Balmas

Masks: Resurrection Roundabout

Victor picks through the assorted offerings, hmm-ing to himself as he does. That's a pretty advanced stealth field generator. Could be useful, although he's pretty sure that Prometheus will have accounted for anything he's given to Bode. Armor's useless, since it'll only weigh him down and keep him from using his limbs to his full extent. Unless... Hmm. The Gears foundation won't approve of him tearing the limbs off the suit, but some chest armor is still a good idea. Some kind of EMP gun? Bit of a double-edged sword, that one--good for knocking out Victoria's power armor, but just as likely to take out his own nanites. And of course, any armory is gonna have some bits and pieces lying around, and the quartermaster sure won't miss them...

[Refilling Gadget count]

"Tell you what, I'll take Vicki myself, and you can unplug Victor's evil computer." Over the course of that sentence, her voice becomes progressively more icy until, by computer, it's positively sepulchral. The wing retracts sharply. "Don't wait up."

@Tatterdemalion

Victor is not the kind of person to take satisfaction in someone else's misfortune. Nevertheless, he can't help but crack a little grin. Everything's going according to plan. Any second now she'll storm off and feel terri--

"I will not 'wait up'. You will fall the fuck in line and you will get your priorities straight right fucking now, or I will drop you like a bad habit and take out Victoria and the 'evil computer' with the functioning part of my team while you take a nap. Get me? Good."

Her eyes are burning. She did not fight her way through the entirety of AEGIS by herself to put up with this shit right now.

@Phoe

Wait no

She's floating over top of you, panting breathlessly. Her hair falls down off of her neck and tumbles forward to tickle your cheek like a river. And through this entire time, Sara, she's holding you. She'll never, ever let you fall.

@Phoe

oh shit that's hot

So, it turns out, he is in fact entirely fucked. Plans shot, destroyed, cheeks redder than a star, Errant and Sara together and chemistry off the charts. He needs out of this armory, and the sooner the better.

Masks: Resurrection Roundabout

“So, Brainstorm, when were you going to clue us in that you made an evil computer that Vicki’s using to help take over our jobs right now, as we speak? Did that maybe, possibly, slip your mind??” She doesn’t touch him. It’s somehow scarier that she’s not touching him. “Is the buyout of AEGIS another step in its plan to dissolve Disflix? Are you in charge of the whole operation?”

And because this is the most vital time for a frank discussion about Prometheus, its origins, why Victor has kept it quiet, and what they’re going to do about him... this is the perfect time for the captain to turn on the fasten seatbelts sign.

@Tatterdemalion

"Dammit, Sara, we're in the middle of something!"

Victor's on his feet and in Sara's face. Does Locker have the phone? He must have passed it to him. He can take care of it.

"I did not interrupt you and Errant, so fuck entirely off, would you? When it's fixed! Maybe! Ask it! Fuck no! Happy?!"

And it's that moment that he realizes that, without quite meaning to, he's stood protectively in front of Locker, fists balled into hammers. It'd be so easy. He's inside her guard. Could he get off the hit before she had time to realize what was going on? Historically maybe, but then he'd get torn apart in the ensuing--

Bing.

It's the strangest thing to end a glaring contest. And it doesn't really end it, just provides a much needed excuse. He's still glaring at her, chest heaving, sweat beading on his forehead, willing the adrenaline to go away.

"We," he says, every word bit off, "are going to have words. Together. With Errant. After this is done. And then you can ask Errant and myself why neither of us told you."

It's needlessly cruel, and he regrets it almost instantly, but it's out there in the world. And just like childhood pictures or family documentaries, it can't be taken back.

Masks: Resurrection Roundabout

"You think that Saraphim respects my privacy out of the goodness of her heart?" said Locker. "I can guess her comlog password cold in under twenty attempts, less if I know what she's been doing recently. Here, bring up the login page," without so much as a blink of hesitation he unseals the jar with your nanites and gives you back your phone, looking over your shoulder.

"But yeah. I do have an EMP grenade as backup."

@Thanqol

"Why," wars with "of course you have one," but both thoughts are pushed out by "where the hell is he keeping it, though?" He blushes heavily, and grabs the phone. Can't blush, after all, if you're too focused on the phone.

"Knowing her, probably narrating this for future generations. Heaven help me if she streamed it, because then it's out in the net and you can guarantee that it's never coming back."

Mmm. Limbs are nice. But somehow, he can't help but just lean back a little bit more. This is nicer, somehow.

"There. That's the last username I knew, and knowing her, the password is probably something embarassing, obscene, or both."

Masks: Resurrection Roundabout

"No, you're staying here," said Locker, taking another sip of his battery acid. "We need to reprogram Prometheus so that he's not an amoral capitalist monster. You clearly can't think your way out of that problem so you're not our guy. Must be something in your brain structure, Prometheus' heel turn was exactly the same as yours right now. Anyway, we're going to let the Professor take a shot at it."

@Thanqol

"s'not how brains work," he grumbles. "You don't inherit a perfect copy of your parent's brains, and that's when you're working in the same species, let alone classification of being. You can't generalize to computers like that, s'not how it works."

Why is Locker being so difficult about this? He groans and leans in further. "Look, I just don't get why you think this is a bad thing. Hack, amoral capitalist monster? Kinda judgy, isn't it? I mean, yeah, he's taken some things to extremes that even now I wouldn't pursue, but it's not like capitalism is inherently immoral. It's just a remarkably efficient system for distributing scarce resources, normally along lines of ability. And you're plenty able, believe you me, because I have
been keeping an eye on you."

Mmm. Better make that two--Locker displayes incredible potential as a pillow.

"And why shouldn't the most able have the most resources? I mean, can you imagine what inventions could come about from just shoving all the money and power at someone like me? Like you? What advances the world could make!"

He could make a dozen Prometheuses. The thought strikes him like a fish to the face and he finds himself grimacing. That... That doesn't make sense.

Then, slowly. "Then again. That would mean that all the world's resources are vulnerable to the whims and caprices of only a few. And no matter how capable the leader, nobody's really an expert on everything. And while I might, personally, be the equal of any twenty scientists you might choose, I'm pretty sure that I wouldn't be equal to the output of forty, sixty, a hundred, and so on."

He's silent, and luxuriates in the worlds of thought and abs.

"And when you get right down to it," he says slowly, "Capitalism has some issues with waste and efficiency, as well. I mean, purely from a perspective of development, it's inefficient as all hell to limit your development to only those people who are on your staff. Easier to control, certainly, and infinitely easier to control versions, but more efficient? No, not more than putting the code to the public, and allowing them to create their own modified code according to their own needs.

"And that's before you even get into the inefficiencies caused by the need to be profitable." There's part of him that feels like he should be slapping himself for this, the ultimate heresy, but he keeps going. "Like, even above and beyond overproduction, capitalism's need to be profitable above all else means that it often creates its own destruction. Like, time and again it's shown that long-term it's more costly to hire an experienced employee and bring in a new one, but acknowledging that would mean admitting that there's some bargaining power to be derived from experience, and that would mean paying people more."

He can see how to turn the system to his own advantage. He's running the numbers and, if he really wanted to, he's pretty sure that it would be trivial to turn the shareholders against AEGIS, cause a panic. It'd be a disaster, a ruin, a warning story told about in business schools across the world, of "how not to win at capitalism."

So why does it seem suddenly appealing?

"And that's not even accounting for what capitalism does to the people who actually create the profit," he breathes, eyes closing in thought. "I mean, I might have created the design and set up the supply chain, but if I were to manufacture my nanites, it'd still be the ones manning the machines creating the actual value, and the cashiers selling the product. So why shouldn't they get the lion's share of the value they create, instead of squabbling over the scraps left over once I and my shareholders have more than enough to live on?

"Really, that's the biggest inefficiency of capitalism, is the hoarding of resources, of one person at the top of the heap holding all the cards and saying, 'these are mine, this is my work, you can't have any even though I'll never realistically be able to use even 1% of all these resources. Go starve on your bootstraps.'"

Hmm.

"Like a CEO."

Fuck.

"Fuck."

He sighs, shakes his head vigorously, and sighs again. "So, I'm hoping you have an EMP device somewhere under that PJ top, because I desperately need to wipe a phone about now."

Masks: Resurrection Roundabout

"Mm. Low priority. Apparently you're the one with brain problems," said Locker. He took a sip of the drink and then offered it to you again. "We're about to go fight Turbo Knight and Prometheus for the fate of the world. Do you want to come with, or are we going to have to leave you in a utility closet for the duration?"

@Thanqol

"I! What! You!" Victor sputters like a fuse about to reach a powderkeg. Then he's upright, bites the edge of the can, and drains it in one fell swoop. "Look here, you jumped-up wannabe, Prometheus is my creation, he's my problem, and if you think you're going to leave me here while you rush off and save the--holy fuck, you drink that?"

Coughing up a fit, he drops the can and sags against Locker. "Fuck me, it tastes like tonguing a battery's ass."

And now he's coughing for an entirely different reason. Like, you wouldn't think it to look at the guy--after all, he spends most of his days dressed in what amounts to sweatpants and a pajama top--but underneath all the fluff is what he's realizing are incredibly firm abs.

"Um. Er. Ahem. To answer your question, fuck you. Yes, I'm coming with, and if you think you're running off without me, you'd best be prepared for me to stage a daring escape, hack the navigation console, and send the Gears foundation screaming into AEGIS headquarters."

He pauses, and leans further into Locker. (Holy crap, you could bounce a casino's wortha quarters off them.) "Which, of course, would be an objectively terrible plan, and cause hundreds of thousands of dollars in insurance premiums alone. I'd really hate to do that to my new company. Which is why I'm coming with now."

Masks: Resurrection Roundabout

Locker moves in slouches. He always looks exhausted but it's even worse with the black eye and bruises. He looks like he's never slept in his entire life. He doesn't respond at all to anything you're saying, not like he's not listening, but like he's waiting for you to get around to being honest with him.

Pssht! He opens a can of an energy drink - the kind so rich in caffeine that any functional government would have banned as a matter of principle. He folds up like a deckchair, coming down to your level and holding the can out for you to take a sip from if you want.

@Thanqol

His eyes are not on the can. He would love to have eyes on the can. Unfortunately, Locker has squatted right in front of his face, and he's pretty sure right now that his face could serve double purpose as a space heater.

Oh. Right. Human interaction requires occasionally doing more than ogling.

Damn.

He looks up--and keeps looking up, holy crap--and winces when he meets Locker's eyes. "Fuck, man. You look like you headbutted a belt sander. You alright?"

Masks: Resurrection Roundabout

9891. Click. Eeeerp.

Dammit all, they really had to use a combination lock?

9890. Click. Eeeerp.

Falling off the chair sucked, and inch-worming over to the jar was just as bad, but at least he was making progress. Just... Another--

9889. Click. Eeeerp.

--9888 to go. He sighs, and is in the middle of tongueing the delicate dial down another number when the door swooshes open. Aaaaand it is the worst possible thing. This is not a dignified position for a CEO to be in. They have flunkies for this. Retract the tongue, slowly, deliberately.

"...Morning," he says. Cool. Play it cool. He's not lying on the floor, licking a lockbox. He's dignified. Draw him like one of your french playthings, Locker. "Can't say I. Expected you. That is. I knew, of course, that. That you were on the ship."

He stares at the jar, and wills his tongue to extend. Come on. Two inches. You can do this. 9887. Come on.

"...Look, I'm betting they've already filled you with promises, but I have a better one. Which I will tell you. Definitely. After I get my hands back."

Masks: Resurrection Roundabout

Nobody sees her move. First she's standing by the door with her arms folded over her chest, and then immediately after that she's grabbed Sara by the collar at the back of her neck and dragged her out of her chair. There's no filler frames. Snap, snap. She frowns, possibly unsure who to hit. She settles for ramming both their heads together with a satisfyingly dully clunk.

Then she yanks Sara back again and stands as straight and tall as she can manage, cracking her neck to hide how deep her blush is.

"Not! In! Front! Of! The! Prisoner! You! Moron!"

@Phoe

"¡Ay! Pendeja, ¡putéate en la mierda!"

Funny. He's always been assured that being hit by a pretty girl is a good thing. Turns out, it just sucks.

[Errant's backfired Assess question turnaround!
-What is Victor most vulnerable to right now?

Errant!

So, right now Victor is riding high. Slightly less high, admittedly, than about thirty seconds ago, but he is full of plans, capitalism, and himself, in that order. If you wanted to get him back to normal, you'd need to deflate at least one of those things. Bringing in Bode would, I think, get through to him even in this state. I hope.

Or, I mean, he's a torso with a head and no limbs. Pummelling until he stops talking might not be the most rational way to deal with things, but it'd be fucking satisfying, wouldn't it? Aren't you tired of being nice? Don't you just wanna go apeshit on this asshole?

-Is it possible to gag a man with his own nanite limbs?]

I mean. Yes, technically? But if you look at the volume of mouth and the volume of four sets of limbs, it's really inadvisable. You're gonna burst his stomach before you even get started on the second leg. You might be able to shove just enough nanites into his mouth to jam it up, but then you're giving him tools. And then you have to keep his mouth shut somehow, and tape gags are never as effective as the serials make them look. Plus, the second you open that jar, at least some of the nanites are going to make a break for it and go cause problems somewhere else in the ship, force you to leave him alone.

All in all, a ballgag seems like it'd be simpler, and you and Sara could make a date of picking out one both of you like.

[- How could we best end this quickly?
- What here can I use to embarrass Victor in a fun way?]

@Tatterdemalion

@SARAHPHIM!

H'okay, so the biggest issue is Sabrem's gas. Did you grab her onto the ship after Errant disarmed her backpack? She'd know the best antidotes for the gas. Heck, even if she's not here, you have Bode and you have Locker. You're not exactly strapped for supergeniuses, is what I'm saying. You could probably even trick Victor into doing it himself, if you can figure out how to phrase spitting out the koolaid as being good for his quest to take over AEGIS. Phrase it as a challenge to his ego, and he'll bite.

As for the second part... are we talking immediate humiliation, or long-term, "show the grandkids uncle Brainstorm's epic freakout" kind of embarassment? Because the latter is a lot easier--you have a camera, and this is the stuff that home videos are made out of. You keep filming, and this is the sibling-blackmail material of the century. Streaming it doesn't seem like it'd be all that effective--he's in full-on CEO mode, and bad publicity is just a matter of the right spin doctors.

But if you want to be really nasty? You're a lot more in touch with how people think, so you know he's got it bad for Locker already, even if he doesn't. Bring him in here, and he's gonna be a lot more reluctant to act out, lot more blushy and stammery.

(And then you film it, because those grandchildren also want to hear the story about how Uncle Vic met Uncle Tor, and that's blackmail material almost as good as what you already have.)

Masks: Resurrection Roundabout

"Victor?" she chimes, "Maybe you'd like to stop talking before one of us says or does something you'll regret~"

@Phoe

"Oh, sure, that sounds peachy," he snarks. "Look, I'm a little busy right now. I have an inside line to AEGIS, I'm monitoring their every business decision, I don't have time for... for whatever the hell you think this is. The sooner we move on from your lame-ass kidnapping attempt, the sooner I can get on with revolutionizing the face of heroism in this city."

“Speaking of the calendar,” she drawls, “we could get started on the next one right now. Want me to shut him up, Eunicorn?”

She waggles one foot in his face with the shit-eating grin of a sister who has her nerdy dweeb of an adoptive brother at her mercy, and zooms in the camera on his reaction.

@Tatterdemalion

"Just so long as you're aware that you're losing whatever you put in my mouth," he deadpans, and then a look of. Of wonder? Of amazement? Whatever the look is, it crosses over his face and then returns to camp there. "Eunicorn. Holy shit, Eunicorn? That's. What, a pet name? Sara didn't come up with that, I guarantee that. Holy shit, this is the best. Like, I'm not saying the message boards are going to light up with this, but can you imagine the potential sales? Errant, corporate champion, icon of the free world, and potential idol? Oh, the media coverage AEGIS would have."

Oh, they've made a mistake. They've put his nanites where he can see them. And that means that he can see what they're doing, and hopefully that means that somehow he can octopus the lid of the jar off from the inside. Lessee, what is he working with here?

[If that's enough for an assess, then that's a 6.]

Masks: Resurrection Roundabout

Victor, you're still hooked up to the Spiral Mind and are drinking deep of the black nectar of capitalism. One aspect of this is that you've got a whole lot of data coming in regarding Victoria and her plans. But now these unemployed scrubs want to get your time of day? Tell 'em to get outta here, why don't you?

@Thanqol

"You guys," Victor says judiciously, "are fucking assholes."

This is, sadly, not the first time Sara's stolen his limbs. He can feel them, somewhere, battering against the lid of whatever tupperware jar they put his nanites in. But not tying him up? Come on. Give him some respect, maybe? Some common courtesy? At least pretend you think he's a threat worth more than just propping his torso up in a chair.

Fucking humiliating, is what this is.

"Seriously. You!" He should be pointing. They've taken his hands. Can't point at Errant. Commie bastards. "I thought you, of all people, would be hunky-dory for my new change of heart. Finally! Finally, we two can be truly on the same side, have fun adventures! Errant, corporate champion, and Brainstorm, CEO! Once I take over AEGIS, you'd have free reign to pursue whatever hobbies you fancy---maybe we could make you the director of the bureaucracy, wouldn't that be fun? Wouldn't even send you out on any of the more distasteful missions, and that's more than could be said of miss 'punch you through a wall for laughing at her' Victoria. You're seriously telling me that you'd rather literally rebel against the very people who raised you, taught you, made you who you are, than see me in charge of it? That's your line? You'll gladly toe the line when AEGIS is bombarding-by-proxy the entire neighborhood, but the thought of me running things my way sends you running for the hills?

"Love the red, by the way. 'Criminal' is quite a fetching look."

He snaps back to the other bitch in the room. "Speaking of the other bitch in the room, chinga mi madre, Sara, was me having two minutes in the spotlight already too much for you? I swear, you'd think that after having franchised you'd be more willing to friggin' share. But noooo! Can't have Victor having fun! I mean, you've already stolen everything else in my life, so why wait when I'm finally on the cusp of turning over a new leaf? Oh wait, that'd mean that I might actually make something of myself, instead of being content to be one of the losers who waste their lives watching the poorly-edited drivel you produce! Fucking A, it's just like the time you stole my photo album to make the Wincest calendar! Yeah, I know about that, you think I didn't notice it went missing right about the time you got that new hardlight generator installed?

"...Actually, that was a pretty slick move. Like, still a bastard, but the kind of bastardry that I can admire and get behind. Maybe once I'm CEO, we could do another one of those calendars. I mean, horny is as horny does, and horny spends money. They're already buying my bootleg horndog calendars, and that means that they're not buying licensed Brainstorm softcore. Note to self: purchase a Cali studio, they have relaxed restrictions on that kind of thing.

"Anyway. You two have had your fun. So now, what's going to happen is you're going to give me back my limbs and a sizable chunk of bribery, and I'll forget this happened. Then, once I take over AEGIS, Errant will get her job back, and @SARAHPHIM won't have pissed away every sponsership deal she ever made. We'll be... well, you'll be employees. But favored ones, and that's more than can be said of most of the people I'll hire."