I'll follow behind you on rainbow road

[paragon]

Who: CAPTAIN AMERICA WANTS YOU
Where: The Baromanogerneson Residence (i.e., 5031)
When: May 9th
What: Mario Kart and subversion, two great tastes that taste great together.
Warnings: Please warn in subjects as needed!
[Open]

The thought had formed pretty much as soon as he'd opened the box that was left on the front porch. The people here need a way to talk. There are two rooms in the house where they would be free to do so. He'd come home one day — not long after the body had disappeared from the upstairs bathroom and all the cameras he'd ripped from their wiring between there and the garage had been put back in place in their absence with a friendly maintenance note left behind that all fixtures in need of repair had been seen to, along with a bill for the expenses — to find Natasha sitting on the bed, writing a note in Sharpie. He'd leaned against the door frame and watched her hold it up to the cameras and make a deal: Steve wouldn't break any more cameras, if they give them the privacy of their bedrooms. As there had only been the three of them at the time (despite the insistence in his head that the house has always been filled by his teammates, just as he remembers of the last few years before Wayward Pines), that had meant the master bedroom downstairs, and Bucky's upstairs.

It had actually worked, though Steve wouldn't have trusted the word of whoever's behind the cameras himself if it weren't for Natasha's daily inspections, and so far the deal's held.

But it's not — can't be — a luxury only afforded to them, for their own sakes. He's told others here and there, and he knows his friends have, too. It's not enough, but nor does he have a way to get people over without arousing suspicion. But then there's the Nintendo system. A little unorthodox, as far as his own methods go, but he'll work with anything he has.

He doesn't put it down anywhere in writing, letting news of the party travel by word of mouth and hoping that's enough to keep it out of the wrong ears. At least for now. There's a chance — a good chance — that it will eventually get the Sheriff's attention, but by then it will have had the effect it's supposed to and given the people here the chance to speak to each other truthfully. And if that comes down on anyone, it's gonna be the people prepared to deal with it.

The day of the ninth is a rainy one, a good day to stay inside and play games with friends. It also provides a good excuse to use the master bedroom just off the end of the foyer as a temporary coat room. Straight ahead in the living room, Mario Kart is all ready to go, and in the kitchen next to that, snack food and drinks are available.

((ooc: THIS IS A MINGLE POST. While I will be tagging around with Steve a bit, this is mostly to give people a chance to chat with each other without the cameras watching. Per Natasha's deal with the powers that be, the cameras in the master bedroom and Bucky's room upstairs have been removed. Natasha will be greeting people at the door and taking them on a "tour" (i.e., to the master bedroom to explain the camera situation, why the party's really happening, and that they are not to discuss the lack of cameras while elsewhere in the house). Feel free to wander in there any time for a chat, or simply enjoy some Mario Kart and refreshments! Commenting around is encouraged, and please note in your top-levels whether they're open or closed. If you have any questions for me I can be found on plurk (jeeps) or discord (jeeps#9644).))

Comments

[birdcostumes]

After you, then.

[He watches BB-8 climb the stairs, not really surprised at all that he's capable of doing so. If it's slow-going, following the droid up, Sam doesn't complain. He's fascinated just with watching.]

[volitaunt]

[ BB-8, for his part, makes a noise of relief at reaching the top. This is so much easier with ramps and with walls that don't buckle like paper under a grapnel.

BB-8 scans the area again, this time paying attention to more than the placement of cameras. He locates Sam's pack and promptly trundles over to it, wherever it might be, exclaiming and rolling as much of a circuit around it as he can.

He can tell that there's more tech than just the drone here, but he's got nothing in his databases that quite matches it. That, in and of itself, is an adventure. The kind of adventure he likes, none of this not being able to talk to Poe about things and having to work on tractors all day and not fly anywhere. ]

[birdcostumes]

[The not being able to talk to people thing really does suck, and Sam knows exactly how BB-8 feels as far as that's concerned.

He shrugs into his pack, then slips on the goggles and the bracer that allows him to control Redwing. The pack in its entirety is not necessary. He could take Redwing out of it and fly him through the house on his own, but maybe if they go outside, Sam might want to have his wings. Who knows.

But first things first. Redwing pops out of Sam's pack, and darts down the hall to Steve and Nat's room.]

Follow him.

[volitaunt]

[ The noise BB-8 makes is just on the sane side of ecstatic, and he doesn't hesitate to race out after the drone, already talking to it before he's even caught up.

What is it? Who made it? Its specs don't match Imperial, Resistance, or New Repulic designs. Is it custom? Is it illegal? BB-8 won't get them in trouble if it is.

As soon as he's in Steve and Natasha's room, he rolls from one side of the place to the other, explaining to the drone that this is the only interior space he's found other than the room downstairs that isn't fitted with cameras. Can Sam (translated, if Sam is getting any of this yet, as "human partner") hear any of this yet?

Then a string of noises that roughly translate as "excitement" or "exclamation". ]

[birdcostumes]

[That's okay, that's fine. Can the people listening in on the cameras fault robots for talking freely when people aren't allowed to do so? If anything comes of it, Sam will fight them either way.

Redwing isn't sentient, and he can't respond to BB-8's questions on his own, but Sam sees the questions suddenly popping up on the screen on his bracer.

He plops down on Steve and Natasha's bed without a care as he scrolls through the information he's suddenly receiving about his rolly-polly little friend.]

Redwing isn't that kind of robot. He can't talk back to you, I mean. He's not... uh. Not illegal? Probably? If you want to talk to his creator, Tony Stark lives right down the street. But you might not be able to talk to him, if there are cameras there. [Meaning, Sam already knows that the room they're in is camera-free.]

[volitaunt]

[ BB-8 tilts his head, looking from Sam to Redwing and then back, clearly perplexed by the idea of a machine that can't back, even if humans can't understand it. He gives a little headwriggle, imitation of a the headshakes he's seen humans use to express disbelief.

Still. Sam can understand him, which means a fresh barrage of questions and information communicated through a cascade of chirps, beeps, and buzzing sounds ranging in pitch with the same diversity as human speech.

His designation is BB-8, he's a BB series astromech droid partnered with Poe Dameron, there are no other droids here, and only four humans who speak Compressed Binary that he's found. Four! It's true that many humans don't bother with Binary if they have droids with translation capabilities or translation displays but still. And isn't unusual that the vast majority of individuals present are human?

What's his human designation? What's the pack that he's wearing? ]

[birdcostumes]

[BB-8 might be able to read data off of Redwing and pick up on his name and origin and whatnot, but Redwing himself cannot transmit data without somebody to physically transmit the data. In this case, Sam.]

BB-8? Is that your name, little guy? [Sam still squats down in front of him as he speaks to him, even though he's reading translations off of his bracer.] My name is Sam. Who is Poe Dameron? I don't speak Compressed Binary, isn't that a computer language, can people actually understand that?

[volitaunt]

[ BB-8 chirps an affirmative, finally starting to calm down.

Poe Dameron, he says, is a pilot, specifically BB-8's pilot, last known position being in the kitchen downstairs. And Poe understands it, as do Cassian and Rey, it's perfectly understandable. Sam understands it right now, doesn't he?

(The last cheeps and beeps sounds distinctly satisfied, a point proved.) ]

[birdcostumes]

[He's very obviously reading all of this off of the display on his arm bracer, which is coming from Redwing's translations.]

I don't know any of those people. [Though if Poe is in the kitchen, he makes a mental note to look for him later.] Redwing can translate for me, and he can see things that I might not be able to see. Otherwise, I wouldn't be able to talk to you.

[He lowers his arm and shows BB-8 the bracer which allows Sam to communicate with Redwing.]

[volitaunt]

[ Having a translator is no excuse not to learn! (So said someone at the base, and BB-8 repeats it now, because it seems like one of those bits of human wisdom designed to circulate.)

Still, he scans the bracer, adding it to his newest database along with the other, more low tech things he's logged around Wayward Pines.

Does Sam know how primitive this town is??

(BB-8 is friendly. It's boring not even having speeders to talk to, and speeders have the technical vocabulary of an infant human.) ]

[birdcostumes]

Binary isn't a language we learn, where I'm from, 'cause we don't generally have robots as smart as you running around.

[Of course, in the Air Force Sam was a part of, machines didn't communicate in the same way they apparently do, wherever BB-8 comes from. True AI does exist, but it's bad news, for the most part, if Ultron is anything to go by.]

This town is like, a decade or two behind, yeah. [Some of the vehicles he's seen have been pretty clunky, and the phones and computers are terrible.] I'm pretty sure most people here have never heard of an iPhone.

[volitaunt]

[ A decade or two! It's like an Outer Rim planet at best.

Well, okay, some Outer Rim planets are better than others, but Wayward Pines has nothing to write to Coruscant about.

A pause, then: What's an iPhone? ]

me losing track of everything I do forever: a ballad

[birdcostumes]

"Outer Rim..?" Little guy, wherever you're from, whenever you're from I don't know where that is. [Outer Rim? Coruscant? What the hell?]

iPhone... It's a cell phone. Portable phone, thing.

skfd the most relatable ballad

[volitaunt]

[ Year 34 After the Battle of Yavin, BB-8 says, as though that will somehow be illuminating. The little droid rolls back and forth, thinking, and then he rolls to the middle of the room's open space, tilts his head dome back, and projects a highly miniaturized map of the galaxy in blue light.

A scattering of planets brighten: the Outer Rim. Those dim again, and one nearer the center lights up. Coruscant.

The image folds in on itself and disappears. BB-8 doesn't know where any of those planets are, relative to Earth, he says. Also, why did they name their planet 'dirt'? ]