→ 002 | action | OTA

[cactusy]

WHO: Sameen Shaw and OPEN
WHERE: Around Temba
WHAT: Shaw is taking her new job very seriously.
WHEN: Late December into early January
WARNINGS: N/A for now!



It's been three weeks and change, and while it would be a stretch to say that Shaw has settled in, she at least feels like she's gotten a good handle on the lay of the land. Beyond the basics (new planet, space travel, drafted by aliens who need their help) and the logistical matters (Data Points, communication devices, replicators), the ultimate conclusion that Shaw has come to is this: she's not going to be given any sort of direction from above, and so it's up to her to figure out how she's going to pull her weight around here. The people that she's met so far have largely been cooperative and communal, a real bunch of team players who value things that she also values in an abstract sense, but that she's never been any good at providing on a personal level: looking after the young and the vulnerable, making sure that people are cared for, fostering peace and hope and goodwill towards man and all that mushy crap.

So what's a girl to do when she's not the type to decorate trees and hand out presents in the city square, but she still sees the value in protecting other people's ability to do just that? She signs herself up for security, grabs a big gun, and sets out to patrol the city, that's what. According to the crew rosters, only a handful of other people have picked the security expertise, which means that only a handful of people can fully defend themselves. As far as Shaw is concerned, that means that people like her are here to pick up the slack.

She's not necessarily obvious about it. When she sits on a rooftop for hours and surveys the streets below for danger, she's easy to miss. When she patrols down on ground level, though, she's a little more conspicuous, especially since this doubles as urban exploration: and in the absence of bad guys to fight and with the memory of that one girl falling down a hole still fresh in her mind, this turns into an impromptu safety inspection. "Hey," she might say, popping her head out of a broken second-story window and as she calls down to a passer-by. "You know where I can get spray paint? There's a lot of sagging floorboards up here; I wanna write some warnings on the walls."

The wilderness around the city is where most of the real danger lies, she knows, and so if she spots someone heading out of town - particularly if they're alone, and particularly if they're weaponless - she'll drop what she's doing and approach. "Need back-up?" she'll ask. "Been a while since I've roughed it, but I can hold my own."

Shaw has always been good at moving forward. It's easy enough to accept this as her new life, because there's nothing much left for her back on Earth: just Lionel, who she knows will get along fine without her, and Bear, who she knows Lionel and his kid will take good care of. She misses New York, misses the restaurants and delis and the way unplowed snow sparkles in the moonlight at night, but she can exist just fine without it. She misses her team, but her team is dead, and that's that. Here on Agra 10, she has Root's leather jacket to keep her warm, and she has a cool new gun to help her protect her new crew, and she has her legs to keep her moving forward. And that will have to do.

Comments

[thepurpleone]

Donnie rifles through pockets for a multitool, fumbling a bit before he gets the screwdriver portion out. He starts working at the panel he'd found, trying to pry it open.

"Oh, thanks. Made it myself," he says, pausing long enough to flash a grin at her. Compliments on his work are always more than welcome. "Are...you trying to fix things up in there or are you just marking hazards off?"

[cactusy]

"Just marking them; I don't know how to fix anything. I mean, I could jerry-rig something, sure, but--"

She leans further out the window, shakes the exterior fire escape to test the integrity of it, and is clearly satisfied with the results, as she swings her legs out the window and scoots down onto it.

"Why? You good at fixing stuff?"

[thepurpleone]

"I am all about fixing stuff!" Donnie says, just as he pops the paneling off. "My specialty is tech, but depending on the severity of the damage to the structure, I could probably manage something for that upper floor too, once I have a look at it. The real problem would be building materials." Not like there's a hardware store around.

"If the rest of the building is sound enough, we can probably repurpose materials from other ones that aren't as well off. -what is this sloppy wiring??" He scowls as he peers at the drone's inner workings.

[cactusy]

"Like that," she points out, probably unnecessarily. "Not useful for any structural engineering, but for other projects, sure. You wanna come up here and take a look at this floor?"

[thepurpleone]

Making a face, Donnie sighs and replaces the panel on the drone. Better to keep things dry in there at least. "This'll probably take longer to figure out than I thought. I'll have to drag it back to my workshop. But yeah, in the meantime..."

He gets to his feet, dusting his knees off before trudging through the snow towards the building Shaw's in.

[cactusy]

"You help me figure out how to rebuild this floor, and I'll help you bring back the snowblower," Shaw says, moving back through the window. See, Finch? she thinks to a man who's probably dead. I can do teamwork, too.

"Better come up the fire escape. The stairs inside are pretty dicey."

[thepurpleone]

"Deal."

Donnie looks up at said fire escape with a nod. "Yech, the stairs too? Eh well. Not that I am unused to this method of entry, although this city still has much to be left in want when compared to New York City," he sighs.

Snow makes it difficult to do a lot of things, but he gathers himself as best he can for a jump to grab onto the hanging rungs. That is the plan, anyway. Unfortunately his fingers slip on the first try and he ends up face-first in the snow.

[cactusy]

Hearing a very obvious alien namedrop her home city is even stranger than meeting a very obvious alien, honestly.

"Wait, did you say New Y--"

Aaaaaaaand then he's in the snow. Sigh.

"You okay?" Shaw asks, making her way down the metal stairs.

[thepurpleone]

He stays there only a second longer than he necessarily has to because he may be pouting into the snow, but abruptly he pushes himself up with a gasp for air. Snow is still cold, go figure.

"Y-yeah," Donnie mutters into the collar of his jacket, giving himself a quick dust off before he tucks his hands under his armpits to try warming himself up a bit.

[cactusy]

Reaching the bottom of the fire escape, Shaw wordlessly sticks her hand out to him, offering a boost up.

[thepurpleone]

The kid smiles sheepishly at that, picking himself out of the snow so he can reach up to grab her offered hand. Please don't mind that it's very cold. And only has two fingers and a thumb.

[cactusy]

Definitely a little weird. But the New York thing? Even weirder.

"So you're from Earth," she says as she hoists him up. She may be small, but she's extremely strong.

[thepurpleone]

At least Donnie's not terribly tall himself, about five-foot-three and lean in build. He looks a little impressed by how strong Shaw is however, even as he reaches for the fire escape with a hand once he's able to.

"Huh? Oh, yeah. -right, this whole situation. But believe it or not, I am in fact from Earth, born and raised."

[cactusy]

"Does your Earth have humans?"

Hey, at least she's acclimated enough that she doesn't disbelieve him.

[thepurpleone]

The question makes him laugh, so strange as it is, but he supposes it's a fair thing to ask.

"The majority are humans, actually. My family and I are more of the outliers seeing as we came to being by abnormal means," Donnie explains. "Well, dad started off human. My brothers and I were just normal turtles."

[cactusy]

Laughter is at least miles better than offense, which she's taking to mean that she can keep asking questions as they move up the fire escape. She'll step aside to let him go first - so that if he falls again, she'll be behind him to catch him.

"'Abnormal means'?"

[thepurpleone]

At least he's out of the snow. Donnie proves to do much better on the fire escape, making his way up without further incident.

"Oh, you know, scientific experiment by someone who intended to make super mutant warriors to destroy the human race sort of means," he says, perhaps too offhandedly. "-uh, you don't perchance have yōkai where you're from, do you? Although I guess even if you did, you might not be aware because they tend to stay out of human sight or just use camouflage of a kind to blend in."

[cactusy]

Shaw is quiet for a moment, thinking. The word sounds familiar...

"They're Japanese ghosts, right?"

[thepurpleone]

"Traditionally. I think it encompasses other supernatural creatures. Not exactly sure why the ones we know go by the term, maybe they originated from Japan or...I don't know, the name caught on?" Donnie shrugs. "Anyway, we thought they were all mutants when we first came across some but... I guess they've been a thing? And have just been super good at keeping hidden. Got a whole Hidden City and everything."

[cactusy]

"I don't get it," she says. "What does that have to do with your... dad... trying to use you to take over the world?"

[thepurpleone]

Donnie reaches the window, pausing just short of pulling himself through as he stares at the woman a moment.

"Oh- ohnono, see. Dad saved us from...that whole mess, I guess. It was some yōkai guy that wanted to destroy all the humans. I think he was convinced you'd destroy their kind or something," he shrugs, moving to slip inside.

[cactusy]

"Not an unreasonable worry," Shaw allows, following him through the window. "Definitely an unreasonable thing to do about the worry. Hey, careful on the floors."

He'll see what she's wanting to fix pretty quickly, though: the room they've climbed into is mostly intact, but the floorboards are damp and sagging with long-term water damage, threatening to collapse. Other rooms beyond are even worse, with whole sections already completely destroyed and fallen onto the story below.

[thepurpleone]

"Yeah, well, mad scientists, right?" Not that Donnie can really speak for himself.

He freezes once things creak as he sets his feet down, so he goes no farther than by the window and wall. Casting a glance around in further inspection, he whistles once he sees the interior. "Uh, yeah, I'd red tag this place. Not sure how useful anything will be if it all looks like this."

[cactusy]

"Knock it all down and rebuild something from scratch?" Shaw says, leaning against the window pane. Without construction vehicles and machinery, they'd be limited, but a modest hand-built building is still better than a ruined wreck.

[thepurpleone]

"Probably. If it's needed. Could always leave it for a future Agrii project. You know, whenever they figure they can come down themselves."

Donnie pulls his collapsed tech-bō out of his pocket again, thumbing it to full extension. "I'd say at most we can probably still use the windows, maybe? Glass, anyway," he mutters as he jabs at the soggy boards with the end of the titanium staff.