huh. [21:51] Impressive. *he continues to watch the bird* [21:51] * Chako shakes her head. "Isis' got the right idea. I'll take care of shooting off the wings." [21:52] <> [21:52] "Vonce again, Lenin, you are magnivicent. Now, I vill plot dis and den ve vill be off vor true." <> [21:55] * Tim leans back in his seat. "Well. That was different." [21:55] <> [21:55] * Chako rubs her face. "Ya sure those were right, Vernon?" [21:56] Very sure. Perfect, even. [21:59] <> [21:59] * Chako lies back again. [21:59] * Charlie scratches his head. "It's gonna be a loong trip" [22:00] * Tim eyes Lenin. [22:00] * Charlie does not notice the bird and gets up to check out the wetbar. "Le's see what we got in here.." [22:01] * Isis continues to read. Awful quickly, though, which implies she's read it before. [22:01] <> [22:03] * Tim tries to placate the bird by scratching it on the back of it's head. Hopefully he won't loose a finger or something. [22:04] <> [22:04] *** Atom[Angel] is now known as Atom [22:04] ( ...birds purr? c.c; ) [22:04] (No, they in fact don't.) [22:04] (They growl.) [22:04] ( I was fairly certain they chirped. ) [22:05] * Tim hopes that's a good sign and keeps at it. Make friends with the vicious superintelligent bird. That's the key to success. [22:07] <> [22:07] * Tim continues, then. "So, uhm." [22:08] * Isis sighs. "Perhaps, in the spirit of this book," she says, putting it down, "we should discuss our next move." [22:08] * Charlie riffles around in the wetbar.. [22:08] * Vernon nods. [22:08] * Charlie eventually brings out a bottle of Mike's Hard Gin and Tonic.. "Always wanted to try one of these." [22:08] * Chako looks at Tim, and peers. "Look out, Vladimir might get jealous." [22:09] (BRB, keep going) [22:10] Hey, I'm just trying to keep the nice bird happy. [22:10] <> [22:11] * Tim sweatdrops, and is glad he packed lots of spares. [22:11] * Isis drums her fingers on the arm of the couch she's sitting on. "We have the 'Key'... we just have to get it to the Gate of... Sages? Ages? Something." [22:13] Ages, yeah. [22:13] * Chako nods. "Somethin' like that, although he wasn't exactly telling on what would happen afterwards. He thought it was damn important, though." [22:13] * Isis nods. "But then what? Did whatever his name was say what was actually THERE?" [22:14] Uhm... no. [22:15] Another question is if anyone could follow us in after we opened the gate. [22:15] This stuff ain't too bad.. I thought he said somethin' about the others being there. [22:15] The 'others'? I thought he was the last one living. [22:16] Well, maybe they don't count while they're there? [22:16] THe other lizzards. They either went to some other planets or are behind that gate. [22:17] I think they all split up or somethin.. ran from those bug things. *he takes a swig* [22:18] * Vernon is sitting around, moderately confused. [22:18] * Tim is sitting around, heavily confused. [22:18] * Isis breathes out. "Well, we won't know for sure until we get there. But you're right, we should think of a way to shut the door behind us. Masterson showing up at Earth's Messenger... I admit to being a little anxious because of it>" [22:19] I admit to being a lot anxious about it. And frankly, if he wanted to stop us, that would've been the place for it, so it stands to reason that he doesn't. Want to stop us, that is. [22:19] We could always go see the big guy again. [22:20] And yeah, I suppose we could. [22:20] Who? [22:20] * Isis chuckles. "A giant lizard. You'll see when we get there." [22:21] ... [22:21] O...kay. [22:21] ( "I saw this on 'The Matrix'!" ) [22:21] (Ow.) [22:22] ( Ow? ) [22:22] (Don't ask.) [22:22] ( I shan't. ) [22:22] * Chako shakes her head. "Don't worry about it too much until you get there, really." [22:23] Works for me. [22:23] * Tim idly scratches the bird some more. ( BRB. ) [22:23] <> [22:23] He seemed like a nice guy anyway. *he grins, then swigs* [22:28] <> "Ve seem to have vone of de ATCops outside de ship. Dey are saying dat our trajectory is goink to be through vone of de Hippy Zones. I am to tell them to shove de fuck ov, da?" [22:29] * Isis looks at Vlad blankly. "In a way that won't get us shot at, but yes, basically." [22:30] * Chako nods, but doesn't feel the need to speak up. [22:30] "Vill do." <> [22:32] * Tim idly wonders how well the bird could negotiate with ATCops. [22:33] ( Can't be any worse than Vladi. ) [22:34] * Charlie is about done with the bottle he's got. "Dis shtuff gives quite a buzz.." [22:34] * Vernon eyes Charlie. [22:35] * Isis also eyes Charlie. [22:35] <> [22:35] * Chako grins. [22:35] * Tim nods to himself. [22:37] Ya want one.. Shhako? [22:38] * Chako shakes her head. "Nah. I might have to fire the guns if the hippies decide to show up." [22:39] * Isis frowns. "The Hippies teaming up with the... spiders, for lack of a better word. Beyond being really stupid, it makes me wonder. Why did the ones on Sleythin try to kill us? Out of touch with the ones in our system?" [22:41] Either that, or there's some way for them to tell the hippies apart from us. [22:44] * Chako shrugs. "Got me." [22:45] Maybe we'll be able to ask them sometime. [22:45] * Isis sighs and leans back. "I hope they're the dupes and not us, so to speak." [22:46] Oh, we're both the dupes, prolly. [22:46] * Isis laughs bitterly. "You're probably right. I don't like it, but we can't do anything about it for now." [22:46] <> [22:47] * Tim sweatdrops. [22:48] Everyone's a dupe. [22:48] Yup. So we just have to be the smarter dupes. [22:49] * Chako grins. "Yeah. And if someone tries to kill us, we kill 'em instead." [22:49] * Isis sighs. "Sun Tzu says 'know thy enemy, know thyself'. Sometimes, though, I feel as if he got it backwards." [22:49] You want one of dese Tim? It makes da bird sho much more intereshting. *he grins* [22:50] No. If the bird were any more interesting he might bite my head off. [22:50] Aw, no fun.. *he chucks the empty bottle wherever empty bottles go* [22:50] ( Into space! We're good Amerimartians. ) [22:51] (Hah.) [22:51] * Charlie has only slight trouble getting up to do so. ^_~ [22:52] << * Isis frowns. "The Hippies teaming up with the... spiders, for lack of a better word. Beyond being really stupid, it makes me wonder. Why did the ones on Sleythin try to kill us? Out of touch with the ones in our system?" [22:52] [22:41] Either that, or there's some way for them to tell the hippies apart from us. [22:52] ("Hippy attack! Fire torpedoes! *thhhump-clangyclang* What the.. Beer bottles?") [22:52] (Dammit all.) [22:53] <