opnet [OpNet] No Worries, Sphere.

[Charr]

Our problem in the sand is taken care of, Sphere. Lots of little ticks, one big ass quantum shoe stepping hard and boom! No more problem. Got to hand it to you for having the balls to tell Paragon to fuck off and the brains to see the need.

Kind of surprised me to be honest. What with you hanging out with screw offs you do, but hell you came through when it counted.

[Sphere]

Yeah, well. Right tools for the right jobs is what I always say. Caught some flack from my cell for handing that info across. But the way I see it, people like you and me have already stepped over certain lines and are even now somewhere towards the horizon. My buddies in the Aberrants are good people, they don't need to be caught up in dodgy shit.

Wish you'd mentioned you were going in, would've happily lent a hand. Hell though, we'd have probably ended up brawling.

Good show.

[Charr]

Wish you'd mentioned you were going in, would've happily lent a hand.

You'd have loved this. Scumbags to the core, not quite up there with Paragon on slime scale, but definitely a good days work once it started. Took near a week and a few novas to get a handle on the details but it went quick after that. I really didn't think you were up for a hands on but I'll keep you in mind the next time something comes along. There's always a next time with this crap. Always some twist that thinks he's immune. Lately I've been hearing some interesting stuff about soma out of the East. I'll let you know if anything comes of it.

Brawlings not necessarily a bad thing. It'll teach you things about a nova you can't learn any other way.

[Sphere]

Maybe. But I got taught my fighting skills by the deadliest predator on the planet. Humans.

Maybe you'd end up learning something? Heh.

[Charr]

Were, Sphere. Human beings were the deadliest predator on the planet. At least that was the advertisement. Individually and on average, they actually suck at it. For a few millennium they've been coasting on numbers alone and their former preeminance has more in common with virus vectors than any mano-a-mano display or law of the jungle.

Yeah, I might have learned something. Like how well you fight in three dimensions or handled multiple appendages that can outperform those stubby crude levers you call arms.

Heh.

[Sphere]

Three dimensions? Mate, I'm a teleporter. So that's that problem out of the window. As for the multiple apendages. Well, as you say: Everything burns when it's hot enough.

By the count, Novas aren't even close to baseline humanity's league. You should try your hand (tentacles? claws?) against Directive operatives. Then come back and tell me how baselines aren't badass.

And I'm not just suggesting that in order to get Directive agents beaten up. Honestly. Heh.

[Charr]

I've never heard or seen much of these so-called "Directive" zippies. Which is a little strange considering my attitude towards zip power structures in general. You'd think they'd be on my ass like zips on Orzaiz's fly.

I wish you had come along now that you've brought it up. I'm not scoffing at your 'porting abilities but being able to move isn't the same as reacting and I'm not adverse to challenging the fitness of evolution. Most of all it would have been interesting to see which of us cried first when the heat climbed past volcanic and towards stellar. Some think quantum stops mattering after a certain point and it comes down to sheer will.

After the barakas fell apart like a burning hornets nest, it would have been interesting to settle that question.

[Jager]

Boys, everybody dies. Its only a matter of how you live, and how long you live. If I ever meet that truly immortal being, you will never hear from me again. This side of the grave, anyway.

Charr, if you refuse to have any respect for your enemy, they are going to be the last thing you'll be seeing. Stay frosty, because the day is coming when they will come looking for you.

Sphere, you and yours are hastening that day along.

[Charr]

Quote:

Originally posted by Jager:
Its only a matter of how you live...
If you understand this then you already know the rest doesn't matter. Don't use me to justify your choices.

Charr, if you refuse to have any respect for your enemy, they are going to be the last thing you'll be seeing.
Thanks for the tip, zen master. Now imagine the best place you can and remember you'll die there too. Look; I can play their idiot games, wait for them to come for me - because they're coming for all of us eventually and you know it - or I can force them to meet me on a whole new level they never knew existed. I eat, breath and pump juice at that level. That's preferrable to pimping my ass out or wallowing in zip misery and escstasy, i.e. justifying the same tired chimp bullshit because doing otherwise might require thought, imagination and effort.

Stay frosty, because the day is coming when they will come looking for you.
They're already creeping about. Preston, Paragon and a load of international junior G-men looking to be the next baseline hero to the herds. Luckily, they have fucking idea what they're stumbling around in yet. When they figure it out they're going to try and run home to play the same old games while calling it "adapting".

Numbers will only take you so far.

[Jager]

No problems, Charr. I don't do much justifying, anymore. No need.

If you already know it all, no worrys, Mate. No more Zen-Chimp stuff from me.

The funny thing is the hunting of novas. When do you begin, and who do you begin with? You being a generic term here, not referring to anyone in particular.

[Charr]

You're assuming they aren't hunting us now, Jager. Whether I want to be one of the yoo-pee's instant solutions, a good little "yes mas'sah" nova or a touchy-feelie "we're all equal" chimp lover doesn't matter. Start counting up the race that hit zip consciousness since 1998, subtract the idiots that thought being a surrogate weapon was a long term career and then look at what remains. You'll find the disparity in numbers with chimp math and without even looking closely at some of the damn "accidents" that happened.

Maybe you'll start wondering a little more about Bahrain. Maybe you'll wonder how the media misses something that simple. Maybe you'll wonder who's so good at manipulating the media they could keep that under wraps.

Maybe not.

[Jager]

There's picking off the stragglers, and then The Hunt.

As for picking off the loners, they quiet ones, the ones hiding from themselves as much as the world ... yeah ... they go missing occasionally, don't they?

Charr, in those cases, though, we should be as worried about other novas as much as baselines with grudges and a budget.

Yep, nothing like jumping into a CoMA meeting and have someone shut you down to spoil your day.

[Charr]

Good point, wrong example. CoMA chimps are nothing but tools and I mean that in both senses of the word. If you want to jump head first into a CoMA our-god-loves-us-better revival then you go for it and take what comes. Don't expect me to play comic book hero for personal acts of stupidity. I've already explained to Codex; I don't "avenge" a nova's choices coming back to bite them in the ass.

Not that CoMA monkeys get a free pass. I just haven't found the particular ones I'm looking for yet.

I will.

[TUM TUM]

YOU NOT LIKE SLEEPING MONKEYS? TUM TUM NOT LET MONKEY GO TO SLEEP.

[Charr]

All the monkeys are asleep, big fellah. It's the difference between novas and zips, enlightened and sleepers.

It would have been nice to have you around not too long ago. Having a means to get rid of a lot of meat in a hurry can be useful.

[TUM TUM]

TUM TUM KNOW NOT ALL MONKEYS SLEEP. SOMETIME MONKEY MAKE MESS AND TUM TUM HAVE TO CLEAN IT UP. BUT DUM MONKEY ONLY MAKES MESS ONE TIMES.

TUM TUM LIKED CHARRED MEAT. YOU GIVE ALL THE MEATS TO TUM TUM.

[Charr]

Agreed.