Technomancers Gotta Technomance

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Online, Emma and Aster talk over orphan policy and foot-in-mouth disease.

Date: 09/25/2018

The Internet


Cast:

Is it late? It might be late. SpaceCadet314 sends Aster a DM: 'Hey, is Capital E. Busy? DM me when ur done.'

Aster is online. This is almost always the case, but right now she's /actively/ online, in almost all the ways Emma would know about. She isn't actively streaming anything, but she's signed into her instant-messaging accounts, she's reading through research from an online library or two, and she seems to be signed into all manner of games. At once. That can't be right, given how many of them are twitch action games.

Nevertheless, Asterisk responds to the DM with the speed of crazy-fast-typing: 'I'm here. Sup?'

Emma doesn't take long to fire back. 'Oh thought you were busy gimme a sec.' Apparently she meant that literally, because a second later she hammers out 'we good? I think I'm via onion via proxy via another proxy. dun wan snoopy snoopy nsa.'

Aster shoots back, 'Hold on.'

A moment later, Emma has a DM on her screen from another window, and another account entirely, Stargirl -- which has a picture of that one DC character, for extra cover. No, it's not a reference to asterisks, but just a fangirl. Possibly a weirdo RP account, at that. 'This one's secure.'

'Cool.' Emma shoots back, quickly. 'meetings with the movers and shakers. not surprising, cuz we have meetings, but... q for you:' Pause. 'what u think about how to treat orphans? Club material? Dunno how other clubs treat orphans. All... "Hey, we hate orphans" or "nah they cool." ?? No orphans at old lab. Just SCIENCE.'

'They cool.' Aster messages back. Yes, including punctuation and capitalisation. In spite of her address, she apparently doesn't go in for one thousand three hundred thirty-seven speak. 'As much in the club as anyone else. Have more use for the club, even, since' And there the messages cut off for a minute or two.

Emma waits those couple of minutes, before firing off a '??'

'Sorry, had to kill a D'Deridex.' So apparently, Aster's still gaming. 'Since they don't have clubs of their own, a club like ours is good for orphans. You could go to a Science club, but I don't think there are orphan clubs.'

Emma messages back a quick 'SCIENCE club = best club' followed by an upside down smiley. 'IDK I'm trying to stay true to my principles + follow what the mothership would want. some of the orphans not making it EZ. Foot meet mouth."

'Lot of orphans?' Aster asks. 'I know one, don't know others.'

'Three. Z, is nonstarter. bad juju. may be playing for other team.' She writes. 'A and A may be ok. u know bird lady quit her tribe, yeah?'

'Nope,' Aster answers. 'Don't know that A. Know nerdgirl tsundere A.'

'lol' Emma shoots back. A few seconds later, she shoots over a gif of a unicorn farting rainbows. 'not her' She clarifies. 'Bird lady. now ex-death cult? u no meet?'

Aster's answer takes a moment. It comes in the form of a brief animation from her webcam. Aster -- her hair blue now, apparently -- looking into the camera and slowly, firmly shaking her head. 'Doesn't ring a bell,' she types. 'Don't know bird lady.'

'huh. well, she's around.' The SpaceCadet rattles off quickly. A few moment's pause, before she types, 'you dyed ur hair?'

'Sorta,' Aster replies. 'Trick I'm working on. Cosmetic changes. Little stuff first. This should fade by tomorrow morning.'

Emma pauses a bit, before returning to the keys: 'looks good. like red too. bold.' She types, followed by a winking emoticon. 'of 3 people in boss town, 1) wants to nail bird lady to wall, 2) inviting bird lady to band, 3) me = ??? IDK. She quit death cult, but super impuslive. Constantly putting foot in mouth. Frustrating.'

'Wait a sec,' Aster says. 'Bird lady like recent bird tattoo?'

'No.' SpaceCadet shoots back. 'how secure are we? i'm not tracable i think but u?'

'Private connection,' Aster says. 'Just know one girl with foot-in-mouth disease that bad, and never heard anything about a death cult.'

Emma takes a moment, where she tries to trace her own connection back. She messages something about 'brb checking' as she satisfies herself that, yes, they're in the overkill world of security. 'k back.' Pause. 'Alma has foot in mouth disease. Euthanos. Now ex-Euthanos.'

'Oh that A,' Aster says. 'Met her once. Don't know about her regular foot-mouth diplomatic relations, or her ex-cultiness.'

'she quit. now orphan.' You can almost feel the disapproval in the message. Maybe Emma is typing it with annoyance. 'She is expert foot chewer. Wait, that sounds weird.'

'Like some weird niche massage technique,' Aster agrees.

Emma has just one thing to say to that: 'ew.'

'Rule 51,' Aster points out.

'rotflcopter' Emma types, along with an XD emoticon. 'guess they have those pedicures where fish nibble at ur feet. weird, but peep w/ money pay 4 weird shit.'

'Mo money, mo weird things to blow it on,' Aster says. 'But queues done, so back to orphans. Welcome by default, but case by case? Like if someone's clearly a dick or danger, they can hit the road like if a Sciencewizard was a dick or danger.'

'idk.' Emma writes back. 'want to know moar about how other clubs handle it. but also don't want to perpetuate systemic priviledge.' She pauses a beat 'guess that kinda makes my mind up for me eh?'

'If they fit in with other clubs, they wouldn't be orphans, would they?' Aster says. 'Don't think there /is/ a unified way of handling it, even within a club. With my peeps, though, if you can walk the walk, you're in. Hopefully walking it with unchewed feet but, you know. We're computer nerds. Social skills aren't in top supply.'

Emma lols again, followed by yet another XD emoticon. 'ditto. SCIENCE party is best party, but most soc-awkward party' she adds. A few seconds pass, before she adds, 'maybe case by case is good. way to go.' she thinks out-loud.

'I bet you and third A are cute together,' Aster says, with a long string of love-heart, kissy-kissy, and various more explicit emoticons. Well, as explicit as single-line ASCII can get.

SpaceCadet eyerolls... or their emoji does, anyhow. 'lost track of which a we're talking about at this point.' she adds. 'thnx. good to bounce ideas off wall.' Pause 'not that ur wall.'

'Can be dumb like one sometimes,' Aster says. 'But can't we all? And it sounds like you figured out how you want to tackle the orphan issue. Woo woo Batman.'

'maybe.' Emma messages back. 'idk. it reframes things though.' A few moments later, 'where r u killing a D'Deridex? isn't that startrek?'

'Star Trek Online,' Aster says. 'Got into it like a week ago, max level now.'

'oh mer gerd. nerd narvana. is it any good?' Emma writes back.

'It's good,' Aster says. 'FTP.'

'Brb.' is the last thing she writes before she goes dark. Presumably, somewhere, Emma's downloading the client for Star Trek online, and trying to force it through her bandwidth at home.