Define your meaning of fun

[notglitching]

Who: Rinzler and OPEN
When: After the Moira leaves Emiri, before the events on the 16th
Where: Training Simulation Room, Moro #9, and In Your Ceiling
What: Shenanigans with a side of larcenous roommates
Warnings: Probable violence and a Rinzler, but nothing awful planned

A. Training Simulation Room (Open)

When Rinzler had heard of the training area, his initial response had been disinterest. Defeating phantoms served no purpose, and he wasn't some beta to need training on the very function he was made for. Still, as time stretched out without a proper fight, the need to move started to weigh higher. And if recent events had left him singularly unimpressed with the system's response protocols to a threat, it probably wasn't worth attacking more of his fellow imports. At least, not until he found a target worth deleting.

Still, as the program stood out in the hallway, orange-lit fingers moving quickly over the soft blue of the control console, the ironies were harder to escape. A system in front of him, written for combat. For Games. And here he was, outside, stuck fighting the data-shadows it produced. Rinzler should be in there. He wanted a real battle, not some user-tailored simulation. The enforcer took what satisfaction he could in overriding the safety settings, doubling the pre-loaded templates and setting threat difficulty up to maximum.

The door slid open with a soft chime, and Rinzler stepped into the center, reaching back for his joined disk. But as long seconds ticked by, nothing happened. No lights. No sounds but his own constant rumble. Then:

"Waiting for voice activation."

Noise skipped, mute rattle glitching louder as Rinzler's helmet turned to glower out the door. Those programs definitely needed wiping.


B. Pick your location, (nearly) any location (Open)

While it hadn't rated particularly highly as a threat, Rinzler almost regretted that the beta-user had been killed. Its attack had been an interesting diversion, and if it had gotten away in the end... well, even that had proven educational. The vent-space Chara had escaped through was too small for the enforcer to pursue, but further investigation found larger access paths concealed behind more casings on the walls. Worth securing. Worth mapping. And of course, there was only one way to manage that properly.

Anyone in the cargo bay, barracks, or other main living areas might start to hear some sounds. A scraping in the walls. A ticking rumble echoing through the ceiling. Rinzler moves quietly for the most part, but the navigational difficulties are many and new, and it's difficult to assess when the shape of the passages might carry sound to occupants below. If someone were to look into the ventilation at the right time, they might even see a dim red-orange glow peering back through the darkness. Not that Rinzler's watching you. Necessarily.


C. Moro #9 (Closed to Napoleon Nathaniel)

As much time as Rinzler spent traveling the halls (and air ducts) of the ship, his own room was an almost uncommon waypoint. There was no function to be served inside, and the enforcer slept as rarely as he could. For the most part, Rinzler used it as a storage unit. With barely a handful of items in his possession (and most of those pointless user clothes), he didn't take much space.

On the other hand, it didn't take much effort to notice when those items were disturbed. The first time he'd come back to find his things minutely shifted, Rinzler had offered a flat stare across the room, but no further commentary. Data gathering was a logical goal, and he didn't care enough about any of the objects to object to the intrusion. If the user laid a hand on his disk, it was losing the appendage, but it seemed intelligent enough to know where to stay clear.

At least, until he stopped by and found things missing from his stash. Not the uniforms or the discarded weapons, but the supply of resource tokens they'd been distributed as a reward. Useless on the ship, but necessary for supply exchange on user planets. Valuable.

This time, the stare lasts longer. It comes with a low, building growl.

[[ooc: will match prose or spam!]]

Comments

[notglitching]

The height difference is marginally less by the time Rinzler resettles to his hunch, but he's still tagging this creature a probable-beta. The enforcer's helmet tilts carefully as he returns the inspection. Scans are reading less substance than he's used to, and there's something oddly familiar about its signature.

Strange. Rinzler would expect to remember encountering something like this before. The mask inclines in a nod, one red-circuited hand going for his MID and activating a holographic display.

Rinzler.

[pleasereset]

Rinzler gets an enthusiastic nod. Asriel's a little excited having stumbled across someone doing secret spy work! Once he hunches down, the young monster relaxes a little.

"Rinzler! That's a nice name. And fitting for a super secret spy! ...I think."

Yep, he's still fully convinced that Rinzler is a spy. But he seems pretty delighted and impressed by the idea at least.

"So Rinzler! Is there any cool stuff in the vents? Any huge secrets? I haven't explored the vents because it seems kind of scary, but I'm not a professional secret information collector either so I don't think I'm cut out for that kind of job. I am really good at keeping secrets though!"

[notglitching]

The helmet stays slightly angled, noise taking on an almost amused note as Asriel rambles. Definitely a beta. Shoulders twitch in a slight shrug at the questions—most of its qualifiers are relative. Still, the display doesn't close, and the text that shows next even approximates an answer.

Primary contents: mechanical devices.

Those would be fans. And filters. Not that Rinzler's entirely aware of what they do.

Not all routes accessible.

So hey, there could be other things up there...

[pleasereset]

That's okay, Rinzler. Asriel doesn't have any idea what mechanical devices would actually mean, though it's not quite the exciting secrets he's imagining.

Not all routes accessible stirs up a different image in Asriel's mind. Elaborate sci-fi tunnels, leading off into rooms they aren't meant to find. With hidden treasures and mind-blowing secrets.

Not that he has any idea of what a vent actually looks like from the inside.

"Are they blocked off or you just can't reach them? Oh, if they're too small I might be able to do it! We could... um, form a secret exploring team and uncover all of this ship's secrets! I bet it's got a ton of them, like hidden rooms and traps and puzzles to solve and... and... lots of cool stuff too!"

He's eyes are practically sparkling at the idea, and he directs all of his excitement at Rinzler.

"What do you think? I don't think I'm gonna be as good as exploring as you are, but I can do my best to help!"

[notglitching]

As it happens, one of Asriel's guesses is correct. There are a lot of vents too small for Rinzler to get into. Still, he inspects his volunteer a little skeptically. Its size would be an asset, but the enforcer's not too impressed with the processing power of any creature that wants traps. And getting one of the ship's betas derezzed for no gain seems likely to cause problems. Unless it can handle itself?

Functions?

He glances at it, reassesses its vocabulary, then deletes the line to reformat.

Capabilities?

Actually, what is it? Rinzler adds a line.

Additional request: clarify class/type.

[pleasereset]

What's Asriel capable of? Not much, at least in his own opinion. But he thinks that isn't a very desirable answer, especially when he's trying to make this partnership happen.

"Um, well... I'm reeeeal good at solving puzzles! And like I said, I can go places that big humans and monsters can't go! And..."

He scratches his chin a little, his smile turning self-depreciating.

"I guess I got a lot of determination too, if that counts."

Not that it actually helped him before, it caused more pain if anything. But Rinzler asked for more than just what he can do, right? Asriel's not sure what he means exactly by class and type.

"As for type... um, do you mean me being a monster? There's not a lot of us on the ship, at least what I've seen so far."

The question makes me a little wary. Everyone here was really nice so far, strangely enough, but he hopes being a monster wasn't going to cause trouble - for himself, and the other monsters on this ship.

[notglitching]

Determination might not mean the same thing to Rinzler that it does to Asriel, but a user's will isn't something to underestimate. It can reshape worlds, destroy or create, or anything between given enough skill and patience. A program, on the other hand... well. Rinzler has more reason than most to know that any amount of struggling won't overcome some differences.

This creature isn't that, and Rinzler nods. Still, the answer that comes next earns a brief stall of surprise, mask quirking to the side. It could just be boasting of its own power or potential harm, but going by the context...

ID 'Sans': same origin system?

[pleasereset]

Oh, that's not a question he was expecting. He gives a little nod at Rinzler's question. Although they were both the same species, Sans had entirely different far more terrifying capabilities than Asriel.

"Yeah, Sans and I are both monsters. We're both from the Underground. You've already met him?"

[notglitching]

The enforcer nods in return. While he hadn't been particularly impressed with Sans' functions or seen any of the real ones, the skeleton had clarified some important data about their subtype. Specifically, that monsters were not users. Always a positive.

Still, 'monsters' are starting to seem like a fairly broad category. Rinzler's mask angles up and down, taking in Asriel's frame. While the height might be similar...

Visual similarity: low.

[pleasereset]

That answer is a lot more positive than Asriel was expecting. Though he wasn't sure what kind of answer he was expecting from a spy that was exploring the ship's vents. But it leaves him confused anyway, and he tilts his head.

"Low?"

Low as in... Rinzler couldn't see him very well?

[notglitching]

That would be visibility, not similarity, beta. Still, not knowing which part of the phrase is confusing Asriel, Rinzler's forced to reformat in whole. There's an irritated skip of sound, but he'll extend the effort.

Don't look like him.

[pleasereset]

Oh. Asriel gives a slightly embarrassed smile.

"Oh no, he's a lot um, bonier than me. There's lots of different kinds of monsters in the Underground though! Some are skeletons, some are boss monsters, some have fur or scales... really, we're all pretty different."

[notglitching]

Interesting. There's another little quirk of the helmet.

Abilities: similar?

[pleasereset]

"Uh... well, lots of monsters have different stuff they can do. Some are really strong, like my dad! Or they can use fire magic, like my mom. Although she's really strong too. Monsters are made from magic though, so they're a lot different than humans."

Asriel rubs the back of his head. He's seen what Sans can do, but he's not sure if revealing all of that information is such a great idea.

"When I get older, I'll learn how to use fire magic. I don't really know how to use it right now. As for Sans... um, I'm not really sure what all he can do."

Sans possesses insanely strong magic, that much he does know. It's caused him way too many resets.

[notglitching]

The black mask remains fixed on Asriel for a long moment, but if Rinzler did catch that evasion, it doesn't seem like he plans on saying anything. The data he's been provided is useful enough, and gives him an idea what to expect from any future 'monsters'. If the magic accounts for the oddness to his scan, he might even be able to identify what he's looking at.

Assistance: acceptable.

Welcome to the vent-crawling team.

[pleasereset]

Asriel's eyes light up, and he throws his arms up in the air excitedly.

"YEAH! I won't let you down, promise!!"