Child's Play

[Shinigori V2]

"None of this makes any sense!" Kidritta whispers, looking upset. "Why do we have to wear these stupid costumes! How are we in a computer!? This is all a big stupid prank, isn't it!?"

There's a moment of silence from Rivendare, before he replies to Max. "She's got..A condition, Max. Maybe you should ask her about it yourself. She's got an accent because she's not from Deck City...She didn't die, but she was going to. As part of a deal with...The place she's from, we had her digitized into a Wunderkind, so she could join you."

There's a further pause, as he finishes. "She only got a day of training because you guys are the first unit, and we're not sure if there's going to be a second. So rather than have her sit around and wait for more kids that might not come, we bumped her into your group. Sorry we didn't give you any notice, but this all had to be done...Pretty quick."

[BrainWalker]

Max raises an eyebrow. The whole 'deal' thing was kind of scary, but Max didn't really understand it and he was pretty sure he wasn't going to get more of an explanation than Rivendare had already given him. No point in pursuing that angle. But the whole training thing, that was going to be an issue. She's not going to have anywhere near the understanding of her abilities as Lauren. That could be a liability.

Maybe it's true that she's not from Deck City, and that could explain the accent, even though it's thicker than most he's heard in his travels. Except, Max knows for a fact that she is at least capable of speaking without one. Maybe she just keeps her normal accent in check for movie roles. He'll also let the accent thing slide, for now.

But, a condition? Okay, maybe there's a condition that affects skin pigment, but one that gives you pointy ears? What the Hell kind of bullshit was that?

"A condition, huh?" Max switches his attention to the newcomer. "What sort of condition turns you from brown to white and gives you pointy ears?"

[Christian]

Alexis gave Max a stare. Died? Nobody'd said anything about dying. She turned back to Kidritta, seeing the growing panic in the girl's face. She shook her head a little, meeting her eyes. "N-No... this is real. Or, well, I think it is..." she glanced at Sam and then continued, "If you got really hurt, they might've had to put you in this project, you might've died otherwise. We're going to go outside soon though, so you're not going to be in here forever or anything..."

She bounced back and forth on her heels, arms behind her as she tried to figure out what to say. She knew the new girl was just being nervous, and having rude boys throwing around accusations was hardly making it better. "I-if you want, we can go to a kind of... forest-place, in here. It looks just like the outside, and it's really nice..." she leaned in to whisper, "And don't mind Max, I think your ears are pretty cool..."

[Shinigori V2]

Kidritta looked around, frantically, her eyes falling on everyone in turn, even Janet, who seemed more interested in her soup than a celebrity. "It...I..."

She took that moment to fall onto the floor, hugging her knees. "I was never actually tan, I have a condition! It's all special effects! It's all special-" She sobbed a moment- "Effects!"

She burried her head in her knees and started sobbing fully. "My hair's two colors, my skin's white and my ears are pointy because I've got some rare disorder or something, they just always used computers to hide it in my movies! I'm a freak, I know, so leave me alone!"

[Christian]

Alexis panicked.

She really, really hadn't expected this, and with Kidritta suddenly reacting like this... Alexis began to cry too. "I-I-I-I-I'm sorry." she stuttered, tears welling up in her eyes as she looked around at the others. "I-I-I d-d-didn't mean to..." she backed away, towards the wall, frantically wiping away her tears with the back of her hands.

[Idran1701]

"Hey!" Not expecting the outburst either, Sam is confused at first. Soon enough, though, he heads up to the sobbing girl, hugging her and smiling in an effort to cheer her up; that's what brothers do, after all. As far as he knows, at least. "It's okay, Kidritta, no one's callin' you a freak or anything. We've all got bad stuff that happened to us, so you don't have to feel bad about anything, 'cause we're all the same here." Letting her go, Sam heads over to Alexis, doing the same for her. "An' it's not your fault, don't be sad." Finally, he heads over to Max, whispering quietly to him while frowning, though his voice doesn't sound judgmental so much as worried. "D'you hafta be so mean to her? She just got here an' stuff, an' she's still scared of everything here 'cause she doesn't know it yet. And prob'ly 'cause she got bit by a shark too."

[Besyanteo]

Enzo had a fairly plain lunch prepared: Celery sticks, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a milk carton. He'd eaten it quietly, if a bit quickly, while the others had been distracted by Silvie's own 'lunch'. As they continued to talk about it, he'd given the concept of the whole thing serious consideration for the first time: Why WERE they eating lunch? What was the point? It was tasty, no denying that, but otherwise why bother? That could be enough, and he wasn't going to complain about being able to taste, for sure... So maybe tomorrow he'd try out doing things Silvie's way.

And then the new girl walked in. Enzo had been somewhat in shock on first seeing Kiddrita, and hadn't interacted with her or the others just yet; The ensuing chaos of rapid fire questions, answers, anger and crying hadn't let much room to jump in afterward. Then the new girl was on the floor, crying, while a stupid fan-boy starting harping at her about not looking like some movie actress. Where to begin?

He wanted to tell Max to apologize to the girl, but he couldn't seem to make the words come out. He wanted to try to get Alexis to stop crying, but he couldn't begin to think how to approach that. He was a little afraid to step into this situation, and at the same time felt powerless to do it. So instead he sat still, staring at them all, doing nothing. It was very frustrating.

[Kelne]

Emily had no compunctions whatsoever about glaring at Max. Honestly, the whole interrogation thing was completely out of line. Between this and the seriously quick turnaround after being bitten in half by a shark, it was no wonder the poor girl was having a breakdown. Emily headed over and knelt down next to Kidritta, giving her a bit of time to regain her composure.

One thing still niggled at her about Rivendare's answer to Max. Why hadn't he just said where she was from? It was pretty innocent information, surely, and if she was a famous movie star, the information had to be out there somewhere. Emily filed that issue away to look into later. Unlike some others, she had tact.

"It's okay, you know?" she said, "We're all freaks in here. Plus, some of us are jerks." Another little glare here, just to drive the point home, "It takes a bit of getting used to, the whole digital thing, so how about we answer your questions rather than the other way round?"

[Shinigori V2]

Kidritta looks up to Emily between sobs and wipes her eyes. "What's-" She struggles for a minute, before continuing. "Going on...?!"

[Kelne]

"Well," Emily began, trying to get the condensed version straight in her head as she went, "We've basically been recruited into a team to fight crime and stuff. The idea is that they recruit people who'll have a better life like this than they would have otherwise. At the moment, we're living in a big computer database at D-52 while we adjust and learn to use all the stuff built into our new bodies, but after that's done, we'll be downloaded into android bodies and be able to interact with the real world again."

That seemed to answer most of the important stuff, though there would no doubt be other questions to come.

[Shinigori V2]

"Okay..." Kidritta nods along, wiping her eyes. "But..How? And..What's with these weird clothes?"

[BrainWalker]

Oh great. Here come the waterworks. Now Max gets to be the asshole because he dared to be objective. Because he dared to ask questions about a discrepancy between the current situation and his previous knowledge. And maybe because he had been a bit of an asshole. But given her initial promises of ass-kicking, and her cold reception of Emily's handshake, he figured she was made of strong enough stuff to handle it.

He listened to Sam's words. The others had at least one point: Whoever this girl was, if she was anything like the rest of them, she had just been through a traumatic experience, and hadn't had months to deal with it, or training to familiarize herself with her new world. So, yeah, that's probably stressful.

But Max was expecting to get at least SOME backup for his defense of logic, at least from one of the older kids. He was especially hurt that Enzo, the supposed brains of the outfit, was just as unconcerned with the strangeness of the situation as everyone else.

Finally, Emily's glares are too much. Max is now officially pissed off.

"What the Hell, guys? I'm not going to apologize for asking questions. Didn't we just go through a mission where we learned the benefit of having all the info? Of asking questions, and not making assumptions? If we get out into the real world and they introduce us to a tree stump and say 'Kids, meet Byron Rivendae, Ace of Diamonds,' are you going to take their word for it, or are you going to challenge it, because you're pretty sure Mr. Rivendare isn't a freaking piece of wood? This is basic stuff. If a stranger claims to know your parents, I hope you'd have enough sense not to go anywhere with them. But you'd have to be stupid to take their word if they claimed to actually be one of your parents."

Max angrily slumps into his desk chair. "I don't appreciate y'all gettin' mad at me because I dared to know anything about Kidritta Osbourne before today. Yeah, maybe the one I know isn't the 'real deal,' but you can't blame me for not knowing something that people were trying hard to cover up."

Max slouches, and mutters, "Maybe I was a little harsh, though."

He still didn't like it. It still didn't make sense. That seemed like an awful lot of trouble to go through to make an actress suitably presentable. If they wanted a bronze chick, why not hire a bronze chick? Are there really so few child actresses out there? And why go to such lengths to hide the truth? If it doesn't affect her ability to act, it shouldn't be a big deal, right? And what do they do with those ears for public apperances?

It doesn't feel right. Max is going to have to do some serious research after class today. Too bad he's pretty sure he can't count on Enzo to help out.

[Kelne]

Emily's glare didn't soften in the least. Max had been pushing at Kidritta from the moment she walked in, and even if she'd been pushing back, well, how would either of them reacted in her shoes? As far as she was concerned, the whole situation could be laid at Riverdare's feet. This had the feel of another test; he could easily have cleared up these issues in advance, but had chosen not to in order to see how they'd react. In Robert's case, it had been funny. This time, not so much.

"If Riverdare says she's Kidritta Osbourne, then yes, I'm prepared to believe him," Emily said, finally softening her gaze. Riverdare was no doubt listening in on the conversation, which was all to the good, "The alternative is that he's deliberately lying to us, in which case the lesson learned is 'don't trust anything Riverdare says'. Which, I'm sure you'll agree, is a terrible lesson for him to be teaching us. For that matter, 'Riverdare deliberately holds back important information to see how we'll react' is a pretty bad lesson too, isn't it Mr. Riverdare?" Let him chew on that for a little while.

Emily sighed. Regardless of the aim, everyone seemed pretty well stirred up. The day, she was sure, was a wash. Except that there was supposedly a mission waiting for them. That was going to be fun. She shook her head, and finally got back to Kidritta's questions.

"I don't really know the mechanics of the transfer," she said, "But the important thing is that it's one-way. That's why you won't see anybody popping in to visit. It's us, maybe some teacher A.I.s like Mr McSweeny and Robert, the cat. As for the outfits, someone must have decided we needed uniforms for going out on missions and just decided to build them in. We seem to be stuck with them."

[Christian]

Alexis lets out a muffled cry when Sam hugs her, tensing up, but after a few seconds she seem to relax and her sobbing stops. She nods quietly, sniffling a bit, and then looks up, her red eyes unusually bright. "Mhm..." she mumbles, wiping the corners of her eyes again, but obviously calming down a bit.

She listened to the others, looking at Emily, then Sam, then Max, and Kidritta. She sniffled again, then hugged her arms a bit. Whatever confidence she had in speaking was gone now, and she really, really wanted to hear Mr. Rivendare say it was all just a big misunderstanding, or something. He'd been really quiet...

[BrainWalker]

Emily had a point. Rivendare did say the new girl was Kidritta Osbourne, and Max had no reason to believe he would lie to them outright. He seemed more the type to obscure information by omission. He had been purposefully vague about the details behind her rapid transition into the wunderkind program, but he did say that she was... that she was going to die.

Looking at the pale, pointy-eared new girl, it's hard to believe that she's really Kidritta. But it's also hard to believe that Rivendare would lie directly. "Okay, I'll buy that she's Kidritta Osbourne. But what about the quick transition? This isn't some kind of social club for digital children... well, I guess it is, but mostly, this is a military operation. Did everybody just forget about their half a year of training?"

Max sighs, and his expression softens a little. "Look, she's new, she's confused, I get it. We've all been there. But all soldiers go through basic training; that's the way it is." Max pauses for a second as he checks Kidritta's database file to make sure he gets her class right. "Maybe Lauren can teach her how to use her XLR8 system, maybe all of us can teach her about life in the digital world, but we can't give her the kind of hardcore training that we've all been through. Am I seriously supposed to believe that the leading military tech company in the world is willing to send a rookie who hasn't even been through basic off on real missions? There's gotta be something else going on here."

But what? Max couldn't figure out a reason to bring someone into the wunderkind program without proper training, but he also couldn't figure out why else you'd digitize a girl on her deathbead. Unless they just wanted to keep her around in some form, like that animator guy who froze himself. Her family probably had the money to pay for something crazy like that.

"So what's the deal, bossman? Did you hire an actress to put on some kind of show, or are you trusting your soldiers to train each other?"

[Besyanteo]

Enzo was at a loss, now more than before. Max and Emily were acting a lot older than any of them were, which was off-putting for reasons he couldn't immediately name. They were also both making some very good points, about things that were going to color their future interactions with the company for a long time; Possibly for as long as they remained online. Not comfortable, not fun. He didn't know how to deal with it, and Max throwing him dirty looks every few sentences or so was not helping in the slightest. Emily throwing Max dirty looks wasn't much better, actually. Enzo had had enough; Class didn't start again for almost fifteen minutes, and Rivendare didn't seem inclined to outline their mission just yet. He waited until no one was looking his way and quietly retreated from the class room, to find somewhere quiet. Quiet was good. Calm was good. The Unformatted section would work.

[Shinigori V2]

There's a small delay, as Rivendare speaks once again. "Okay, look. If you need to blame anyone, blame me. I couldn't get the clearance to tell you guys everything until...Well, about five seconds ago. Literally, Alice just walked in- Thank you, Alice- And handed me the clearance forms."

He clears his throat, and begins to speak again. "Kidritta has a condition, Marshal's Semi-Albinism. It's very, very rare, only effecting maybe sixty people in the world. It's why her skin's got no color, and her ears are pointed. Oh, and why her hair is naturally two colors. In her movies, they used special effects to cover it up." As Rivendare speaks, Kidritta begins to sink again, and those around her get the feeling she'd be turning red, if she could. "Public appearances, they used a double that was spoken for. They covered it up because...Well, she was perfect for her roles."

He cleared his throat again, and continued. "Kidritta- Kid- started as a competitor in the Northern Extreme Games. That was about two years ago, she was eight. Seems a bit weird, that an 8 year old competed in that, huh? Well, they didn't know- She was that Hooded Biker that the sports news went crazy about. They had just finished the first Ninja Surfer Kid movie, and as soon as she stepped off the course, despite the fact that they had no idea who she was, they handed her a contract to appear in the second movie. Remember- She won all the events she participated in and was unknown. The public ate it up.

Anyway, when they finally got the hood off her, they noticed her..Condition, and decided it wouldn't work to have someone with her looks be 'the masked ninja'. So, they used computers to make her a bit more in line with the public's idea of what she should look like. That's why you never, ever knew. The second movie was such a hit, they did the third, fourth, and fifth at the same time, and rolled them all out within a year of one another."

He clears his throat, and continues again. "But that's not the classified information. Like I said, if you're mad at anyone, be mad at me; I didn't kick down my bosses door and insist that I be allowed to hand this over right away. I didn't think it would be a huge problem, but it seems it is, so...Yeah. I'm sorry for that, and I owe you all...I don't know. Steak? Ice cream? A day at the arcade? Whatever. I owe you guys big, so...Let me know how I can make it up to you. I always repay my debts."

There's the sound of paper rustling, and he cuts back in. "The things to know about Kid- She won an extreme sporting event against young adults, 18-30 years of age, when she was 8. She's a trained martial artist, boxer, and brawler and has won two medals in small competitions. Before that, she was a gymnast, scoring unusually high for her age in competition. She's nearly record breakingly agile. She did her own stunts and fight scenes. She's won awards for her role as "Kid-San" in the Ninja Surfer Kid movies, and has been the protagonist of the last four."

He takes a minute to let that all sink in. "She only got one day of training- Granted, it was a constant, non-stop day- She hasn't been to bed yet- Because the kind of things we trained you to do, other than using your weapons and stuff, she'd been doing for the last four years."

[Besyanteo]

Enzo got part way to the door before Rivendare started talking. He would have just kept on moving, but honestly he felt like he was being watched when Rivendare spoke. He couldn't be sure, of course, but he didn't want to find out by leaving and having the boss draw everyone's attention to him while trying to get him to stop. Anyway, at least some things about Kid had been explained...

[Animala]

Lauren had heard her classmates talking about those movies, but due to her...disagreements with her mother, she hadn't been allowed to see them. She looked kind of like an elf! That was pretty cool! But this situation wasn't...right...

Lauren had been silent for quite a while. Max had a point, but...D-52 had to be the good guys! Her dad worked for them!

Never let anybody stop you from doing the right thing...

Lauren bit her lip and looked up towards the ceiling like she usually did when talking to people 'out there'. "When we go to get ice cream, Kid better get two scoops! Making her come in here without even telling her what's going on..." She shook her head. "That's just not fair!"

[NebulaQueen]

So that's how it was...

While the rest of the group had talked inside the room, Silvie went to talk to Rivendare in private. The disease, the doubles, everything...it seemed so weird. Most importantly,though, it wasn't fair. Kid didn't look like a freak! Sure, she looked different, but it was...cool different. Like Tildeedi from Sodol Batttle different.

Oh, that, and how she got bit in half by a shark. That still made Silvie wince.

Anyways, she was done, so it was time to get back. She opened the door, prepared to talk to Kid again, only to come face to face with Enzo.

"...uh..."

[Shinigori V2]

"Yeah...Yeah, I know." Rivendare replies. "We needed to tell her. We wanted to tell her. But there just...Wasn't time. She was dying, and we needed to do it now, not ten minutes from now when everything made sense. She still needs to train, but she'll be doing that at the same time as your group training. But yeah...I agree. It wasn't fair to anyone here. I'm sorry, guys."

[Idran1701]

"Well...you still were tryin' to help her, right? And you did! So...um..." Uncertain of himself, Sam trails off. He still can't figure out himself what was good and what wasn't in this, it's all so confusing for him. D52 saved her life because they're good guys, but then they didn't say stuff to her that they should have, and Max was being smart again and that's good, but he ended up kinda mean, and it's all too weird for him to know what's what. He wishes things were more cut and dry so he didn't have to work through these issues. Because they're both good guys, and they're a lot smarter than him too, so what they did has to be all on purpose and good, right? Smart good guys don't ever mess up or anything! He just doesn't know why they did all that yet, that's all...right?

Faced with a kind of moral uncertainty for one of the first times for him, the uncomfortable questions it raises are something he wishes he could ignore, so he could go back to just thinking good guys vs. bad guys again.

[BrainWalker]

Well... that was a surprise. Rivendare seems to have addressed all issues on the floor. Satisfactorily, even! How refreshing!

Max sits back up in his chair, his mood having lightened a bit. "Thank you, Mr. Rivendare. That's all I really wanted. I just wanted to know what was going on."

Max sets his elbow on his desk, and rests his head on his hand. "I get... irritated when things don't make sense, and I've got questions that aren't being answered, you know? But, things make sense now, so I think we can finally move on."

Looking over at Kidritta, Max can see her tears are starting to dry up, but she's clearly feeling embarrassed and a little awkward about some guy she doesn't even know talking about her life and her accomplishments. "Maybe we should let Kid decide what you owe us, since it seems like she's suffered the most from the whole thing."

[Shinigori V2]

"Yeah." Rivendare agrees. "I'm going to go get your mission paperwork in order. Just..Sit tight for a bit. Get to know your new sister. I'll be back soon."

The "intercom' cuts out, and Kid pulls herself into a sitting position, and continues to tug nervously at her left ear. "So..Umm...Uhhh..."

Janet takes another sip of her soup, before nudging Sam forward. "You're sweet, go talk to her!"

[Idran1701]

"...Huh? Um...okay!" Sam nods to Janet, before heading over to Kid, sitting down next to her and smiling to her, but doing his best not to spook her.

"Hi. Um...d'you feel better now? Sorry about how scary this all is for you an' stuff...it gets a lot better, though!"

[Shinigori V2]

"Um... A bit." Kid replies, still tugging at her ear. "I mean....I still don't really get it."

[Idran1701]

"What kinda stuff don't you get? I can try an' help!"

[Shinigori V2]

"Um...Well, any o' this." She says, frowning. "Like...How are we in a computer? We're gonna be robots? It's just...I don't get it."

[Idran1701]

Sam shrugs. "I dunno how it works either. I never really asked. I guess it's something you kinda hafta get used to? It's neat, though! We'll get to go out and beat up bad guys and save people and stuff. Oh, and there's neat stuff we can do 'cause we're wunderkind too! Like, we all have this thing now where if we look at stuff, we can know stuff about it even if we didn't know it before. Like, um..." Looking at her silently for a second or two, his eyes perk up. "Oh wow, your birthday's on the Quiet. Neat! An' you can do that for us too, you just need to kinda...think about wanting to know stuff about something."

"And...um...oh right! You're a pikeman, so you're gonna also have a thing where you can go really really fast, but only for a little while. Lauren's a pikeman too, maybe she can show you how to do it outside later."

[Kelne]

Emily simply shrugged, at a loss to explain any of it herself. The tension at least seemed to have ratcheted down at least, and hopefully it would stay that way.

[Christian]

Alexis moved up to where Sam and Kid was, a little slowly of course, but she was still very interested in her new sister, and being near Sam was helping her calm down a bit.

[BrainWalker]

Being presented with an opportunity to try to explain the wunderkind experience was also an opportunity for Max to understand it a little better himself.

Turning to face Kidritta, Max opens with a question. "Well... if you've only been here for a day, it's hard to know exactly where to start. First, how much do you know? Like, are you aware of Project Bluesky, or what we mean when we say 'Wunderkind?'"

[Shinigori V2]

Kid thinks, then shakes her head. "I think..Someone said those things, but I didn't really understand any of it. There was a lot of talking going on when I got here, but I didn't make much of it out."

[BrainWalker]

Max nods. "Right, that's what I thought. So, I guess I should start at the beginning." He clears his throat, and collects his thoughts.

"Well... in order to save your life, in a way, D-52 has... like, taken your mind; your consciousness, and converted it into data. Digitized it. And that data is currently stored on a bigass mainframe at Deck HQ we call 'The Database.' In other words, 'The Database' is where you are right now. The tradeoff is, we're now more or less employees of D-52, working as soldiers. We're all technically still in training, so we're not really sure what kind of missions we'll be going on when we get out."

Max pauses for a second, thinking about where to go from there.

"We've all got special roles in the group. You're light melee, which fits with your history with martial arts and boxing and extreme sports. Each class has it's own strengths and weaknesses, and special abilities. You've got the 'XLR8' system, which can let you go really super fast. Lauren over here-" Max points to her. "-is light melee too, so she can help you figure that out. I'm a pilot, which means I can take control of vehicles to transport the team, and I can also fly around on my own. My sister Emily is a pilot, too." Max gestures to Emmy.

"Umm... Darren and Sylvie's outfits look a little different because they're heavy classes, but... I think I'll just let everyone introduce themselves."

"What else... Oh, outside of our role as soldiers, we're basically..." Max stops short. As long as Rivendare might be listening in, he decides to watch exactly how much he says about being a sort of new evolution. "...ummm, now that we've been digitized, we can process data a lot faster. Like, Janet's apparently reading at over a thousand words a minute, and we've all found math is a lot easier now. We've also all got personal storage space we can tap into with our minds, and I've figured out how to take pictures with my eyes. It takes some getting used to, but it feels pretty natural after a while. We've all been in individual training for months, and we've been together now for a couple days, but we're still learning about what all we can do."

Max thinks back to the questions Kid had asked... oh yeah, the uniforms!

"As far as the uniforms go... well, I thought they were a little goofy at first, but they've grown on me. But I guess it's like any uniform; the idea is to give us, like... a group image. Like, solidarity, or something. I'm still not entirely comfortable with these..." Max looks down at himself. "...briefs, though. I never really got why they do that in superhero comics." Max looks back up "But, we can apparently modify our colors as much as we want during training, and whatever we decide on at the end will be the colors on our new bodies once we're out of The Database."

"Oh yeah, and about that. Right now, we're in group training, but once our training is complete, our minds will be transferred to shiny new android bodies in the real world, with all the powers and abilities we've been training with in the Database. Which I think we're all looking forward to. The Database is cool and all, but it does feel kind of... artificial. Except for the unformatted section. Man, we have got to take you out there after we get our mission briefing."

"Well, and probably after our mission, which will probably follow the briefing."

Max pauses and looks around the room, which is silent.

"Umm... that's all a I got for now."

[ChristianC]

Alexis nodded along with Max's summary of what was going on, twining locks of her long, silvergray hair between her fingers as she looked between the boy and Kid, wondering if she should try to say something as well. She was glad things were calming down, really glad, but she was still worried about Kidritta. She crouched down a little, but Alexis was short enough that she didn't need to sink too far to be on equal height of the sitting Kid. "I'm an R/S/I... umm... Recon/Stealth/Infiltration..." she smiled a bit, hoping the new kid would cheer up a bit.

[Besyanteo]

Enzo stared dumbly at Silvie, as she had more or less stumbled on him trying to sneak out. He blushed and mumbled something about walking around, before walking away from the door a bit. He listened to the others, Rivendare included, talk. Things were calming down, and he was able to relax again a bit. He still didn't feel great, but it was better.

He didn't have much to add to Max's analysis of what they were and what they did, so when Alexis named her group role, he decided to go next.

"I'm Enzo... I'm going to be an Intel unit, though I can't really do most of what I'll be doing for that job until we get our bodies... I'm supposed to give everyone suggestions about what to do if I think it's needed, and analyze data and stuff. Later I'll be able to coordinate everyone's efforts, and keep in contact with everyone from a distance. Kind of like walkie talkies, but in our heads. For now I'm just trying not to get in the way."

[ChristianC]

Alexis smiled shyly at Enzo helping out and added, trying to be helpful: "me and Enzo will p-probably be working together a bit... I can sort of mark out people and places as enemies, or friends, and stuff..."

[Shinigori V2]

KId nods, and slowly stands up. She offers her hand to the closest person, grinning shyly. "Well..I guess I kind of get it now. I mean..."

She lowers her voice, and continues. "There's obviously more...But you can't tell me, can you? Anyway..."

She speaks up again. "I'm Kidritta Osbourn. You can call me Kid. I guess...We're together now. If you want to ask me stuff, you can."

[BrainWalker]

Max wasn't sure if anyone else intended to introduce themselves, but Kid's offer to take questions was tempting.

"Does it... or did it, bother you to have to hide yourself like that? I mean, I guess I can kind of understand why they'd do it for movie roles, but why couldn't they just let you be yourself off the set?"

[Shinigori V2]

"Um...Yeah, kind of." Kid says. "But...Well, what I've got...Is really rare. Nobody knows what it is, so nobody would understand. You guys say it's okay, but...I'm kind of a freak."