There are words for days like this, but they're all profanity...

[trigger_imp]

((Set after this))

Axl, at the moment, didn't know what to do. She'd shed the disguise she'd been using to spy on Lumine, but hadn't switched back to her other, and more commonly used, male default.

Everything was a mess. Axl knows she'll have to tell, knows that means she'll have to admit she was spying on Lumine even after being ordered to stay away from him. But right now, she doesn't even want to think about that - or what Lumine seems to be planning, or what they might have to do about it. What Axl wants to do is find some nice dark corner and disappear.

Which, given shape-changing abilities, isn't so hard.

She gravitates towards the bar. It's huge, many of the patrons Transformers. Axl, at the size of a human fourteen-year-old, dodges around legs. It seems a good place to just get lost for a while. Axl also thinks she wouldn't mind getting drunk. Not if it makes you forget things for a while, like she's heard... but she has a feeling no one at home will like it much if she does that.

But they're not going to like any of this...

Comments

[random_xtras]

"Maybe his viruses will decide they don't like how he's using them for tools and decide to wipe out all his people to keep him from doing it." Nemesis stomps off to see to a customer a little ways down the bar.

[darwinsparadise]

Lumine will give her a glare as she goes, for four reasons. One, viruses are non-intelligent. Two, reploids were immune to organic virii. Three, such a comment was a gross oversimplification of the matter at hand. If it were as simple as one clear target to eliminate, he would have done so already. And, four and most important, he'd thought this was a private conversation they were having. Looking back to Axl, he says, "Perhaps we should continue this elsewhere."

Axl's trying to shake a mental image of microbes in armor, waving spears and pitchforks in revolt... It's made him completely lose his train of thought as to how to talk Lumine out of this. He uses the brief mental brainbreak to send a text message off to the Nexus. He'll shake his head a bit. "Look, they're gone now..." He tries to retrace his train of thought.

"You haven't studied the last World War, have you?" says Lumine.

"No, not really," Axl's feeling tired, and finally remembers to open that e-tank.

"Viral-based bioweapons were used extensively in some areas. A great deal of research was done into genetically modified and DNA-specific viruses. They do not necessarily have to wipe everyone out. I would consider that extreme, and a last resort. They can be targeted to as specific as a single person. If I had the DNA data of, for example, the members of the world council, then a viral bomb could be designed that would affect only them."

"But if you wipe out the Council, then the rest of the government goes on the warpath," says Axl. "All the extremist loonies who'd like any excuse to wipe us all out or who babble about robo-terrorists... you'd have just made their day. It's exactly the excuse they'd need."

"Precisely the problem," replies Lumine. "If they were the only casualties, it would not cause enough of a change to solve the problem. It would cause just enough of one to make matters worse."

[random_xtras]

Nemesis is over there now, but she still hears everything perfectly.

[trigger_imp]

Lumine suspects that, and would still like to go somewhere else since he doubts there's a language both he and Axl know that the Nexus won't translate.

"Well, that's why we don't go around killing off the humans," says Axl. "We've been trying to keep this whole mess from turning into World War Four, because World War Three was bad enough and we weren't even around for that one, and... wait, you talk about the humans not learning from their mistakes, but World War Three was probably the biggest mistake ever and you're wanting to 'solve' this mess using a strategy from it? If you think humans are so screwed up, why do you want to sink to their level?"

That finally gets Lumine with no ready response, as he just sits there and blinks.

[random_xtras]

The sudden silence in their conversation seems doubly so as the entire bar pauses to watch some poor glitch get combat kissed.

[trigger_imp]

Axl just takes advantage of Lumine being quiet to continue. "I know what we're doing doesn't seem like enough to you. It doesn't to me either, or anyone else I know. But that's because we don't know what to do yet that won't be worse."

"Even if you could make a virus coded to people's DNA... whether someone's a good or bad person isn't in their genes. Most of the kids on Mars are great kids, and we ended up with them because they had really screwed up parents. There isn't just some specific 'jerk gene' you can target and wipe out all the bad people in the world. And it isn't worth losing the good ones just to get rid of the jerks. Nice people aren't that rare. It's just that with the way things are, I think too many of them are afraid to speak up."

"I know you probably haven't had a chance to meet most of the nice ones. I don't know everything that's been done to you, but I.. I'd like to hear about it. You're the only one I know of that's, well, that's like me. We probably had the same designer. Except for 'bots that are lucky enough to be treated like someone's kids, like the Lights and Cossacks, or those that end up making kids of their own, that's the closest we ever get to family." Noting Lumine's expression at that, he adds, "I know you think that's stupid or something, but I've been living around 'bots who have that kind of 'family', and sometimes I can't help just wondering what it's like. And I don't want to miss out on possibly finding out because you end up getting yourself killed by the Maverick Hunters." Lumine starts to interrupt, but Axl cuts him off. "That's what I heard happened to an alt of you." He isn't about to add that his own alt was one of the Maverick Hunters involved.

[random_xtras]

Nemesis walks past on her way to the kitchen, glancing at them absently in passing.

[trigger_imp]

"You may believe this is extreme," says Lumine. "Perhaps you are right. I know there are some humans who would be on our side, but they have very good reason to keep their silence."

"So you'll kill them too, just because they're afraid to speak up?" says Axl... and then pauses. "Oh, %^#%... What you said about robot rights supporters having 'accidents'. You're being ordered to kill them, aren't you?"

"The situation cannot be ignored, Axl. It will not simply remain stagnant while the group you are with does 'damage control'. Someone else is actively pushing for a change that could be disastrous to all of us. If we do nothing, we doom ourselves by inaction."

"Can't you just, I dunno, find out where the orders are coming from?"

"I've tried."

Axl sighs, and moves around the table to sit next to Lumine. "Look... I'll admit I don't know what to do about the mess things are in. I wish I did. But I do know that," and there's a gesture at the books again, "isn't the right answer."

[random_xtras]

On the way back Nemesis sets a small plate holding a few fragrant bits of cinnaSeeker on the edge of their table in passing.

[darwinsparadise]

Lumine gives the plate a look. He certainly didn't order that!

Axl didn't either, and he's been in the Nexus far too long to want to stick anything unfamiliar in his mouth.

For once they're in agreement as they end up putting the plate on an unoccupied table nearby. Maybe there'd been some mixup.

But it does make Axl think of food. "Did you order anything?"

"Not yet," replies Lumine. "I'd just arrived."

Axl will look over at the menu. Hmm...

[random_xtras]

And Nemesis is totally unfazed by the rejection of her offering. She just pokes some of the bits into her own mouth the next time she goes by.

[trigger_imp]

Axl looks up as she goes past. "Hey, can we get a plate of cinnabuns?" he asks, and then glances to Lumine. "Do you want something to drink? It's on me." He figures if Lumine has money at all, he's been getting it from Nexus Couch Cushions. Unless he's made a few hits look like burglaries, and right now Axl doesn't want to think too much about what Lumine's probably done before.

Lumine thinks about that. Normally, he just has bottled water while he sits and looks through whatever books he's picked up from the library. But if the conversation continues, he decides he may want something other than just water. "An e-tank."