Not!Temba: better mind how you walk through

[kyley_b]

WHO: Kyle "ky-el" Broflovski and YOU!
WHERE: Not!Temba
WHAT: Exploring the Agricultural Building, University/Library and Alien Target 2: Electric Boogaloo.
WHEN: Latter half of July
WARNINGS: Bad language, general outlandish idiocy



Agricultural Building

In spite of every plan he ever had growing up in a redneck mountain town, Kyle has basically become a farmer. It's almost laughable, really. Still, he takes his job seriously and so he'll often be found systematically working his way through the Agricultural Building cataloguing plants, taking sample, and eventually harvesting things to take back to Temba.

He's easy to spot amongst all the green - a pop of red against the leaves and vines. Plus he'll wave at you if he sees you.

At some point he'll also be peering into the tubes that lead to the livestock nursery, clearly intending to investigate. Weaponless.


University/Library

Creeping through what's left of library requires some caution considering the state of the place. Kyle's inside, looking for books or some sort of readable data, and likely to be scared to death if you come up behind him. Hopefully he doesn't trip over something and conk himself on the head.

Inside the university he can be found prowling the halls, peeking into classrooms. "Dude," he mutters half to himself and half to anybody around. "This? This shit is how Japanese horror games start."


Alien Target 2

Fashion has never been his strong suit. Not that it should be a priority on an abandoned alien planet, but even if it were he'd be hopeless. As it is, he's wandering the aisles looking for clothes reminiscent of earth. There's what appears to be a changing room and for whatever reason he feels compelled to use it instead of just trying alien!sweaters on in the aisles. Alien!sweaters that are less alien than usual...

He also goes in search of gardening tools, which means he winds up in another aisle hefting rakes and shovels, occasionally swinging them like a baseball or imaginary sword. Because, you know. He's easily amused.

Comments

Re: University

[kyley_b]

"Yeah, like video games. It's uhm, like a low rent simulation?" He's not entirely sure how to explain video games, actually.


"Anyway. There's always an abandoned school and then the ghost of some girl with long black hair who'll fuck you up."

[on_repeat]

"What do you mean by 'low rent'? Aren't they immersive?" he asks, turning to look over his shoulder.

What's not seen is the thoughtful frown for this particular scenario. "Well, that's awful."

[kyley_b]

"Well, you play them on a screen with controllers, you don't wear a VR headset or anything."

Kyle nods. "Right? Being stuck forever at school... actually if I were a ghost that's probably how I'd wind up. Anyway. I'm hoping we can find any sort of book or files or data or whatever to confirm who lived in this city."

[on_repeat]

"So it's kind of like flash training." Also, that's a morbid thought to have, but Echo considers. "You sure you wouldn't end up anywhere else?"

All of that aside, Kyle has the right idea. "That'd be useful," he agrees. "Are we splitting up to cover more ground or just trying either side of the room before moving on?"

[kyley_b]

"I guess? But it's for fun." Kyle shrugs. "Probably not. I didn't really get out much back home."

He shakes his head. "No way, we're using the buddy system, especially if there's ghosts. So... I'll take left side of the room, you take right?"

[on_repeat]

"Fun. Right." While curious, he nods when Kyle insists on sticking with the buddy system. "Fine by me."

He sure is fixated on the ghosts. Echo lets it be, walking over to the right side to start looking through what's available. "Were you ever going to travel further away from home?" he asks, briefly glancing over at Kyle.

[kyley_b]

"Fun is important," he says a little defensively.

In Kyle's defense, he's seen a lot of ghosts.

"Well, I moved pretty far away for school. And I've been to other countries, mostly when I was younger." He shrugs. "But in University I mostly just studied."

[on_repeat]

As he listens, he searches, running his hands along the sides of the desks, the helmet turning to take another long look at what he's gone through so far.

"Even so, those experiences still count. And you were keeping yourself occupied."

After several beats, he asks, "Find anything?"

[kyley_b]

Kyle sighs. "No," he admits. "There's nothing. No books, no like... datapads... Jack shit." He sounds a little irritated with himself, as if maybe the entire idea to look for information was stupid.

He walks to the front of the classroom and looks through the shelves there, but finds more nothing.

[on_repeat]

Echo's brow furrows, but he knows that frustration well. "Everything's clean on this side, too," he says, walking toward the front. Taking a minute to look at and around the main desk, he tilts his head in the direction of the door.

"Let's try the other rooms, then. Same procedure."

[kyley_b]

"Yeah." Kyle follows along, trying to keep his optimism up.

The next class also lacks any books or anything that looks like computers, although there are some sort of cupboards near the back that remind Kyle of high school. "This could have been a science class of some kind," he says. "Back home they'd keep equipment in the shelves at the rear of the room. I don't see anything IN them here, though."

[on_repeat]

Echo follows Kyle's gaze, faintly recognizing the style from memories that shouldn't have been there. "Strange," he muses. "Even if they were thorough, somebody had to have left a few things behind..."

He starts down the row closest to him, crouching onto one knee to see if anything is still in or under one of the desks.

[kyley_b]

Kyle meanwhile decides he ought to open every single cupboard and drawer, looking for equipment or papers or anything. Mostly there's just dust, although he finds what is clearly some kind of ruler.

"I gotta say, dude, this is pretty boring."

[on_repeat]

Every desk, every table yields much of the same: nothing. Echo frowns, meeting Kyle's gaze with a sigh.

"You can say that again. Is every other room the same?"

[kyley_b]

He shrugs. "Only one way to find out."

He falls into step just behind Echo as they move to check another room. "So why'd you decide to come here and not hang out back in Temba?"

[on_repeat]

"Needed a change of scenery," Echo replies.

It should have remained a simple answer. But it doesn't.

"We have people who decided to jump the gun on riding the train over, which is a huge breech of protocol," he adds. "It wouldn't be right to leave them to their devices without backup. And call me crazy, but I miss being assigned missions."

[kyley_b]

Kyle, who was ready to leap onto the train himself, can't really fault people for that one.

"I don't think that's crazy," he says, choosing the address the last part of that explanation. "I mean, that was your whole LIFE before, right?"

[on_repeat]

"Down to the very minute," the ARC Trooper confirms, looking through another empty room with a frown. "I can't just throw all of my training away now that I'm here. So I'm improvising."

[kyley_b]

Kyle nods, following along. He's thinking more about Echo than the empty classes, trying to picture such a life.

"You know that's not bad, right? To feel comfort in old patterns. It's maybe not always healthy, but it's not a moral failing or something."

[on_repeat]

Not healthy? He's never considered that point before. Not that he's ever had to think about it being a possibility.

He glances back over his shoulder at Kyle, softly sighing as he tries to smile. "It's nice to have that kind of reassurance, kid."

[kyley_b]

Kyle just shrugs. "I never know if all of you guys from far away space have Psych 101 classes," he says.

[on_repeat]

Echo's helmet tips forward. "If it helps, we have medical evaluations."

[kyley_b]

"I mean, that's a start? But this is more about your feelings and crap. Emotional states can influence bodily health." He looks around again.

"Dude, how come every time we go looking for something we find like, nothing? Not that I want to run into a monster but like, I'm beginning to think maybe I'm bad luck for exploration."

[on_repeat]

"I don't know about everyone else, but clones were engineered to endure stressful situations." A shrug comes with the pause. "That's all out on the field, of course. Everything else dealing with emotional states is...well."

He obviously doesn't have an answer for it, but that gets set aside, walking over to clap Kyle on the shoulder. "I wouldn't say it's you. Although lulls are common, this place has been oddly quiet."

[kyley_b]

Kyle shakes his head. "You're not JUST a clone, you're a regular dude. You deserve just as much help with mental health as the rest of us."

Kyle sways a little under the force of that clap. "Heh. Thanks. Might be me, though, I have weird vibes."