A beating heart of stone | A new arrival

[annihilist]

Who: Devin Parker
What: New arrival! He's not enjoying himself.
When: Start of the month, amid the giant vole infestation problems
Where: Promenade, Operations module, and wherever voles congregate
Warnings: None, will add as needed.

A. A New Arrival

What in the nine hells is this?

Devin was not entirely unaccustomed to being yanked around by gods, but this was… new. A moment ago, he had been standing in the private room of his club, and now he stood in the middle of the promenade. For a long stretch, Devin stood very still as he assessed his surroundings. No immediate danger he could see or hear or otherwise sense; it appeared much like a futuristic town square, of sorts. A hub of activity, or what should be a hub. There were some people, but hardly the number he'd expect for a place of this size.

His attire was completely different, if reasonably practical. The tablet in his hand was not like ones he knew, but it was comprehensible from a usage standpoint. If this whole thing was a trap, it was a highly unusual one.

Cautiously, Devin walked until he could find a place to sit, and opted to begin with the tablet. This, at least, provided an answer to his arrival, albeit in a much less ostentatious format. He had not yet met the entity named Q, but Devin resolved to treat him with the same amount of respect as he did any other god, which is to say: very little.

"Bloody hell," he muttered, and kept reading and watching people go by.

B. Operations

It quickly became obvious that what people there were on this bizarre station were occupied and overwhelmed by enormous alien rodents.

All things considered, this was not the worst introduction to a place Devin had ever had. He found his way to the Operations module, since that was apparently his assigned duty (he could think of worse occupations, too), and spent a long while carefully familiarizing himself with the computer interfaces and capabilities of the station. Giant voles very likely were not the biggest problem they'd face, and Devin would rather be prepared.

Suffice it to say he will remain engrossed, if extremely attentive to his surroundings while he studies.

C. Giant Rats

Phasers were vastly different from the firearms Devin was accustomed to, but his skills with guns still came into play. If it looked like he was channeling his confusion and agitation with this situation into learning how to expertly use the phasers and killing voles, at least it was a useful redirection. Feel free to join him.

Still, it was an inefficient methodology, so at one point he took the risk of fiddling with the settings on the phaser. "There's got to be a way to make these damned things wide-beamed," Devin grumbled, consulting the information on the computer screen next the the bench he'd temporarily claimed. Surely someone had tried this before.

Comments

[annihilist]

If Devin's exhale contains any annoyance in it, it would take a keen observer to notice. He's not the one people usually come to with these sorts of problems. They know better which of his advisors will be helpful (and which will only yank their chains). Or if they don't, they learn very quickly.

He raises his eyes briefly, a sharp glance, before turning back to the padd. "Do you want suggestions? Or do you want to spend the abundance of available resources you have now figuring it out yourself? Because if you want someone to soothe your fears and pat you on the back and tell you everything will be fine, I'm not going to do that. Find someone else to coddle you."

[breedscontempt]

"Suggestions," Guillermo says, letting the acerbic tone wash over him. Honestly, it barely registers. It's not the first time a vampire's spoken to him like that, it's not even the thousandth, and it's not going to be the last. He's completely inured to it. If it had been someone he knew, however, he'd snap back, but they all know better than to treat him like that these days. Most of the time. But this guy? This guy just sees the outward image Guillermo projects - just a harmless, chubby guy in a cardigan and a button-down, an almost cherubic innocence about him. And like a siren, that image had drawn countless humans to their deaths. (He does mean countless. He'd stopped counting.)

"I'm just thinking that since we're all stuck here, maybe we can put our heads together."

[annihilist]

It has less to do with Guillermo's appearance than he might think; Devin is interested in how he'll respond. Dismissing someone who smells that much of blood seems like a poor decision, even if he appears only human. The vampire is not so distressed by being kidnapped into this reality to forget that.

He'd have been more impressed if Guillermo chose the second option, but he's not surprised. It's too soon to expect him to deviate from whatever patterns of dependency he's been living in.

"You may not find everyone here so willing to be a team player." As irritable as Devin is right now, he actually can work with others towards goals. No doubt Q picked some people who did not work well with others, just to watch chaos ensue. "We're not getting out of this by leaping to the end, either. Walk before learning to run, so to speak. What you can best control is yourself." He raises the padd and waves it a bit, sighing. This is, in some ways, not so different from when he murdered his way to elderhood. "Figure out where you've been placed in the hierarchy, figure out the lay of the land, and then contemplate steps forward. Listen, look, then ask questions."

[breedscontempt]

"Hierarchy, huh." He's used to being...what's below the bottom of the totem pole? Because that. Even his promotion had been more lateral than anything. Then again, when you live with vampires, you're always going to be a steak on legs until they get used to you. (Nandor had once said that it used to be difficult to resist eating him until he wondered why nobody had yet, and compared him to the last donut in the display cabinet. Whether or not that had been just to dissuade Simon and Carol from snacking on him, it had still hurt in a completely bizarre and unhealthy way.)

Still, it's not so different from the way he'd decided to tackle Nadja and Nandor's vying against each other for power. He isn't unfamiliar with Sun Tzu, with Machiavelli. He's just been too angry to think straight about the situation, his blood boiling with the desire to kill his way out of it. Cut off the snake's head, etc.

"Yeah, the people I spent a lot of time with back home, they weren't exactly team players either." It had been like herding cats. Or herding bats. "You learn to work with it." He smiles. "You don't exactly strike me as a team player, yourself."

Poking the bear, gently, trying to elicit a reaction. Just to see.

[annihilist]

"Presumably you were given an assignment like the rest of us." For now, they're all labeled as ensigns. Equal footing. Whether anyone will give a shit about rank as they spend more time here is up in the air.

The corner of his lips turn up wryly, not quite a smile, at the man's observation. It doesn't reach his eyes when he looks up again. The padd is left on the table, and Devin's posture gives away very little except that he is paying attention more obviously now. "You've spent all of five minutes with me," Devin points out. "How have you come to this conclusion?"

[breedscontempt]

Guillermo smiles, just a little. "That wasn't a denial. And I'm pretty good at reading people. Call it a survival skill." He's used to the fey moods that his housemates often get into, and he knows how to hook people to come and be takeout for his Master, and he knows when to speak up and when to keep his head down. He wouldn't have lasted twelve years as a familiar if he hadn't.

"But if we're going to get into something in-depth like this, we should probably introduce ourselves properly, huh? I'm Guillermo."

[annihilist]

"It was a question." One that Guillermo did not answer, in fact. Devin would like to hear the man's reasoning before proving him incorrect. He might be the titled leader of his own little empire, but Devin would not have survived to be twenty if he hadn't learned to work with others, much less reach his current age. He does not solve every problem with violence.

Devin tilts his head, considering the introduction with some amusement. "I think you may be overestimating the depth of this conversation, Guillermo," the vampire says mildly. Still, he offers his name: "I'm Devin."

[breedscontempt]

Guillermo's rationale - that no vampire he's ever known has been anything resembling a team player - is not something that he's about to share. Even the Vampiric Council is more of an organization of convenience than anything. So he has to come up with something else. Luckily for him he's a great liar. Again, an acquired survival skill. "Call it a vibe," he says. "I dunno, people who sit by themselves in a space station that's already so huge and empty...kinda seems like you work better alone if you're not trying to join forces with everyone already. Strength in numbers, and stuff."

[annihilist]

"So your conclusion is based on assumption. Pity." Devin exhales a small huff of disappointment. Certainly in this moment he's giving off an air of 'leave me the hell alone', but surely he can be forgiven for that. Being displaced so abruptly would throw anyone off, and some people isolated themselves when things got hard. He keeps the edge from his tone when he continues. "I've been here less than an hour. All I know about this place and why I'm here, I've learned from this," he says, indicating the padd, "and from observation."

He's following the same advice he gave Guillermo: listen, look, then ask questions. Devin is not inclined to trust anything about this situation, nor anyone else here. Nothing yet has made it clear this isn't some grand illusion, some manipulative trap. Also, congrats Guillermo: you're the first person he's talked to here.

"In my experience, I've found it the wiser course to understand where my feet have landed before I go walking into potential dangers."

[breedscontempt]

"Assumption, experience, call it what you want," Guillermo says with a smile. "But I know I'd feel better with someone to watch my back here."

Typical vampire arrogance, thinking he can go it alone.

"I mean, I've only been here a couple hours, too, but I'm poking around the station. I get kinda restless when I'm just sitting around."

[annihilist]

"Those two things are not necessarily the same, and you're assuming I'm not going to seek out other people just because I'm sitting here now. I wonder why that is," Devin remarks, a curious gleam in his eyes. Sure, experience can inform assumptions, but experience can equally blind someone to certain things (and he's aware, if a bit grudgingly, that this also applies to him).

It is true that the vampire has a fierce independent streak - but the same life experience that has him sitting here alone, reading and watching to orient himself, has also ground into him the need for a team. The problem is that the only people he has any measure of trust in are not here. He does not have the luxury of believing the people he meets are anything but dangerous to him, or to the people he's responsible for. He never has.

"You may prefer movement; some people prefer stillness." For his part, Devin's preference depended on the circumstances. In this case, staying still is what he needed first. There's sharp amusement in his tone as he says, "You seem very set on judging and dismissing my choices for someone who's just met me. Whatever did I do to deserve that?"