[OPEN] Winter Preparations, Nanite Checkup, and...Sentient Potatoes?

[sixthdeadliest]

Who: Six sixthdeadliest
What: Six prepping for winter in case he gets snowed in. Also heading to Alliance HQ for a check-up on his nanites. And getting a weird case of deja vu with sentient potatoes.
When: Winter prep stuff through all throughout the month. Nanite checkup November 12th
Where: Little Love and Central City (indicated in prompt)
Content Warnings: Other than potential mentions of the horrors of Six's hell world, I don't anticipate anything. Info on the potatoes comes from here.


Nanite Checkup (Alliance HQ, November 12th)

Six was starting to appreciate the patience Rex had for putting up with test after test due to these regular scans.

Because the nanites refused to leave his body in samples despite best efforts including attempting to force them via magnetic manipulations, Six's nanites had to be monitored solely via CT scan until anything more effective could be developed. (MRIs were out; the images of early victims of MRIs following the Nanite Event had been horror shows.) At least the Alliance allowed him to come in regularly for such checkups without costing him an arm and a leg each time. At this point, any hope that someone might be able to come up with a cure here that he might somehow be able to take back to his world was starting to fade.

As soon as the machine was finished, he got up to head to the cafeteria for some coffee. At this point, he knew the routine: Waste time while the results were analyzed then come back for the update.

Winter Preparation (Little Love, all November)

Due to Little Love being so rural, Six had started getting ready in case he ended up snowed in. With no vehicle, that meant a lot of trips back and forth to town on foot, carrying what he could back to the farmhouse.

He definitely stood out in the green trench coat that matched his usual attire. That and carrying a bulky backpack back and forth in varying degrees of fullness. Someone could bump into him not just in various shops but on the street or walking along the road back and forth to the farmhouse.

Sentient Potatoes what is this EVO bullsh (Little Love, all November)

This...this was giving him some serious deja vu.

Sentient potatoes. It was like something straight out of his world but with less body horror and fewer homicidal trees. At least the spuds didn't have teeth, just a desire to drag potential victims underground.

...Actually, that was worse than teeth now that he thought about it.

Six sliced through several sets of roots trying to drag one of the farmhands down into the soil. The unhappy spuds snapped imaginary teeth at him but retreated as he brandished the magna blades in warning. The unfortunate farmhand shuddered but went back to work harvesting the potatoes that had chosen not to achieve sentience.

At least the sentient potatoes were easier to handle than most EVOs. Just very annoying.

Comments

[helpdesk_hero]

"I have an associate that lives in Little Love," Prodigy admitted, "I do know some people don't go for guild housing though. I like the Little Love places though. Lots of space indeed. And isolation if you needed."

Apple trees would be a good choice, and very farmers' market friendly.

[sixthdeadliest]

"Don't really have much else I'm qualified to do but fight and assist with trouble, so the guild housing is a way to save money," Six admitted. "Legally, I don't exist back in my world."

[helpdesk_hero]

"Comfort isn't something you're used to?"

Well now he's sad and concerned. Damn, this guy better be doing something to relax too.

[sixthdeadliest]

"I didn't live on the streets if that's what you're thinking," Six said dryly.

Well, he didn't live on the streets anymore.

"Just not used to having such a large place to myself. Though it's keeping me busy getting ready for winter. Last thing I need is to freeze and starve to death if I get snowed in and the power goes out."

[helpdesk_hero]

"If you need advice, I'm originally from Chicago. It's not the same thing, it's not flawless, but I know something about winterizing places."

Mostly he knows it from Wolverine and his life in the Canadian north, but he's not explaining that.

[sixthdeadliest]

"Appreciate it, but I don't know how applicable the advice would be. The farmhouse is outside of the town proper, and it's quite a walk to get back into town. If I get snowed in, it might take hours or days for the road to clear enough to walk without breaking an ankle."

[helpdesk_hero]

"Never hurts to know more, but talk to the locals. They'll know what helps most," he points out. Because that might be enough. They would know better than just about anyone as to what needs there are in Little Love.

"Oh, and get a generator, of course."

[sixthdeadliest]

"First thing I picked up. Right now I'm just stocking up on extra supplies like plenty of fuel. Had to ask one of the men at the hardware store how to wrap pipes after he mentioned the pipes might freeze, so that's already done. Last thing I need is a pipe bursting."

He took a sip of his coffee.

"It's actually been a pretty good training regimen."

[helpdesk_hero]

"Oh yeah, frozen pipes are the worst. I'm glad you had some instruction on it," David said with a nod.

So much better to be preventative than it would be to repair later.

[sixthdeadliest]

"Glad the people around town are so friendly. Never had these kind of problems before. Master's home was on a volcanic island and we were too far south for snow, and living on base for the past five years meant I didn't have to worry about this sort of thing. Knew I'd need the extra food and a backup generator, but I didn't even consider the pipes freezing."

[helpdesk_hero]

Home on a volcanic island? David couldn’t help but chuckle at that.

“Forgive me, that almost sounds like the secret base of a super villain in a kid’s tale where I’m from. Cultural baggage, that’s not on you. But yeah, living suddenly in a really cold place can be jarring.”

[sixthdeadliest]

"Given who my master was and my ranking back home, you'd probably think we were supervillains." Six took a sip of his coffee. "So you're not that far off in the long run."

[helpdesk_hero]

Well David wasn't expecting that. He's intrigued and sadly the raised eyebrow isn't visible.

"Did you hurt people?"

[sixthdeadliest]

No point in sugarcoating it.

"We were mercenary assassins, referred to as 'the Numbers' given we were ranked as the most dangerous people on the planet. After the Event, I went to work for Providence which was trying to bring everything back under control."

Though he'd signed up primarily to steal a cure should one arise.

"Even working with 'the good guys', people get hurt. Particularly back before we had any hope of curing people. Caging the entire world as every living thing on Earth randomly mutated with little or no warning wasn't possible, so the only option was putting down each threat either in the field or Dr. Fell's molecular dissection chamber. Early days of Providence, the grunts were largely made up of mercs who got to be the testing grounds for what sort of training was most effective given how unstable things had become. What was learned from us gets taught in Basic where the weaker volunteers are broken and expelled before they get anywhere close to the field where breaking means you and everyone around you dies.

"It's a giant war of attrition when you boil everything down to the basics. And right now humanity's losing."

[helpdesk_hero]

“There is a difference between being a ‘bad guy’ and what you did, from the sound of it.”

Because it didn’t sound like what Six’s world had been through would be so easily saved. Sometimes you had to be practical. And it would be horrible.

[sixthdeadliest]

"With Providence, maybe."

But before? That whole part of originally being a mercenary assassin?

Though who knows? Maybe Prodigy's world was different.

[helpdesk_hero]

Prodigy's world was insanely fucked up.

"Perhaps. And sometimes you have to take those circumstances in mind.

[sixthdeadliest]

Welcome to the club.

He nodded before taking another sip of his coffee.

"So what brings you to headquarters? Can't be the coffee."

[helpdesk_hero]

No, it couldn't. And David chuckles at the comment.

"Processing reports from recent patrols. Trying, again and likely in vain, to get them to step up their work against some really harsh laws in Excelsior."

[sixthdeadliest]

"What I've read gives me the impression it's a powder keg getting ready to blow over there. How accurate is that?"

[helpdesk_hero]

Prodigy winces under his helmet, because man, that's a whole thing.

"If you're asking me as a member of the guild, I'd tell you that things are going well, you're hearing things. If you're asking me as a Starfallen? It's bad. It's really bad. A friend of mine and I have been making plans to escape if things turn too much against our kind."

[sixthdeadliest]

"Asking as someone who knows that just because trouble's in another area, that doesn't mean it won't spread like a virus given the first opportunity." He glanced at his left elbow about where they'd drawn blood in another futile attempt to gather a sample of his nanites. "And I think I'd know from experience."

He looked back up at Prodigy.

"If you two need somewhere to regroup, the house the guild provided only has me living in it. Well-supplied in case of emergencies. Doesn't have easy access to things like in the big cities, but things are much calmer out there on the 'anti-Meta' front. Besides, there's only a handful of us 'Skyfallen' out there to assist. No 'end of the world' threats but the locals seem to appreciate it when I step in to assist with some of the strangeness out there so they can just live their lives."

[helpdesk_hero]

Good man, to ask it that way. Still, he nods his thanks to the other man.

"That is kind of you to offer. I believe our backup plan is in fact hiding out in Little Love, but with another friend of mine. Or, worst comes to worst, seeking a man I know in Sunset. But I will keep you on the short list. You've struck me as very practical."

He just hoped he wouldn't need it.

[sixthdeadliest]

Honestly, he'd only decided to join a guild and picked the Alliance because of basically mutual exploitation. Similar to him joining Providence, really.

Six nodded. "You never know when things can suddenly go from bad to worse. Best to be prepared for it as much as you can."

[helpdesk_hero]

"Exactly why I've got multiple contingencies. Something I advise be considered by all wise Metas."

And those that aren't wise, well, he hopes someone is watching out for them.