2049/Zwei Visits The Milano!

Zwei Visits The Milano!
Date of Scene:	18 April 2015
Location:	Void - Super Solar System
Synopsis:	Zwei visits Peter on the Milano! They come to an understanding. Also he shows her Queen.
Cast of Characters:	596, 751

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Peter Quill (751) has posed:
It's early in the evening, and Peter is lounging on a newly acquired Lay-Z-Boy in the room adjacent to the sleeping quarters. He's sitting in front of a glowy work table, with a floating touch screen that's typically used for maps and navigation. He's actually in orbit around his Earth, and -he's- using the screen to flip through satellite cable transmissions with a remote he's screwed around with enough to get to work with his ship. He's got his boots up on the table, a can of beer in his cup holder, and a bowl of popcorn in his lap. Right now he's dressed very casually, in his grey long sleeved shirt and his usual pants. The red jackets are probably hung up or thrown somewhere!

He assumes Zwei will knock or beam in or whatever she does!

Zwei (596) has posed:
    If the Milano is currently wired to receive advanced sensor warnings, Peter will experience a split second of probable alarms going off to the signature of something approaching at insanely high speed before the topside hull rattles from some kind of impact, hard enough to jostle the interior even after last second decceleration. Without a skylight, he can't see Asche locked onto the upper surface of the craft, but he can certainly see what happens when Zwei uses him as a relay to deploy Weiss via teleportation, straight into the cabin.

    Having come to assess Peter for ulterior purposes rather than to try and hash out any kind of deal, she too is in a rather casual state, dressed in a form-fitting, long sleeved open jacket atop thigh high boots and a skirt over tights, all in various shades of carbon to grey-black accented with striking green minimalist lines. 'Dressing casual' also entails no alterations to her base features, and so she has come 'without the makeup', so to speak, leaving her artificial nature clearly visible from her skin, hair and eyes. She uses the latter to appraise the interior of the ship, looking around as if only just seeing it now, even though Zwei had already used Asche to scan it from the outside.

    ". . . did I catch you at a bad time?" she asks, obviously expecting him to have cleaned up a little more.

Peter Quill (751) has posed:
"You seem like a kinder, gentler A.I, rather than a bondage queen." Peter may be comparing her to the Borg Queen, some of his popcorn spilled from the impact to his ship. Then he offers the bowl over to her as he settles the TV on some 80s action movie about a guy trying to save his family in time for Christmas. "Hey, no, it's cool, make yourself at home. I only have the one chair, but I've got parts laying around if you wanna whip something up."

Zwei (596) has posed:
    "Bondage queen?" Weiss intones, quirking a silver eyebrow at the description of Regina. "Dare I even ask? I mean, I'm a little curious about the Borg, but that's not really the kind of information I'd look for!" She turns around once on the spot to look for a good place, before moving just out of the way of the TV, holding her hand out as if pushing a chair out of the way, before one actually begins to appear in the correct place; a blob of jet black material that spreads out like a blot of ink surging into the invisible mould of a sleek, low-backed recliner with bright crimson cushions and a luminescent blue band inset on its bottom rather than any kind of legs to hold it up.

    She drops into the seat, causing it to bob slightly in midair, and folds one leg over the other, leaning back comfortably. "No need! I've still got a few kilos of degenerate matter on me. You can keep this after I'm gone by the way~" she says, patting the arm of the seat, and then waving off the bowl of popcorn. "Sorry, but unlike a Borg, this body is one hundred percent machine. No point in eating that!" Her wrist joint disengages to demonstrate, revealing the multiweapon embedded in her forearm, pointed harmlessly at the ceiling for the few moments before it folds back into place.

Peter Quill (751) has posed:
"Oh yeah, Regina's got this sexy little dominatrix thing going on. Didn't expect her to have regular skin, more or less. I think I pissed her off by feeling sorry for her though." Peter shrugs at his story, brushing it off to take a sip of his beer.

"Well -that's- a shame. The Borg refuse to eat because it's inferior, and you can't eat because you're a robot. It's like everyone's missing out on all the awesome stuff about being human, or an alien that can eat, date, sleep, enjoy a pile of puppies."

He looks at the new chair, raising an eyebrow. "You can snap your fingers to make a chair but you can't make a tongue that works?"

Zwei (596) has posed:
    Weiss stifles a giggle with her hand, casually swinging the chair back and forth through a sixty degree cone. "I don't actually know what she looks like. I wouldn't have expected something in pursuit of 'perfection' would still have regular flesh at all, nevermind something that superficial, or perhaps even look human at all. Weiss looks the way she does for the explicit purpose of infiltration and negotiation, and little else. I imagined she would be some kind of giant bio-computer hanging from a bunch of wires in the ceiling or something!"

    She pretends to think for a moment before replying to anything else. "It's not that I can't eat, there's just not really a point if I do. I mean, I could put things in this body's mouth and break them down, but there's no real use to doing it. My species also evolved in a completely different way to corporeal beings, so we enjoy different things than the kind of visceral pleasures organics are hardwired to. I wouldn't call the actual act of eating inferior though. It's less efficient than not needing to eat at all, but people enjoy what they enjoy! From /my/ point of view, spending all your time copying alien biology and technology is a giant waste of time."

Peter Quill (751) has posed:
"I'll tell you what I told the Borg Queen. You don't eat a cheeseburger to live. When you eat a cheeseburger you're gambling with death for that delicious grease and cheese." Peter mmms and pats his stomach, popping his chair back to recline properly without his legs on the table. "Oh, I get it."

He laughs, then throws a piece of popcorn at her head. "You dress like a sexy little minx to see how I'll react. Yeah, I spent my life meeting aliens who wanted to poke at a human or see how they tick, I'm used to it. Waste of a good skirt though."

Zwei (596) has posed:
    As the piece of popcorn flies at Weiss' head, Zwei briefly considers showing off by deliberately triggering her personal interdiction field, but Peter doesn't really strike it as the type to really care, and trying to get him on its side wasn't the purpose of visiting to begin with; rather, the idea is to see him in his natural habitat. To that end, Weiss simply leans back and catches it in her mouth, though she doesn't even pretend to swallow it before disintegrating it into its constituent atoms.

    "No, I actually picked this out because I like the way it looks~" She spins the chair around a full 360. "My interest in humanity is more personal than scientific. I'm not really concerned with analyzing and cataloguing everything about your species. I just think you're interesting!" Weiss leans forward, folding her hands into her lap. "The Collective are big fans of humanity's work. Not the Borg collective. Ours. The Licht. We got over that conquering the galaxy phase ages ago. It's sort of like an edgy puberty phase for most sapient species, y'know? We're much more interested in seeing what other species can add to civilization on their own initiative. A game isn't really fun if you know every move in advance after all."

Peter Quill (751) has posed:
"The Borg Queen has feelings. Don't tell her I said that, actually don't tell anyone that. I've got plans to topple the Borg empire with my moves." Peter winks and offers a charming smile and a nod of his head to Zwei. "Well, hey, topple's a strong word. I just wanna teach her that this whole thing is dumb. Plus I think she's sexually repressed, but don't tell her I said that either. But she told me she needs feelings to control the others. She said she 'controls' her feelings, but..." He just laughs at that.

All things said, he sits up in his chair and sits the popcorn on the table, standing up to walk around to her. Then he crouches down, meeting her eye to eye. "So you're not a girl or a guy or anything?" He reaches out to lightly poke at where someone's belly button should be. "This body's like a toaster to you?"

Zwei (596) has posed:
    Weiss gives Peter a curious kind of look as he pokes her. Surprisingly, the pressure exerted by his finger feels pretty much exactly as it should for prodding a human being, giving the precise impression of a soft, organic abdomen. "Due to the nature of being affixed to parallel quantum computing, my core personality exists in two simultaneous states. I don't know what gender I was before downloading, but for all intents and purposes I'm both now. Weiss here is expressed as female. Asche out there-" she points upwards "-is male. This body is borderline irreplaceable though. Both of them are. I value them about as much as most humans value their own bodies, with the exception that they're easier for me to fix."

    Weiss pushes his hand away politely, her own feeling just as warm as a living person's should. "To be honest, I don't have a high opinion of her or the Borg from what I've gathered about them. The fixation on assimilation is misguided at best, and the fixation on 'perfection' is really juvenile, not to mention that attitude of invulnerability from being the biggest fish in her own world. I'm not going to cry if you blow it all up! More importantly though, I'd like to hear your opinions on other civilizations as a whole. You're used to dealing with space travel and aliens right? What's it been like for you?"

Peter Quill (751) has posed:
"I feel sorry for her. Maybe it's the sympathetic sap in me, but I think she's lonely. When she figures out that her feelings aren't a weakness, I think they'll get better." Peter heads for the small kitchen, grabbing a box of cold pizza from the fridge. He sits it on the table and opens it up, revealing around 4 slices left. "Authentic Earth pizza. This I definitely missed."

But, moving onto her question. "When I was a kid, it was exciting -and- scary. When you're a kid on Earth, at least in my time where people can't just get up and go into space, kids -dream- about it. We dream about flying spaceships, shooting lasers, making out with hot alien ladies. Just being a space cowboy, kicking ass and taking names, having adventures."

He reclines again, taking little bites of his slice to savor it. "It doesn't really change when you grow up. Sure, you get used to having a spaceship, the idea of aliens isn't new anymore, but there's always something new -about- them. Races I never met, planets I've never seen. Treasure, fame. But when you're in space, even though it's so -big-, it's like you're in one big place. Before you leave Earth, you think 'Alright, Earth is all of the important stuff, and then there's everything out there'. But once you've been in space, you start to think of entire -planets- like cities, cities like towns... Space is so big but it starts to feel so small. At least until you see a star so huge that you can't even comprehend the size of it."

Zwei (596) has posed:
    Weiss shrugs. "I really couldn't say. I haven't interacted with her enough to construct an accurate psychological profile, and for all I know you could be a genius at judging character or completely terrible at it. I'll consider the possibility I guess, though I'm not too concerned over what she does as long as she doesn't make herself my problem." Her tone suddenly shifts from indifference back to something more cheerful. "I'll say this though! If you /do/ turn out to be correct, and actually manage to defeat the Borg through social means, I'll be very impressed! With that kind of ability, you could be extremely useful to a great number of important people! Or perhaps what would be more interesting to you, people with a lot of money!" She's actually serious about that, funny enough.

    "You know . . ." Weiss says with a degree of thoughtfulness, "I think we might vaguely agree on a few points. I don't have any real use for treasure or fame, but the fact that the universe, now the multiverse, has so many things to see and do is what I like most about life! Is that why you're in it? For the sense of adventure? No real goals or philosophies or opinions?"

Peter Quill (751) has posed:
"I -do- like money." Peter agrees, as if only picking up on that rather than every other possibly more important part of what she said. But when she asks that last thing, he shrugs. "It'd be nice to get rich, but I don't really need a -goal-. I love life, a goal is like trying to get to the end or something! I have opinions, but it depends on who or what you ask me about."

He takes a moment to think about the middle three of those things, though. "Philosophies..." He suddenly stands up, grabbing a tape from his pocket, wrapped up in its plastic as if he just bought it. "There's a song on this tape, a Freddie Mercury album. Philosophy is great and everything, but this song is everything you need to know about the human experience."

He heads into the sleeping quarters, which she can easily see from where she's sitting. Then he slides the tape into his deck, after removing Awesome Mix. He fast forwards, then stops where he's at the point he needs to be.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-F8EKGyL-j4

Peter Quill (751) has posed:
That, for the audience is How Can I Go On, by Freddie Mercury and Montserrat Gaballe.

Zwei (596) has posed:
    Zwei's opinion on classic 20th century Earth singers will go patently unexpressed. Weiss appears interested, but not in the song itself; rather, what Peter choosing it says about him. "So you're a diehard humanist huh? That's a little odd to hear honestly! I'd have expected something a little different from someone who was literally abducted by aliens and away from Earth for 30 years!" It sounds almost like a compliment. "I don't think it a bad thing to have goals though, even if they're not grand aspirations. Are you so in love with life that you'd be willing to keep drifting from stunt to stunt as long as you're physically able?" There is a brief pause. "Speaking of which, what do you actually do anyways? Aside from that nonsense with the power ranger of course. You don't give me the impression of someone who is serious about a career. How do you pay for this ship?"

Peter Quill (751) has posed:
"There are actually a lot of races that look just like humans. It's surprisingly easy to fit in until you start messing everything up, then they go 'Oh it's the Terran'." Peter laughs at that, but continues. "Earth always comes first with me, even though this is my first time visiting it in so long. It's like what I said about planets being cities to me. Earth is like my home town, I don't want anyone to mess with it. It's where I come from, where my culture is. I never forget it. But I don't think I'll ever just settle down and get a house with a white picket fence."

"I usually do jobs with the Ravagers, they're who abducted me, but I do a lot of things on my own too. We usually grab artifacts, steal from some rich alien planet, then sell stuff on the black market." He shrugs, taking a large bite of pizza. "I'm not rich, but I'm not broke. I've -been- rich, like right before I had this ship redone. This is a modified version of the ships the Ravagers use."

Zwei (596) has posed:
    "'Ravagers'? That's an interesting name. Though, if your gig is high profile theft and resale, I guess it's not an inaccurate one. You know you're remarkably up front about all of this. Do you just have no sense of risk? I mean, you walked right into the capital ship of someone who outright said they'd kill you if you had anything valuable on you, and now you invited me into your ship without knowing anything about me. Do things always work out that well for you? Have you really never been, pardon the language, bitten in the ass by this before?" It sounds a little condescending, but Weiss is being testing about this. Either Peter is an irresponsible idiot, or simply an irresponsible savant by her guessing. "Like say, if I were hypothetically considering hiring you? What could you actually offer, and how could I be assured you wouldn't do something stupid?"

Peter Quill (751) has posed:
"I grew up in life or death situations. I usually know how dangerous soemthing is or not, and I'm always prepared. I don't look prepared." Peter says while reclining on his Lay-Z-Boy, alternating between a can of beer and a slice of pizza. "But I'm prepared. And if you need to be assured, all you need to know is that I've never been arrested by the Nova Corps for theft."

"But stuff bites me in the ass all the time. And I think my way out of it, or blow my way out, it depends." He shrugs, seeming to take it all in stride. "I know you're dangerous, I know the Borg Queen is dangerous, but neither of you know much about me." He explains, smiling at that. "Hey, do -you- have emotions?" he asks, curious suddenly.

Zwei (596) has posed:
    Weiss smiles at Peter finally showing some hints of canniness. It looks a little coy. "Isn't that the idea though? If I didn't want to know anything about you, I wouldn't have come here, and I certainly wouldn't have asked this many questions. At this point though, I think I know more about you than you know about me~ At least the relevant data, anyways. You went to talk to Regina based on the foreknowledge of what the Borg are and on the reasonable assumption that being present without anything valuable on you would make her beneath her notice. As far as I can tell though, you met up with me just based on the idea that I wouldn't do anything to you because I sounded like a nice person. I'm not sure whether to call that intuition or foolhardiness. Maybe both?"

    She actually stops a moment at the question, briefly seeming as if she's going to laugh. "I'm not a robot you know. Or an AI! This body is robotic and it /has/ an AI in it, but I didn't originate from a computer. I have a lot of emotions! Some of them are pretty similar to yours! Some are different, some are a little abstract and difficult to explain, but it's not like I can't understand what it's like to be excited or curious or angry or bored. If I couldn't feel anything then I wouldn't have much reason to exist at this point, since my job is basically obsolete for now. I just get my kicks in different ways, since I don't have adrenaline, hormones or dopamine."

Peter Quill (751) has posed:
"I don't know what I'd do without those three things. I've met freaky alien people, but it's hard to explain human stuff when the person you're talking to doesn't have all the fun stuff you have." Peter explains, then looks up at the ceiling where he heard the collision earlier. He points up. "This is different. You're on my ship, I'm not on yours. And hey, you -do- seem nice, what's wrong with judging a person because they're nice? Some people backstab, but you take your lumps."

Zwei (596) has posed:
    "Personally, I don't know what I'd do with them. It's not that I can't comprehend the idea though. It's an easy trap to fall into thinking of organic beings as inferior due to their fixation with feeding their evolutionary perogatives to consume and reproduce. It's really simple to think of them as slaves to their biological coding and incapable of doing anything otherwise. Personally, I feel like if you're going to devalue the free will of organics, you're either someone who's just as big of a slave to logic, or else you're a hypocrite. Nobody does anything for no reason. Even if their reasons aren't as transparent as a chemical being released in their brain, there are still determined factors that make them want to do it."

    Weiss pauses only out of politeness, so that it doesn't seem abrupt and weird when she shifts her tone. "What I'm getting at is that everyone finds some kind of trigger rewarding! I don't get any enjoyment out of food, but I just spent a month revolutionizing magical technology in a world I knew barely anything about because I liked it, and I'd keep doing it as long as it stayed enjoyable! The satisfaction of a job well done, the allure of the unknown, the thrill of a close victory; I know I can relate to most people on these kinds of things! Without all that time needed to do things like eating and sleeping, you just wind up pursuing many more personal projects. Challenging yourself!"

    "I'm glad we get along, but that doesn't necessarily make me a nice person. I like you and I think you're interesting, and I don't have any reason to hurt you or deprive you of your property, but ultimately I don't possess any kind of instinctive aversion to harming you. Even if I enjoy your company, I'm sorry to say that I wouldn't hesitate to kill you the moment the risk presented by your continued existence outweighs the potential value of having you around. Being easy to get along with doesn't really equate to being nice, so you should probably abandon that notion if you want to make it more than a year in the multiverse, because I'm certainly not the only one!"

Peter Quill (751) has posed:
Peter listens to all of this while sipping at his beer. He's on his third slice of pizza now. He never interrupts her as he seems to actually understand what she's saying. It's when she gets to the last part that he starts to smile, then breaks down into laughter, hunching over. "So what you're saying is, being friends with you isn't any different from being friends with a Ravager. Well, the big difference is that you're pretty hot even though you're probably a Barbie under there." he motions to her skirt at that.

Zwei (596) has posed:
    Weiss waves her hand airily. "I'd like to think I'm a little bit better than someone who calls themselves a 'Ravager' at being friendly! I won't deny that being used to dealing with actual psychopaths will probably be of use to you here though!" She makes kind of a blank face at the gesture. "I'm sure you'd like to know, but that's not ever going to be relevant in the forseeable future. I'd also suggest keeping those kinds of remarks to yourself for a while. There are a lot of really crazy women around this sector."

Peter Quill (751) has posed:
"That's what being a human in space is like. Assume everything wants to eat or kill you, then work your way up from there." Peter grabs his remote and starts changing channels again. "There are a lot of really crazy women around this everywhere. I've got the scars to prove it."

Zwei (596) has posed:
    "Glad you understand~" says Weiss, getting up from her floating, ultra-posh chair. True to her word, she seems to be intent on leaving it behind. "Now that I think I've gotten a decent handle on who you are, I may or may not have something in mind for you. If it turns out I do, I'll give you a call. Until then, seeya~" With that, Weiss teleports through the ceiling. The ship shifts again as a great weight lifts off of it, and crimson afterburners can be seen flaring across the cockpit window as something takes off at an obscene rate of acceleration.