metalogs | Closed | Watching On The Wires

Who: David Alleyne

portolan, Peter Parker

kindofamazing
What: Technopath Investigation of Excelsior
When: February 15th
Where: Excelsior City Streets, The Chai House
Content Warnings: N/A

I. The Initial Investigation | Closed to Bart

Picking where to live in a world like this is always something to be cautious about, and no one could honesty say that David wasn't a cautious person. He had to figure out what he wanted after all, and privacy was an important thing for him.

Which would be doubly true if he really was going to live here in this world as a hero. To finally have a chance to choose the life or not, and get to have the shocking chance to have an actual secret identity was strange. So he wanted to be able to protect it, and the people he loved, the best he could. Which was the purpose of being here today. From the little he'd learned of Excelsior, it was a perfect choice for him. Which of course made him all the more suspicious. Good thing he had backup for investigations.

"Here," he said to Bart, offering his friend his hand to hold now that they'd arrived. Not that it was his hand that he wanted to give Bart so much as the earwig in his hand. The best way to stay in contact with Bart without actually talking about what he's talking about.

"This place looks amazing," he said aloud as they moved through the streets.

II. A More Targeted Approach | Closed to Balthier (and a hint of Bart at the start)

First phase of the plan completed, David had to admit to himself that there was as a need for a whole different kind of assistance, and he thought he had an idea of who might serve for it. Sure, Bart could work in a pinch, but a specialist might be better. So he sent the text invitation and hoped for the man to agree to join him.

So he sat in the tea house, sipping a cup of the rose black that of course reminded him of the person he was hoping to get some help from. Still, he sort of twitched in his seat, anxious to see if he'd get the support he'd thought.

More than anything, though, he needed a specialist, and Balthier didn't show up, David might have to ask another favor of Loki.

As he looks up from his latest check of his phone he catches sight of Bart looking at him.

"What's that look for?"

III. Crossing A Hero | Closed to Peter (TASM)

Of course even after Balthier, David realized he still had other things to do. It wasn't intentional, but he'd been passing by the local police station by accident and... Well, he got to thinking. Not like anyone would notice him if he got onto the roof, right? And up there he could easily run into all sorts of wires and antenna and other methods that he could access a system out of sight. And since he'd gone with a very tech world look of dark brown slacks and a warm black sweater, all he had to do was stuff his yellow scarf into his pocket to be a bit less obvious. He circled the building casually, waited until there was a moment where no one was looking and he could see he was in a camera blind spot, and then he moved.

Climbing up the side of older concrete buildings like the police station wasn't hard when he could use his energy projection to form climbing claws on his palms. These helped him easily scale the side of the building, quickly and safely, until he lifted himself quietly onto the roof to look for some sort of access point for his technopathy.

Always helped to know what the local PD was working with.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

The tech is actually interesting, especially with how it seems to mostly be in a degree of harmony with the environment. Not really Bart's cup of tea, but he can see why David is intrigued.

"You just like the idea of living where you can be in at the ground level of bleeding edge tech," he joked. "And yet you bring me along. The guy who actually drove an AI to self-destruct rather than deal with him."

Of course, he'd wanted to bypass the system in the first place...so making it crazy had worked perfectly.

"I do love my tech," David agreed. And hell, he was in love with new forms of tech. He loved working with Krakoa's living plant-tech, and he wanted to do cool things here too.

"I've never really had too much of a problem with AIs, so I can probably deal with it. And come on, you'd be visiting me, right?"

"Well, duh. It'd be rude to make you have to commute all the time," Bart replied, easily, even as he pretended to brush a hand through his hair in a move to hide putting in the earwig. Subtle wasn't usually his thing, but he could manage. And it was more about being able to cover multiple angles today.

"I guess for me it's just so...sedentary most of the time."

There it was. At least David could communicate to Bart in peace now. Granted the voice in Bart's ear would be completely synthesized. He hoped Bart could divide attention.

"What, living in one place? I don't know, it's nice to have a home. Not like the Limbic system house wasn't all about that. Giving us a home that we sorta lacked.

"Working at a desk. Ugh." He doesn't even sit still when he's playing games, which was probably part of what made him a good streamer.

"I mean, even when I was older and lying to everyone about having lost my powers, I was doing manual labor. I just need to bleed off energy, and tech isn't that kind of job."

But that's not why he's here, anyway. And while Bart totally can divide his attention to a certain extent, there's also a limit to how fast one can process sound meaningfully, so he'll have a bit of a speed limit because of that. Of course, he knows David has probably planned for that aspect, too.

"After Max, well, there was the Tower, but that wasn't really a home. The place Kon and I got was really the first time I got to make something from the start into a home. Even if it did need a LOT of renovations."

"Hey, if it's not customer support, then I'm fine with it," David points out. He'd done that. He hated it. He might murder someone. Hard pass. "But you're not wrong about that. Tommy worked in tech only so far in that he made high end electronics at insane speeds. Custom jobs in smaller batch orders so that it would be a pain to convert a whole place over to the work."

So he got it. And Bart was even faster and more tied to an external power source. Gotta suck.

"Maybe you can find somewhere good for that here too. And someone to live with. And not going back to school."

He keeps them walking even as a voice starts to speak in Bart's ear.

My target is to try and get near an intersection with obvious red light cameras. Those systems often integrate with other surveillance networks. Routing for them takes place on the boxes on the corners, which of course I can't use. I'll need you to slip a bluetooth device I made for this purpose onto one to let me find where the short burst signal goes to so I can access it.

Bart gives a hum of acknowledgement to both the electronic and spoken conversations. "I think I'll go back to streaming. It was comfortable and pretty easy, and I could really help people by just being available. Although getting a moderator or two to manage chat will be a chore."

He'd liked being that kind of mild celebrity. It was far more justified than being known simply for being powered. And it had given him a buffer between himself and the publicity unless he was out doing events.

"I take it you're going civilian?"

"You did enjoy it too. I don't doubt you'll have a following rather quickly. But no dragging me in without protecting my identity. Though you can count on me to moderate. I could at the very least code a really good bot for you."

He can't mod always, but it's something.

"Civilian," David agreed. Which was a lie to himself. He won't be able to stay there. That isn't who he is.

I'll need one of your eyes watching the relay point once we get there. Any reasonable ingress into the area, maybe even a rooftop set of eyes. I don't want arrested, or to mess up your guild chances.

Closed | Watching On The Wires

I

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject