[video/action] and now the joker will sound uncomfortably familiar to rex!

[third_alternative]

[video]

So...anyone else here from Hong Kong? Just remembered that I used to live there--before Providence. It's kinda hazy, and I mostly only remember it from when I was there on Providence business a few years later, but it's a pretty cool city. After all, I was there, so it has to be cool. Pretty great place for food and street EVOs too.

[And, y'know, EVO gangs and manipulative backstabbing kids, but that's neither here nor there.]

That means if anyone ever needs Chinese-Spanish translations, I'm your guy. Not sure why you'd be translating that, but hey--if you need it, I can do it!

[action]

[Rex will be scarce for the rest of the day. The next several days, even. He's holed himself up in his room and is writing down all that he can remember, while he still can. About Sirocco, about home, about all the people he can remember. He doesn't know what it'll be like when he blanks out again, and he has no idea when it'll happen...but this is as close as he can get to controlling this inevitable situation, and he wants to be prepared.

When he is outside, however, he's using his smartphone to snap pictures of seemingly random things. The basketball hoop (and the balls strewn around town), some bears, the entrance to the apartment building, some trees, the barren edges of town... There doesn't seem to be much rhyme or reason to the subjects of his photos, but he approaches the task with a relatively unusual amount of seriousness and intense focus.]

((OOC: 0.8% on Rabble. 18.9% total memory regain. 2.1% remaining.))

Comments

[Video]

[trustycrowbar]

Hong Kong, huh? What were you doing over there?

[Video]

[third_alternative]

You mean the last time I was there? Took out a gang led by an EVO for Providence. [He says it casually with a hint of pride, as if he just said 'oh yeah, I just found the cure for cancer, no big deal.']

The first time though... [he shrugs] I don't think there really was a reason for me being there. I think I just sort of...showed up.

[trustycrowbar]

[He smirks at the kid's smugness, but... Just "showed up?" There had to have been a reason an obviously American kid would wind up halfway around the world, and it probably wasn't because he thought learning chinese was fun.]

Sounds like you were some kind of tactical commando for them by the time you came here.

[third_alternative]

[hey he's Swiss-Argentinian-Mexican okay, not American. Gawd.]

I guess you could say that. Infiltrated the gang, got close to the boss, and took him down from there. Not that hard, really.

[it helps that he used to be the boss's top lieutenant.]

[trustycrowbar]

So how often did Providence send you out on missions like that? You're obviously a hard hitter, but it makes me wonder if you were more of a first choice or a last resort.

[Though really, the only difference between the two is the amount of collateral damage involved.]

[third_alternative]

Psh, they sent me on a mission at least once a week. There's always a lot more, but they only send me in for the real big, serious stuff. The Providence soldiers take care of the little things.

If you're asking about stealth stuff, though, this is the first time I remember doing anything like that. I was going to just jump in and beat them up like I always do.

[trustycrowbar]

How big was this organization, again? At first I got the impression that it was fifty, maybe a hundred people. You're talking like there's an employ of hundreds or more.

[third_alternative]

I don't know. A couple thousand, maybe? Twenty thousand? It's not like I know everyone, and it's hard to tell when they all look the same in Providence uniform.

[trustycrowbar]

[That's just about as many that works at Black Mesa, if you count security guards, lobbyests and support staff...]

Yeah, I see how it can get to be that way. Hey, it still pays to be in an am organization that big, at least in some ways. You get backing, funding for stuff, extra manpower if you need it...

[third_alternative]

Yeah, for you scientists, maybe. I sure don't get any of that.

[trustycrowbar]

...

They didn't send you out ALONE, did they?

[third_alternative]

Well, not usually. A lot of the time I get Six and Bobo on missions with me.

But I do most of the work. Kinda hard to compete with someone who can pound a monster with their giant metal fists.

[trustycrowbar]

Hmn, can't argue with that. By the way, you remember anything more about those nanites too? Who exactly built them, how you contracted it, how they work, anything like that?

[third_alternative]

I'm not sure I can remember any of that...but I did meet this guy a while back. He was called Rylander--he was one of the original scientists on the nanite project. He said the batch that got spread around the world was incomplete.

I got a different set, though--an earlier one that was finished. I was there as a kid when they were making the nanites, but I don't know why. I just know that something...happened, and they had to give me the nanites to save me.

As for how they work, I don't really know anything about that. I talk to machines, I don't build 'em from scratch.

[trustycrowbar]

[He can only think of one reason why a kid would be screwing around an advanced science lab. The same reason there was a five-year-old girl occasionally bouncing around in Eli's...]

So the ones in the EVOS you were fighting... like that weird rabbit thing. Those have an incomplete batch of nanites? Sounds like symbiosis was the idea in the first place.

Here's what I know about the tech. Nanites are like tiny mindless builders. They break stuff down, and take the raw material to form something new. The only thing that tends to change in the formula is what they break down, what they build, and how--or if--you can tell them to stop.

[third_alternative]

That sounds about right--kind of like what I do with my nanites. I think. I can sort of talk with them sometimes, I'm pretty sure that's mostly what they were doing...

[trustycrowbar]

You... talk to them? How do you manage that?

[third_alternative]

I don't know--not really. I think the one time it happened, I was overloading with too many nanites inside me. I don't remember it really well, it's all...hazy, and confusing.

[trustycrowbar]

[The human body only really communicates with parts of itself two ways: through electric impulses and chemical messengers. In this case chemicals are too slow, and electrical ones are plausible but even then there's no accounting for nanite-to-nanite networking... leaving what? Nothing?]

I feel like I should be able to shed light on that for you Rex... but I'm no biologist. Have you tried talking to Mordin about that? Obviously he wouldn't know the ins and outs perfectly but he might give another perspective to the whole thing.

[third_alternative]

Mordin? Who's Mordin?

Besides, what am I supposed to tell him, I talked to some nanites once in what might have been a crazy dream while I was overloading? I barely know what happened there.

[trustycrowbar]

Which is exactly why a medical doctor with a specialization in advanced tech and human biology would be worth talking to! I'm surprised you don't know who I'm talking about. He's the one with the, uh...

[Gestures in roughly the shape of Mordin's head-fins.]

Those things. Even if he can't provide some insight, what do you have to lose?

[third_alternative]

[Eyebrows raise....slowly...]

Alright, alright. If I ever see him around, I'll ask him about it.

[mokomanjuu]

Really? What kind of food?

[Mokona has her priorities well in order.]

[third_alternative]

Uhhh...Chinese food?

[mokomanjuu]

What was Rex's favorite kind?

[third_alternative]

Uhh...Dim sum, I think? How should I know, I didn't eat much in Hong Kong the last time I was there, and I barely remember anything from the first time.

[mokomanjuu]

That's too bad. When you're travelling, eating lots of good food is important.

[third_alternative]

Yeah, well, taking down big EVO crime empires doesn't exactly leave you with much of an opportunity to eat.

[mokomanjuu]

That's why Mokona likes being a mascot type better.

[third_alternative]

Mascot type?

[mokomanjuu]

Mokona's role in life is to sit around being cute and offering moral support while other people do the hard work.

[third_alternative]

Pfft, sounds boring.

[mokomanjuu]

Mokona is easily entertained!

[third_alternative]

Figures. But I'd much rather be doing that hard work--sure sounds a lot more fun.