((LAWL. You realize we're both in way, way too many threads. I mean look at poor AH101. I'm so lost in there I don't know where to begin.
But I'll bite, dammit, because I'm a threadaholic. 
))
Essex whimpered as she slowly hovered back down.
"I can't believe you told Dr. West that." she fretted. "He's probably worried sick. I mean, he's already angry with me for staying out late as it is. What if he finds out about this? He'll never let me leave the lab again!!"
Sighing, she plopped her small frame into one of the chairs, her pink-booted feet dangling off the end and swinging absently.
Japancakes.
Art - Theme 005 - Seeking Solace
OOC: I'm still sleepy! Yay! Bloody college metabolism. >_>
BIC: "Bah!" Solid scoffed as he sat down opposite Essex and slid open a tray that was set into the bottom of the table. "I've got a couple of buddies that will 'rescue' us from the Council base. After that you can go back home and lecture Dr. West for not coming to your rescue fast enough or something."
After half a minute of searching through the drawer, Solid finally pulled out a much battered and worn deck of cards and plopped them on the table.
"And after our little psychotherapy session earlier today, I'd think you'd want a break from worrying about stuff, at least for an hour," he said and then started shuffling the cards, flipping them back and forth between his hands like a pro dealer. "You ever learn how to play poker?"
Statesman said let there be heroes, and there were heroes.
Lord Recluse said let there be villains, and there were villains.
NCsoft said let there be nothing, and there was nothing.
"But I always worry." Essex said worriedly.
Watching Solid shuffle the cards dimly, she shook her head. "No...All I know how to play is Go Fish. Burner tried to teach me Canasta once, but it didn't go so well. And Ginstar prefers dice."
Tapping her fingertips on the table, she sighed. "But I guess I can try."
Japancakes.
Art - Theme 005 - Seeking Solace
"I don't think I've said it before, but always worrying is bad for your health," Solid said as he dealt Essex five cards and then another five for himself. "And how did the Canasta teaching go bad?"
Looking at his hand, a five of clubs, a two of spades, a queen of clubs, a five of hearts, and an eight of diamonds, Solid sighed.
"I always have cruddy first hands."
Statesman said let there be heroes, and there were heroes.
Lord Recluse said let there be villains, and there were villains.
NCsoft said let there be nothing, and there was nothing.
"I panicked." Essex said cryptically, not offering any other explanation.
She looked at her hand - queen of hearts, five of hearts, two of diamonds, two of clubs, and an ace of diamonds.
"....What do I do?" she asked, showing it to Solid with a blank stare.
Japancakes.
Art - Theme 005 - Seeking Solace
"Riiiight," Solid said, tilting his head to look at Essex cryptically through his targeting eye.
"Ok then, rules," Solid said, showing his hand to Essex. "Ok, see my cards? I've got two of a kind, see? Two fives. A two of a kind is the easiest thing you can get in poker but also the easiest beaten. You can also get three or four of a kind, which can beat other hands. So let's see yours."
Statesman said let there be heroes, and there were heroes.
Lord Recluse said let there be villains, and there were villains.
NCsoft said let there be nothing, and there was nothing.
Essex showed her hand to Solid.
"I have a pair as well." she said. "So what does that mean? We tie? Or is yours better because the cards have a higher value?"
The little android looked around the room uneasily. The machinery made her feel a little more at home, but it was awfully claustrophobic.
Japancakes.
Art - Theme 005 - Seeking Solace
((It means that you're cheating, as you both have a five of clubs. ))
OOC: LIES! Clearly I have a five of diamonds.
BIC: "Well, generally when someone ties with a pair, the winner is the one with the higher numbers. Since I've got a pair of fives and you have a pair of twos, that means I win this hand," Solid said as he collected up the cards and then dealt a new hand. "Now let's just play a few hands and I'll point out things as we come across them."
Statesman said let there be heroes, and there were heroes.
Lord Recluse said let there be villains, and there were villains.
NCsoft said let there be nothing, and there was nothing.
((BAH! And I checked, too! I'm so dumb. ))
"Okay." Essex sighed, her eyes skimming the cards calculatingly as she got her new hand.
She was twitchy. What was Dr. West doing right now? He could have sent people out to look for them. Though he didn't fear the Council, and the Council had nowhere near as much information on her technology as Crey did, the Doctor seemed to be a lot more....driven, when she was in danger.
Essex sighed. If he ever found out about this she'd be in a hell of a lot of trouble.
Japancakes.
Art - Theme 005 - Seeking Solace
Solid sighed as he saw Essex still not comfortable. He put one hand on top of his head and then leaned that elbow on the table before tossing down his cards.
"I've got a ten, a jack, a queen, a king, and an ace," he said, pointing at each card in turn. "That nets me a Straight, which is pretty respectable. For a Straight you need five cards in a row that are mostly different suits. A suit is if they're clubs or diamonds or whatever. What've you got?"
Statesman said let there be heroes, and there were heroes.
Lord Recluse said let there be villains, and there were villains.
NCsoft said let there be nothing, and there was nothing.
"I only have three of a kind." Essex said, putting down her cards. "Three sevens, a three, and a ten."
Allowing herself another glance around, she looked back up at Solid.
"How long have you been living here, sir? You seem to have it set up in a very...interesting way."
Japancakes.
Art - Theme 005 - Seeking Solace
Solid scratched his head and looked around his apartment. He shrugged at the mass of machinery and then looked back at Essex as he picked up the cards and dealt a new hand.
"Five years," he said. "Ever since my upgrade right after the Rikti War."
He dealt out the cards and looked at his hand of crap. A five, a six, a three, an eight, and a ten.
"Ok, when you don't have a pair or straight or anthing, you have to go by your highest single card," Solid said as he laid down his cards. "So I've got a ten."
Statesman said let there be heroes, and there were heroes.
Lord Recluse said let there be villains, and there were villains.
NCsoft said let there be nothing, and there was nothing.
The android frowned a little. Since the Rikti War, and it didn't look like this place had been cleaned once...
...Bachelors. Shees.
Essex pondered her cards, and then laid them out.
"Is this good?" she asked, displaying a Full House.
Japancakes.
Art - Theme 005 - Seeking Solace
Solid whistled.
"Good isn't the half of it," he said. "You've got a Full House. It beats just about anything short of a Royal Flush. Which I certainly do not have."
Gathering up the cards, Solid shuffled the deck and then dealt a new hand. Looking down at his cards, Solid nodded, satisfied that he could still deal himself a Royal Flush.
"Read em and weep, Ess," he said, displaying the cards. "This is a Royal Flush, the beat all of all hands."
Statesman said let there be heroes, and there were heroes.
Lord Recluse said let there be villains, and there were villains.
NCsoft said let there be nothing, and there was nothing.
Essex examined it, committing the cards to memory.
"I see." she said, nodding. "Good work, sir! Congratulations!"
She froze as her cell began to beep. Doctor West was trying to get into contact with her. Doubtless he was trying to track which Council base they were 'imprisoned' in.
"Ah..." she said, looking nervously down at it, her hand twitching.
Japancakes.
Art - Theme 005 - Seeking Solace
Solid tapped one of his two radio mounts and the beeping stopped.
"As far as the Doc knows, he tried to use your phone, got a brief signal from northern Independance Port, and then had it cut off," Solid said nonchalantly. "And I think you really want to go back home, right?"
Statesman said let there be heroes, and there were heroes.
Lord Recluse said let there be villains, and there were villains.
NCsoft said let there be nothing, and there was nothing.
[ QUOTE ]
...Bachelors. Shees.
[/ QUOTE ]
((*Experiment looks around his clean base, working machinery and all, as he suddenly feels as if he had been insulted.* "...Why do I have the sudden feeling that living by myself just got me an insult?"))
((*L* Explosion detritus what? ))
Essex sighed, looking down at the table.
"It's not that." she said, resting her chin on her folded hands. "I'm afraid of having to explain myself to Dr. West. I mean, I just know he's going to absolutely interrogate me about everything. Dark Astoria, about Hal, about ...just...everything."
Essex sighed again, sounding miserable.
"I know you say I shouldn't worry so much, sir, but...the Doctor is very protective of me. I've got a lot of his expiremental tech in me that the others don't have."
Japancakes.
Art - Theme 005 - Seeking Solace
"Aw, buck up, kiddo," Solid said, patting Essex on the head. "I'm sure however mad at you he may get, he still loves you."
"And besides," Solid said, leaning back and getting a conpiritorial tone to his voice. "If he starts pressing you about stuff you don't want to talk about, start babbling about how scary the Council base was and how you were worried you were gonna die or something like you usually do. Then he'll get so busy trying to calm you down that he'll forget about interrogating you. And don't ask me how I know this, I don't reveal my sources."
Statesman said let there be heroes, and there were heroes.
Lord Recluse said let there be villains, and there were villains.
NCsoft said let there be nothing, and there was nothing.
Essex sighed under Solid's head-pats.
"You know I'm not a good liar." she fretted. "And what if I accidentally slip something to one of the others? AJ is one thing, I know she'll keep a secret...but Burner's so dutiful, and Seawing is such a straight-and-narrow kinda guy. Ginstar, Genki, and Cody can't keep their mouths shut. Deep Tide....I guess he'd be able to keep a secret, but that's only because he never talks."
Looking up at Solid, she tilted her head.
"Plus Dr. West is on a business trip to Aeon City tomorrow. What if it's delayed because of me? I'll be in so much trouble."
Japancakes.
Art - Theme 005 - Seeking Solace
Solid sighed, he really should get paid for this.
"Ok, how about this. You go back home, tell Dr. West what happened. You can either stick to the Council plot or tell him that you went into lock down and I took you to my place for a little while, either or. Then, tell him I'll want to talk with him once he comes back. I'll try and sort things out then."
Rapping his fist against the table, Solid turned and flipped on the big TV placed above his desk.
"Now, might as well watch some TV for the last half hour. I think Billy and Mandy is on."
Statesman said let there be heroes, and there were heroes.
Lord Recluse said let there be villains, and there were villains.
NCsoft said let there be nothing, and there was nothing.
The pink android relaxed a bit.
"...I'm sorry, Solid." she apologized with a bob of her head. "You were just trying to make me feel better and I just started worrying all over again. I'm sure things will work out."
Essex turned her attention to the TV, watching the cartoons absently. She liked cartoons well enough - seeing how people drew emotion helped her get an insight as to how humans perceived. Additionally, the exaggerated body language helped her identify the more subtle real-life examples.
"...I wonder what the real Grim Reaper is right." she mused thoughtfully. "I betcha he's like Mr. Archlich. But I guess you don't know him. He's grumpy."
Japancakes.
Art - Theme 005 - Seeking Solace
"The Grim Reaper's like the who?" Solid asked, turning around as Billy ate a mutant chicken egg. "Archwitch?"
Statesman said let there be heroes, and there were heroes.
Lord Recluse said let there be villains, and there were villains.
NCsoft said let there be nothing, and there was nothing.
OOC: Only for me and Essex and just for fun.
It'll be short too. I'm just sleepy and want to do something because tonight's events were just too funny! Everyone else is free to comment from the peanut gallery, though, and I'm sure Hal will show up at one point.
I'm so sleepy right now.
BIC: In one of the less well-kept apartment buildings located somewhere between Steel Canyon and King's Row, lived a hero. The apartment he rented was small, but cozy, and relatively well-kept compared to the rest of the building. It consisted of a well fortified front door and steel wall that the hero had had emplaced, a main living/sleeping room, a bathroom, and a small kitchen. The total amount of furniture that wasn't technological in some way was a table, four chairs, a refridgerator, and the toilet.
The bulk of the living room was taken up by what looked like an examination table, complete with fold-out screens that could display a variety of information and powerful lights on long and flexible arms. Attatched to the table was a large number of wires running from a small, humming device that was built into the wall and glowed blue along its grilled body. This device was actually the source of most of the light, though there was a ceiling lamp installed above the table. It just didn't have a lightbulb in it at the moment.
Where the kitchen should have been were one lonely fridge and several tower computers connected to several monitors that were placed on the desk that the towers were under and above the desk. Either one of the two screens could double as an HD TV given the need, which was fairly frequent.
Behind the exam table/bed was a pile of machinery that looked to serve no actual purpose aside from beeping, glowing red, and occasionally printing something out of its side. The table that served as the focus of the room looked pretty cheap, made as it was out of recycled metals and had one leg propped up by a charred bit of metal. The chairs were all sturdy oak designs, able to hold up to almost a ton of steel and machinary sitting on them. Indeed this apartment was planned for one, designed by one, and used by one.
"Gah!"
Which didn't keep him from bringing home guests.
"Calm down, Essex," Solid Shot said placatingly as it held a spider-like robot in the palm of its hand.
Solid Shot, android, blaster, utterly fugging nuts, and resident since the Rikti War. The flat grey robot looked like he could have been made in a factory somewhere in China were it not for the cape, the black lightning symbols down his sides, and the electricity coursing up and down his arms. Currently, his cyclopix targeting eye was focused on his guest as she cowered in a corner of his room, afraid to come down.
"It's ok, Ess," he repeated. "My fixer bots just look like spiders. They don't bite, they don't spin webs, they just fix me up after I've got an arm shot off and I can't do it myself."
Up hovering in the corner of the room, Essex, or Reploid S6 if you insisted, was cowering in fear at the sight of the arachnid bot. Upon reactivation after lugging her here from Dark Astoria, she had seen the fixer bot, screamed, and flew up into the corner. Solid had almost beat his head against the wall after that. He had forgotten the pink android was afraid of spiders. And the scared little girl kind of afraid too.
"Look, I'll just have them go away," Solid said and set the fixer bot down. The little drone waggled its eye stalks at its master disprovingly before scuttling into the pile of machinery and vanishing.
"So, then, what say you come down and we do something fun. We've got at least an hour before Dr. West realizes we're not actually being held captive by the Council."
OOC: Hehe.
Statesman said let there be heroes, and there were heroes.
Lord Recluse said let there be villains, and there were villains.
NCsoft said let there be nothing, and there was nothing.