Welcome to Gaia! ::

In the upper corner of Snap's screen there appeared a window with a smiling blonde female's face. At first glance she might appear human, but looking a little closer, scales around her hairline and up her cheeks were clearly evident. Looking closer still, it was clear that her thick golden hair was actually composed of fine, long feathers. If the viewer had ever seen one, they may be reminded of an emu's plumes, of which these were a finer, softer version.

The face smiled sweetly, but without revealing its teeth. "Good morning, and welcome to the tower, Master 'Snap'," the image said musically. There may have been a slight jump in the visual before and after she said his name, but it was hard to be sure. "My name is Nixie, (you will probably see me around the Tower complex), and I have been ordered to feature in this TowerGuide program, for your aid and enjoyment." There was more than just a twist of sarcasm there. In the background, scarcely audible, a male voice drawled, "get on with it."

Beaming again, the face continued. "If you have any specific queries, please type them into the box at the base of this window. Otherwise, please choose from a tour of the Tower facilities, information on Evine, Y'karrhr's 'Where to eat, and where not to drink on Evine', or an Introduction to Important Tower Personalities --" this next part was said very rapidly and conspirationally, "also put together by Y'karrhr, and so not terriblya ccurate, and extremely opinionated." In the background, laughter from several male voices was audible. "If Andre is doing his job correctly, these options should appear in a separate window."

She paused briefly, then continued with an airline-hostess smile, "I hope that your time here is enjoyable, productive, and as painless as possible."


Hewitt recieved identical treatment, but, of course, with his name substituted. However, once the message had finished, and before he coudl do anything else, a blinking icon appeared in the bottom-right corner of his screen.

Two new windows opened, again with talking heads. These, however were clearly not pre-recorded messages. Both were of young men, probably in their eary twenties. One, brown-haired scruffy-looking, very much needing a shave, and who must have been leaning forward on his desk, judging by the camera shot, was grinning wolfishly straight at him. The other, well, anyone from Old Earth would have described him as Indian, but old earth was long forgotten. His long black hair was smoothly pulled back into a shiny braid, and he looked well-groomed and pristinely clean next to Y'karrhr. The way he was resting his chin on his hand revealed perfectly manicured fingers, but calloused hands.

Almost immediately, the scruffy-looking one began to speak. "You're Hewitt, the new techie, right?" Not waiting for a reply, he rattled off a set of instructions to set up camera-points where the conversation windows were, and to allow sound pick-up to be sent with the images. The instructions were simple and very brief, with some points omitted. Again, he did not pause, but asked, "So, what do you think of the Tower so far? What area of tech are you into?"

The other, who had been sitting calmly, interjected at this point. Where the first absolutely oozed with energy, this young man seemed to quietly exude calmness. "Y'karrhr, calm down and wait. Give him a moment to catch his breath." While he said this, he was looking at a point somewhere off to Hewitt's left: clearly at his image of the the other man. He then turned his gaze toward Hewitt.

"This is Y'karrhr, and I am Andre. We are the heads fo the two tech departments. Officially he is in charge of transport, and I of security and structural. Although we spend so much time poking our noses into each others' business, the difference is fairly meaningless. He paused a moment. "If you were wondering, the biological sciences department is currently trying to get clearence to find out whether Y'karrhr has, somehow, accquired sections of psittacine genetics, which might explain some aspects of his behaviour."

Y'karrhr cast Andre a dirty look, then, his expression changing entirely, turned again to Hewitt. "What area of tech are you into?"

Ever the pragmatist Snap proceeded as would be expected of him and began a survey of the layout and facilities of the tower. The layout of the keyboard was unfamiliar to him but he had studied a similar style of interface before so wasnt slowed down too much.
After a while the keyboard became second nature too him and he had to conciously regulate his pace of enquirey.

latter on in his seemingly random explorations he began more earnestly ferreting out more detailed information regarding the structure and data repositories both electronic and physical while keeping up the facade of random browsing.

It would be a bit of a joke if what he was searching for was hidden by having it put in plain open view. That would be a laugh and if the ones behind what he was looking for were as good as they were said to be then he would not put it past them to follow such a course of action.

He was tempted to enter into the search engine the parameters of what he was looking for but quickly quashed that dangerous idea. Such open enquiries were bound to be logged and monitored and he had a stong attachment to this incarnation and an aversion to pain if it could be avoided.

Hewitt allowed for a real smile at Y'karrhr's reaction, then nodded, "I'm seven standard years old, I think. They never never told me for sure." [Assuming that ages would differ according to planet size and such]

Snap noted the time he was online and decided it was time to call it quits for now. There was a lot of information to sift through and that was only what was available on general access and just this tower. He knew it was a long shot but until now never quite grasped the enormity of the challenge.

Getting up from the now dim console he relized that he was beginning to stiffen up from the session.

carefuly removing his shoes he placed them beside the bed and then doffed the jacket and the overshirt and dropped them on the end of the bed, which sagged alarmingly under the weight.

Now clad in his leather pants and shirt it could be seen that he was wearing a matched set of under arm holsters and thin metal bracers on his arms and legs. He removed the holsters and their contents and carefully placed them within arms reach. lastly he dropped the room lights to zero and cranked up the background UV.

His preperations complete the began his Katas. To anyone observing ((UV plays havoc with electronic cameras)) he was performing a series of movements that were a cross between TaiChi and Yoga - his movements like that of a dancer caught in molasses - each subtle movment displaying elegance and grace with excruciating slowness.

After completing his routine he settled down into a headstand and began meditating ..... Did he just snore?

((Thrudd: yeah, photoelectric effect and all that, I know. But I must ask you, if UV was going to interfere with their security systems, would they have allowed its inclusion in the available spectrum? >_o Also, you keep on alarming me as you come up with thigs and ideas I am sure I haven't mentioned, but which I have included in my Evine plans, designs and stories (not least of all the photovore character... the fifth member of Caleb's cell is also a photovore, named D'nyz... He's nothing like Snap though. At all, whatsoever. He and Y'karrhr are somewhat like FFVII's Reno and Rude) are you sure you're not reading either my notes, or my mind?))

(([eclipsed]: Yeah, Evine is identical to Earth, (actually done because I am lazy, but justified frequently in my Evine short stories by using it to comment on real-world issues) and the standard year is the Evine year.))

((Floob: Hehee... internets... Ahem. Anyway, if you are bored, there's nothing stopping you from ... talking to the other characters (gasp! >_o =P ) ))

Arien's poking around on the computer eventually prompted the pre-recorded guide to appear. Smiling, semi-reptilian and feather-haired, she gave the same spiel as she had to both Hewitt and Snap:

"Good morning, and welcome to the tower, Mistress Arien." There may have been a slight jump in the visual before and after she said her name, but it was hard to be sure. "My name is Nixie, (you will probably see me around the Tower complex), and I have been ordered to feature in this TowerGuide program, for your aid and enjoyment," she beamed, with more than just a hint of sarcasm. In the background, scarcely audible, a male voice drawled, "get on with it."

Brightly smiling still, the face continued, "If you have any specific queries, please type them into the box at the base of this window. Otherwise, please choose from a tour of the Tower facilities, information on Evine, Y'karrhr's 'Where to eat, and where not to drink on Evine', or an Introduction to Important Tower Personalities --" this next part was said very rapidly and conspirationally, "also put together by Y'karrhr, and so not terriblya ccurate, and extremely opinionated." In the background, laughter from several male voices was audible. "If Andre is doing his job correctly, these options should appear in a separate window."

She paused briefly, then continued with an airline-hostess smile, "I hope that your time here is enjoyable, productive, and as painless as possible."



"I'm seven standard years old, I think." Hewitt said. "They never told me for sure."

Andre nodded, his face impassive. Y'karrhr looked at him incredulously. Gathering himself, he asked, "So, who of the tower crew have you met so far? I gather Orpheus picked you up: what'd you think of him?"

"Orpheus?" Hewitt frowned, calling up recent memories of the man, "He's pleasant enough. Very easy to trust. I like him, I guess." He kicked his short legs, which stuck out straight in front of him as children's legs are apt to do in large chairs.