2020-03-14: And Your Little Dog Too

And Your Little Dog Too
Technomancer Meetup on the Digital Web
IC Date	March 14, 2020
IC Time	11 AM-1 PM
Players	Arumi, Joel, Kaede, Luke, Mikaela, Xiu
Location	Stella Nova
Prp/Tp	N/A
Spheres	Mage/Sorcerer/Traditions

Sceneset:

The almost aggressively bright space that was designed by a Virtual Adept with tastes pulled from the end credits of 'Saved by the Bell' meets 'Robocop' has been set up for a party. His taste in music (very markedly not the tinkling classical sounds of the previous meeting's soundtrack) is at play, with hard rock still playing rather than fading away. The Go Board has been cleared of its counters, and Joel has grabbed a chair from it to turn around to face the sofas.

The AI bartender is currently rattling off its list of drinks, in case anyone can't choose which they'll have. Given that it's been programmed to 'everything you can find on the internet,' the list is rather mindbogglingly long, but can be stopped at any moment by placing an order. Synthetic 'food' that tastes like uncooked tofu to those not entering with some sense of alternate reality has been set up along the tables at the couches, and the Adept -- in full glittery, bright iconography, almost painfully cheesy to look at -- is waiting for new arrivals.

Next to him at the Go Board? Xiu. Xiu in a familiar long, pointy hat. It's black. Black robes too. Slightly green-tinged skin. It's Xiu as the Wicked Witch from the Wizard of Oz. She doesn't look at all pleased about it, but at least she seems to have forgotten her broom!

Oh, Xiu has her grumpy face on. Her eyes are narrowed, GREEN cheeks raised, as she places a black stone slowly. Though in honesty, her eyes are really more set on Joel than the board. "Once we are back at your apartment..." she say, slowly, trying to imply all sorts of pain and misery into the tone of her voice alone. Then her eyes flick to the board, and back up. Then to the AI, before she gives it a sign. "Moscow Mule." she orders. Because she knows Joel has that recipe DOWN.

Arumi is here in the crudest of capacities. No VR. Just... on a computer. A very nice computer, in her lab. So a two dimensional, simply animated (just a few frames) avatar comes in.

The blonde hair Scientist more or less 'flickers' into being, dressed in a purple leather coat, black denim and some serious looking boots. Once her form completely 'fills' out, she goes to sit at the AI bar. But alas, she totally does NOT order anything. She simply looks around and seems to be rather amused to see 'The Wicked Witch of the West' here. Or it maybe curiosity? Perhaps surprise?

There had been complications for Luke in building his Virtual Reality Stereopticon rig. Getting the images to show themselves for him had been easy. Getting HIS image to show itself into the .. other .. reality? That had been harder. In the end, he could not get his math to work out, so he just let the rig produce a default image. In this case, it would be the image of the item that makes sure images are produced for him. Its a floating geodesic crystal, perfect in shape with each angle changing in all the colours of the spectrum. It looks like a floating disco-ball. The thing floats in slowly to then come to a stop. Is it Luke? Well, as his voice is produced, there can be little dispute it is him. Its his voice, but it sounds like it comes from an old phonograph device. To which the thing speaks, "Mr Whateley, reporting in. So, this is it?"

"Dude, they're going to think we're totally screwing if you say things like that." White stone to counter Xiu's black, but he is focused less on the game -- or on his Verbena friend -- than on the new entrants. "You can't do better than that?" he wonders of Arumi, and then offers Mikaela a wave. The AI is stopped in its tracks, whipping up that Moscow Mule for Xiu. Joel is preoccupied for a second or two. First, by something that might suggest he's doing something in meatspace for a second or two, from the way his icon fades out slightly. Then, once he pops back in, by the prismatic crystalline form that maes its way in. His glittery eyes narrow suspiciously, and there's a slight hinge of leather and chrome as he leans forward. The music grows louder for just a second, defensively, until Luke speaks. "Oh. Good. What the hell are you doing, man? You're /never/ gonna be able to get a drink like that."

Xiu's eyes narrow more as Joel does something SUSPICIOUS there. Her nostrils flare just a bit as he leans forward, and she lifts a finger, about to say something..when people make it into the place! Her grumpy expression turns into a light smile as she peers over towards the bar. "Greetings, Mikaela." she says and gives a light wave, before she glances over at..pixel..flat...thing. And she keeps on looking for a long moment, trying to discern just who that is. "And..greetings to you!" she says, just leaving the name out. And finally, Mr. Crystal, and the witchypoo smirks. "Greetings, Mr. Whateley. Looking sharp." Ba-dum-tss.

Arumi floats, flipping between two animations, and coming somewhere into the room. She did set up a microphone, and says "Hi, Dr. Arumi Hanada."

The Geodesic Shape does not give off any emotions. No expressions. Nothing like that. It does shift in colours though! A nice, lovely glittering effect as it slowly turns in the air. The disembodied voice of Luke with the phonographic quality to it speaks, "Oh, rest assured, Mr Joel, that I have made sure that I am adequately hydrated. I have tea and, if the situation calls for it, I am not far from getting for myself a glass of sherry."

Using VR gear with some non-standard programming upgrades, Kaede rezzes in looking like a shadowy version of herself like she is composed of smoke and darkness. More 'real' than your usual VR user, not as real as what Cyberjocks pull off with the proper spatial procedures. "Greetings... sorry for being late," she says in a voice that has a high-quality mic, rich in the sotto soprano tones, and yet quietly whispering with the static of electronic sound. Mikaela turns to look towards Kaede and smiles with some amusement, "I believe the phrase is... fashionably late." She winks playfully, "1K." She then furrows her brow, contemplating, "Or should we make that K-1?" She pauses again, "Though, I suppose that would then lead us to the conundrum if the ninth representation of K is not a dog, do we still call him or her K-9?"

Xiu's eyes flick back and forth for a moment at..something, before she smirks and greets Kaede with a wave. "Huh. I see your nefarous plot, Joel. You're trying to get all the asian girls under one roof." she remarks, and lets out a soft chuckle, before she she stands and walks to the bar to get her prepared digitial Moscow Mule...and can't help but eyeing downwards every so often as she walks in the witch dress. Which is absolutely not a thing she is used to, even in the cases she is wearing clothes. A mutter leaves her. But the rush of grump gets washed away by the sip of Moscow Mule on her way back. As she walks, she lifts a hand. "Oh yes, for those that haven't met me yet, Xiu ("sheoo" Tong. Verbena. Don't ask."

Joel waves Arumi to take a seat wherever she might, and offers Kaede a careless wave at her lateness. "Glad you're here. Getting Mr. Whateley onto the Digital Web was point number one." A glance at the geodesic shape. "Still working on that part, I bet." The AI clunks the mug of Moscow Mule onto the bar for Xiu. "Getting you introduced to the other Technomancers and assorted friends was point number two." A gesture at the small gathering around them. "I just want a waifu, Xiu. What can I say?" he deadpans, before pointing back towards Kaede. "Kaede Minamoto. My Consor, loosely associated but under the guidance and protection of the Virtual Adepts." A beat. "If she doesn't fuck up," he adds, giving the newcomer a wink.

Arumi doesn't need to sit. "Hi everyone. Sorry I don't have better equipment." Working her touchpad to look around the room at everyone, the hovering sprite spinning around. "So I am curious. Is this purely social or is there business too?"

The geodesic shape that is Luke can not sit. Instead, the floating shape starts to hoover over to the bar where it sort of situates itself over one of the stools. The disembodied voice of Luke then speaks, "Am I over the chair? Centred ok?" he wonders, the shape slowly continuing its spinning, "I do believe that I have met most in here, already. Minus the newest arrival, of course."

Out of habit, Kaede does in fact bow to the others with the timing of a culturally raised Japanese woman. She smiles as she says, "A pleasure to meet you all. Oh gee," responds Kaede as she rolls her eyes to Joel, but simultaneously gives him a grin that shows very white electric snow teeth against the shadow-washed darkness of her features, "Your vote of confidence warms my heart, Joel. Good to see you again. And you as well," she inclines her head to Mikaela.

"Ohhh, what? You have an apprentice?" Xiu says, intentionally ignoring the difference between that and consor. She settles down opposite of Joel at the Go board and looks at Kaede, lifting the copper-seeming mug of cocktail she is holding ."My condolences. If he ever asks you to cosplay for him, find me in the woods south of Prospect. I'll handle it." She smirks, giving Joel a brattish glance from the corner of her eyes before she takes another sip, and then glances at Arumi. "Don't ask me, I'm totally just here in a social fashion. I'm the type to chant weird things and cut other things, not a tinkerer."

"I mean, I thought announcing a consor was business," Joel states lightly. He doesn't bother to assist Luke with the 'seating' of his geodesic self, and then adds, "Yeah, an apprentice. Such as it is. Just so people who /should/ know, /do/ know. I don't want people thinking you're running around without a scouting badge, if you get me, Kaede. But now that you're officially kitted up and all that crap, these are some more people you should know. You already got to this space, and I've given you a hall pass to come in any time you want. Everyone but Elphaba here," Xiu, "has the same hall pass, and she'd get one if she gave a shit about the Digital Web. But the other three are Etherites of various sorts. Victoriana, chemistry, and rocket sciences." Luke, Mikaela, and Arumi, in turn, from the finger he jabs at each in turn. "There is some legit business at hand, though. My next move, now that I've got this place, is to shore it up against attack. If anyone's got anything that could help on that front, considering it's kind of your space too, that'd be cool. I wanna put in a pipeline from the computer room in the Nexus, and another space people were talking about having in the city."

"A pleasure to meet you, Miss Kaeda. Even if it is not evident, I am currently offering a courteous bow in greeting." says the disembodied voice of Luke that comes from the floating geodesic shape. A brief pause, "Attack?" asks Luke, "Is there something we should know and be worried about? Apart from the normal routine, that is."

Mikaela pauses for a moment, "I wouldn't say Chemistry. I would say progressive science. Chemistry is included in that, but I'm involved in many of the Sciences." She wrinkles her nose, "Though, my self-sustaining arc reactor is on a temporary hold until I can produce radioactive material on my own. Otherwise, questions will get raised. Questions I don't want answered." She then looks to Joel, "And while computers, themselves, is not really my thing. I should be able to help with computing cryptography algorithms, so that there line is encrypted and safe from hacking."

Arumi taps at her keyboard some, the sounds coming from her sprite in the room. The keyboard is a substnatial one, no little modern clickiness. "I do rocketry and satellites by day. My personal research, of the kind that is more fortean and interesting, is focused on space travel. And by extension, I've started researching hyperdimensional drive. Maybe I could project something here, even. Just a... side hop from the Sidereal, I gather."

"I'll be sure to let you know, if he does try to get me to cosplay," says Kaede with a laugh. "Mmmm. I'm working on a number of new coding projects. One would be to give me a stronger presence here... another would be for security. But I do already have a piece of code I use to shore up my rig that might work out here... though I'm not sure. It's intended to enhance the efficiency and security of a single device, this place exists more in the virtual space created by a juxtaposition of numerous devices, yes?" You can see the whites of her eyes very starkly with her shadowy face as they widen at the research scope Arumi speaks of.

Xiu doesn't even bring up that she's totally out when it comes to bolstering the defenses of the place. She takes another sip of her cocktail and grins at Kaede, though does not interrupt her explanations. "Personally I'm just riding along. This place is..." she says and tilts her head, before she reaches up to stabilize that ridiculous witch hat. "..fancy. And Joel managed to get a good Moscow Mule going. But it also stuffs me into this outfit, which means it shall have an eternal love/hate relationship with me."

"Talk to me about about any changes to Stella Nova first, before putting in willworking stuff that's not to and from Traditions-owned locations. I don't want a huge arrow pointing this place out to anyone or anything that's floating through space. And nah, nothing to worry about other than my own usual charming brand of paranoia," Joel states, before he looks back towards Mikaela, giving her a thumbs-up. "Sounds like a plan, Stan. I thought you had asked for help with all that shit. If you can't store it a college dorm, I got a place RLside, but it's just an apartment in Carlsbad. Still, if you think it'd help, you can shove it in the sanctum I got set up there." He moves another white stone on the Go board, hardly looking at the game, before he lifts a shoulder at Kaede. "It's hard to describe. Not so much the devices themselves as the potential they can hold. The ability of people to be whoever they can be on the Digital Web. Me, I'm Neal Stephenson's wet dream," he states a little crudely, before adding to Xiu, "I can change it. For Guinness."

"Ah. I fear that where the security of this place is concerned, it is best left to those that .. know what this place is about." says the disembodied voice of Luke from the geodesic shape, "My knowledge does not range into the Digital, as it were."

The witch of the day snaps her green fingers and points at Mikaela. "Oh right, before I forget - I am still working on the materials you requested, and it seems that I *might* be able to get some done, after all. But I will get back to you about that." she says and wiggles the finger a bit. "Next time I am at the Nexus I might bring some. We'll talk details then." she finishes, before she glances at Joel and smirks. "No. I dread your other choices." She then Looks at Luke again. And she can't resist - she gets up and slowly walks towards that hovering crystal, eyeing it...before she reaches out, equally slowly. And pokes it. "Boop. Sorry, just wanted to know how it felt."

"Ah. I fear that where the security of this place is concerned, it is best left to those that .. know what this place is about." says the disembodied voice of Luke from the geodesic shape, "My knowledge does not range into the Digital, as it were."

The witch of the day snaps her green fingers and points at Mikaela. "Oh right, before I forget - I am still working on the materials you requested, and it seems that I *might* be able to get some done, after all. But I will get back to you about that." she says and wiggles the finger a bit. "Next time I am at the Nexus I might bring some. We'll talk details then." she finishes, before she glances at Joel and smirks. "No. I dread your other choices." She then Looks at luke again. And she can't resist - she gets up and slowly walks towards that hovering crystal, eyeing it...before she reaches out, equally slowly. And pokes it. "Boop. Sorry, just wanted to know how it felt."

"I'll say this, Kae," says Kaede, "The phosphoresence from a photon reaching the base velocity of light while travelling as ionizing radiation through water is one of the most beautiful shades of blue I have EVER seen... even if being bathed unprotected in that light would probably mean nausea and death within hours, or minutes." She grins, "We artists tend to be a little crazy though." She laughs, "Oh Xiu I was thinking of doing that too... I'm glad I'm not the only one!" Looking to Joel she says "Umu. So... this place is rather like a virtual mode. Like the potential along a fractal from juxtaposing fractal modes. It is mathematic possibility... but it is formless until given form? That is intriguing in itself. Not unlike the very idea of the ten million things of creation being broken down from the six original substances... "

Mikaela shakes her head to Xiu, "It will not be necessary. At least, not at this time. My schematics required too much outside material. So I've placed that project on hold." She shrugs, "But thank you for offering. I do truly appreciate it. And I'm sure that eventually I will need the Tass. But for the moment? It will sit on my workspace until I gain a stronger understanding of Etheric Construction." She grins, "And oh, for your assistance, I could probably look into figuring out how to code your Avatar for you so that you're not Elphaba" She tilts her head, "Like, if you wanted to be Glinda. The 'Ga' is silent."

Arumi is tapping at her keyboard. When Kaede talks about photons, she doesn't say a word. Tap tap tap like bad streamer, the sounds rumbling into her microphone. "Sorry I'm not any help for security measures. Pretty standard cryptography is all you tend to need beaming data from a satellite. I'm ont used to it. I think if you touched me though, you probably would not feel anything. I should be... entirely two dimensional in your view."

"Correct. Trinary's the 'maybe' between the 'is' and 'is not.' This is all the possibilities of the boring real world," Joel flicks his gaze towards Xiu at that, with a little apologetic grin, "made manifest. Our job, while we're here, as members of the Traditions, is to keep the possibilities open for everyone's individual POV. The Union wants to make them all into one big unified theory, one big possibility that everyone follows. I think that's groupthink bullshit, and I don't think I'm alone in that. Kicking Ether out of the Consensus and all that." He stretches back, before adding, "Other points. You guys come to a consensus yet, pun intended, about who's gonna be the delegate among the Etherites? 'Cause things are, uh, up," with a pointed look towards Mikaela, "and that vote being missing's kinda a kick in the junk."

Xiu lightly nods to Mikaela, accompanied by a soft, widening smile for a moment. "Alright. Keep it in mind." she says, before her slanted eyes widen just a bit and she lets out a chuckle. "Ahh. I don't know, I am sure it would escalate into an arms race between you and Joel trying to, uh, pimp my 'avatar'." she says, subtly arching an eyebrow at the term..because that just got confusing. "But one day I will think of something, and make Joel set it." She pauses. "For guiness." Her eyes flick towards him. And then that eyebrow arches again. "Only people like you could call the normal world boring." she says and snorts.

Poking the geodesic ball results in finger going through it and the surface breaking a bit as if one poked a finger through smoke. Or steam. But the disembodied voice of Luke does speak, "Please do not do that, Miss Xiu. It disrupts my visuals. All I saw was your finger for a moment, there. As for talks regarding the Chair? Well, I think perhaps we best leave the word to Miss Mikaela in regards to that."

"I need to pimp my Avatar," says Kaede looking at her shadowed hand, "I'm not even sure why it turns out with these shadows. Maybe some sort of residual psychic imprint from when I empowered the code with my will. Or as simple as a shader error since I'm essentially using a home-brew VR setup and drivers." She smiles, "As to the world? The world is terrible... tragic... sometimes warm, and often terrifyingly beautiful. I can't see it as boring. But I don't see this place where technology, possibility, and imagination come together as boring either."

Mikaela says to Xiu, "If you will forgive me, I am rather particular in not letting men determine the appearance of a woman." Yes, there's a seriousness to her. She clears her throat, trying to drop her seriousness back to a social level. She then looks to Arumi and Luke. "I'm thinking that... Dr. Goldhart has explicitly opposed my presence at the Chair, and it will require an act of Congress for me to claim that seat." She looks from one to the other, "Perhaps for a quicker response, we name Dr. Hananda to the chair. I can serve as Second, or as an aide."

"Oh!" Xiu lets out, and that finger that previously poked Luke curls a bit. She then reaches up, takes the pointy witch hat and places it against her chest all gentle..lady..like and lightly bows. "My apologies." See, wild witches can have etiquette! She then straightens and puts the darn thing on while secretly enjoying having different hair for a change. No curtains of obscenely long braids. "No, this place certainly isn't boring." she agrees, before she glances over at Mikaela and softly chuckles. "Me and Joel are in the good-natured business of poking fun at each other constantly. It's all good." she remarks, before she tilts her head a bit..and hums. "I think you would be good for the chair, Mikaela. But I have no say in it, I'm afraid."

"This is all sounding very political, suddenly," comments Kaede neutrally "Is this a Traditions thing? Chair, as in a seat of power for a given Tradition?" She makes finger motions in the air like she is typing and a 2-D screen appears in front of her avatar as invisible keys appear only when struck beneath her fingertips. "Joel... if you like I think I can pull up a copy of my upgrade code for my devices here so you can see what it does. Certainly running buffers to see the data here doesn't work out very well, I can only get a couple of seconds of the data in my immediate vicinity so I'm still examining what I might even be able to do here. Anything I do will take long enough that you can see the whole R&D process granted." She looks to Xiu, "Ahhh okay. I see what you mean." Mikaela is given a curious look, "Why wouldn't men be allowed some input on how she looks, should she want to allow them to have it? I have a lot of men on my art teams for my IP and they have helped define the look and feel of my characters over the years."

Arumi can keep a poker face, because she doesn't have a face visible. "I do think that faculty politics can get very silly, but if the best way for us to collaborate with our friends, is for me to represent the Etherites. I could find a way to do it."

"You do need to pimp your Avatar," Joel says, his voice very pointed about the final word. "But we'l get there. Maybe." His grin, though, is approving about her final words, and he gives her a thumbs-up. As Luke directs his attention to Mikaela, his gaze swings that way, and his dark brows furrow. "Who is Dr. Goldhart? Why do you care about what she thinks? I'd suggest whoever you guys think is the most steady personality among you get the seat. It's a place to represent what the Tradition thinks is its most reliable voice," his voice is suddenly sober, "rather than letting one person decide for you in some sort of authoritarian song-and-dance. I mean, I know I took the Adepts seat because I knew I'd be a cooler head than Vertigo, and damn the torpedoes. But I'll make you a deal, 2K, so you know I'm not some Red-Pill MRA asshole. Next time we're on the Digital Web, Xiu can play dress-up-Joel however she wants. And she gets to send you a picture of what she decides I should be like. You have my word I'll stick to it for at least long enough to get that picture." Kaede's comment makes him tilt his head. "Sure. Let me know what you've got, and I'll be..." He trails off, wincing a little as the conversation trends towards gender politics, and moves over to the AI bartender, placing an order for something ridiculously inebriating.

Xiu glances at Kaede, and lightly shakes her head. "It is not a seat of power, in Prospect at least. The seats act as councilors to their respective traditions. To help with internal tradition affairs, and to act to the other councilors as representatives - but the council does not make laws, nor enforces them." She lightly smiles. "And it is..a bit less political than it seems at first. I mean, I am not exactly the political type, yet somehow got into it." She shrugs. "But primarily, the person in the seat gets chosen by that Tradition, for that Tradition - and it shouldn't just be to present them at the council, but as I said - act as a Guide for new members around the area and the like." She then glances at Joel and arches an eyebrow. "Joel. You know the only thing 'dress-up-Joel' will result in, in my case." she remarks and smirks.

"No." Comes the disembodied voice of Luke from the geodesic crystal, "I frankly, in this matter, do not care what Doctor Goldhart thinks in regards to the chair. If she could have it, she would have it. As things are right now, our nomination is Miss Mikaela. That nomination will hold fast, unless she herself backs down from it. What will it require? A scheduled day where all of the Society that care, go en masse to the Council and present our choice, to make it official?"

Mikaela looks to Joel, "No offense, but I have seen the way you handled the Chair selection process. It was rather unsettling and certainly not a good model to take." She clucks her tongue, "Dr. Adora Goldhart has been a resident Etherite here for quite some time. While she has been removed from the Chair for ... actions unbecoming of someone for that position, she still holds relative sway. I give respect to those that have endured their time here, and the turmoils that they have faced. And while three of us within the Tradition should be able to counter a single person's opinion, it will take an act of Congress to make it official and without the drama. And given Dr. Adora Goldhart's penchant for drama? I'd much rather avoid such things." Mikaela then turns to Kaede, "Do you like the way you look? What if you had no say in how you looked? What if I wanted you to be a hunched back googly eyed bald headed man with a lisp, so that I could have a proper Frankenstein-era assistance? What I decided you'd have all the flaws and defects that go along with that? You have no say on whether you like it or not. You have no say if other people would then look at you and think that you could suck the chrome off a trailer hitch, or that your breasts were made for ..." She closes her eyes, finally realizing she's veering off course. She holds out her hands and looks to the bartender, "Can I get a water, please?" Mikaela gets her water and then looks to Luke with a shrug, "To be honest, I'm not sure what it will take. Perhaps finding other Etherites outside our little local proximity?"

Arumi will chime in. "I don't know if we should elevate a personal disagreement to that level, unless it hinders our ability to function."

Joel shrugs, taking no offense at Mikaela's words. "Didn't have another choice, I'm afraid, given the shit that went down. Not even a request to meet for coffee." He pulls his ai drink closer to him, remarking to Xiu, "Dress /up/ Joel. Not dress /down/ Joel. In, well, either meaning of 'dress down'. But hey, you want to send 2K a pic of me in all my naked-ass splendor, I'm not too proud. Beneath my trenchcoat, there's the body of a god," he drawls, giving no sense that he even believes that either. He adds, "I will support whatever the Etherites decide, so long as it's a rational decision," a bit pointedly, before he looks over to the crystal, raising his brows at Luke's icon for a second. "I was talking with Lin about another matter and she said the Chakrivanti outside of here were hard to get hold of. I woudn't doubt it's the same with you guys, inside this lovely little bubble."

"Mmm. Well, whenever you have more than two people in a room I suppose you have politics anyway, even when among friends. But that does sound like it comes across a deal more political in nature than it actually ends up being. At best it sounds like the sort of soft power a celebrity might have rather than the hard power of an official, but with a little official backing. I'm new, though, so I may still not be getting the full picture." She looks to Mikaela and smiles opently, "I mean... I suppose I was thinking the context was not 'the person in question has no say at all'. In the context you present, I understand the misgivings. but my public image... HAS been, in fact, very carefully crafted and made different from who I really am. My IPs brand wants to see me a certain way as a female creator... and in fact, some of my company's board members prefer that my gender be kept more... out of plain sight, or that public acknowledgement of my role as creator, author, artist, coder, and majority holder be downplayed. It's why I have a psuedonym, it's why I wear contacts when I meet my fans, and none of them know I'm a dirty shut-in who would rather look at my computer screen all day than deal with the general public. I see where you are coming from, I guess I just had more faith that friends do not exploit friends is all, regardless of gender."

"Well then. This would mean, I fear, that whatever the Council has going on for it will require a bit more wait, if the vote from the Societys chair is required." says the disembodied voice of Luke coming from the geodesic orb, "We should, I guess, schedule another meeting.. Doctor Hanada, Miss Mikaela."

Xiu glances at Luke for a moment and nods. "Pretty much. The Tradition decides, and at the next council meeting the elected chair takes their seat." she says, before she looks over at Mikaela again. "And I think an ex-chair with a grudge should not sway the discussion." she keeps it simple, while she walks back towards her chair and then settles down at the Go board. And eyes Joel for a long moment. "Borat." she simply says and leaves it at that before she glances back and forth, listening to the politics.

Mikaela looks to Arumi and Luke, "Another meeting would be fine. Perhaps allow Dr. Adora Goldhart one more week to make her presence known, and then if she is still silent in the matter..." She shrugs helplessly. "Anyway, I should return to the lab." Before blipping out completely, she looks to Kaede, "I apologize. I took out my venom upon you needlessly. It's one of the few open nerve endings that I have." She closes her eyes, "Do not ask me to eat a banana." And with that, she flickers out of existence.

Waving her hand slightly, Kaede responds, "Not at all. I'm sorry if my line of inquiry made you feel uncomfortable. I do hope to see you... " She blinks, "Soon?" She shakes he rhead, "Derezzing here is disconcerting."

Arumi taps a LOT on her keyboard. Type type type. "Derezzing? Cool, just like Tron. Anyway, I'm new here, I don't actually know how things usually work for deciding Prospect leadership of the local society. I guess everyone else will know soon enough when we have a decision."

Xiu observes the derezzing, having kind of seen it before - but still, it paints a certain expression of curiosity on her face as Mikaela fades out. She flicks her tongue over her teeth in a habit, before she takes another - bigger - gulp of her Moscow Mule. "Sometimes I get the feeling my way to the seat was one of the easiest.." she murmurs and chuckles softly. "...weirdly enough."

Joel looks between Mikaela and Kaede, slugging his drunk drink. "You're fine, Kaede. We like to argue. Someday, I'll share with you what Vertigo said to me to keep me from the chair. It was super cool." It wasn't cool at all, from the tone of Joel's voice, and then he adds, tilting his head at Arumi, "Haven't been on the Digital Web before? It's verra niiiiice," he drawls, in Borat's accent, before adding, "But I agree with Xiu. Some personal grudge shouldn't be a dealbreaker. If it was, you'd have wound up without this space, and maybe without Kaede here to meet." He looks back towards the orb that is Luke. "Just a sec." And the music changes, as his icon flickers for a second or two. It's disco. "Do a spin for us, Mr. Whateley. Just so I can see that happen." And he gives Xiu a crooked little smile at that. "I'm sure it was."

"Hey Joel, I kind of have a craving for something crunchy... can your bartender do solids like... say... Pocky or potato chips?" She mutters, "Gods know, I probably shouldn't eat those for real." Looking to Xiu, she asks glibly "By climbing over the bodies of those who oppose you?" Her laugh is soft, and it might be joke completely lacking in seriousness, but with those shadowed featured and too-white eyes and teeth it sounds a little... sinister.

"Do a .. spin?" Luke wonders, "Why on earth would that be useful.." he wonders, "You can not see me, after all. As I said, I could not quite work out the math to project my image on to this.. web." He silences. Then a few moments later, he goes, "Ok, I have .. spun. I suppose." The orb did nothing, though. It just kept slowly rotating around its axis.

"Ask him to do cheetos!" Xiu tells Kaede with a light smirk on her lips - a smirk that grows along with narrowed eyes at her joke. "I am a primal witch, living in the woods, worshipping strange old Gods and hunting prey with tooth and claw." she remarks to Kaede. "How do you think I made it onto the seat?" Pause, before she straightens and places a hand onto her chest. "I held a convincing speech."

"It'll taste like crap since you're not fully on here, but I think maybe I can refine it at a later date with some willworking. Possibly. It might be overkill to your tastebuds though. I'll have to get you set up with a Trinary deck, if I can figure out whom to ask." And Joel is quiet for a few long moments, making changes to the code, bringing food present. The AI bartender spits out a line of code: wget pocky(kminamoto)&cheetos(xtong) ... and then facsimiles of the same thing appear from behind the bar, the not-so-friendly (impassive, really) bartender producing them from parts unknown. They look identical to the real thing. But the Pocky still tastes like uncooked tofu to Kaede, due to the way she found her way on here. The Cheetos are pretty good to Xiu, though. "You made a convincing speech to a room that was probably prepared to vote for you over the alternative anyway, if I were to make a guess about it. But that is, of course, just me entirely guessing. Oh! By the way, guys, if you guys can help out Kaede at all, please do so and I'll count it as a favor in return from me, if you need anything from the Adept line of work." He shoots Luke a disappointed look. "I wanted to get the full disco ball effect. Oh well."

"I fear I did not factor in needing to make my representation in here do anything other than move forward and backwards." replies the disembodied voice of Luke from the floating geodesic orb, "I suppose I will have to refine it a bit more. Or build a new rig entirely. Hmm. It will take some doing."

"You," says Kaede as she laughs to Xiu, "You are way too damned cool. Mmm. You know, cheetos would be good too. I really should test out the updates on my tase drivers anyway. It's going to take time to fine tune this rig... " She nods to Joel, saying "I might be able to create one myself. A tertiary switching function, a quantum 'maybe', that is what a Trinary is, yes? I specialize in code... but I am a crafter. I'm not saying i wouldn't accept one... but maybe I can save you the trouble other than checking my work." She tries the pocky, "Well. There is a faint hint of chocolate to it anyway. Like... eating a dash of cocoa powder tofu." She still eats it though.

"Nah, it's probably not far off." Xiu admits to Joel as she pushes her chair back and then heads towards the bar. "But that's exactly why I delivered that speech. I wanted to nail myself down as an actual good pick, and I think I did." she says before she takes the bowl of cheetos from the bartop and plucks one up, before she chrunches down on it. "Why, thank you, miss." she tells kaeda and lightly smirks. "We shall find out if your opinion still holds up should we cross paths in the real, as they say here, yes?" She then plucks up another cheetoh. "Mh...mhmh...been some years since I had any, but I think it's spot on.." she murmurs and lightly grins.

"Hah, well," responds Kaede, "I daresay I'm likely to be the less likable one in meatspace. But, yeah... I do hope to cross paths with you as well." She smiles, "I daresay it's easier to get to know someone here than just through text or voice chat online, though."

"You can buy both of 'em for like a buck fifty at the packies around here in meatspace," Joel points out. He considers for a moment. "Do me a favor. Switch. I'm curious if the effect holds based on who's eating what." He nods at Kaede. "I ain't a crafter. I'm an info guy. So if you're talking actual, like, building shit, I'm probably not your guy, short of computers. I can cobble stuff together but -- go for it, Arumi. I think we're just chatting now. Work time's over." He blinks as Arumi poofs, looking back towards the others, raising his brows. "Easier to get to know some people; harder to get to know others." He jabs a thumb at Orb Luke. "Harder in that case for sure. Don't let his refined manner of speech fool you. He not only secretly tolerates my bullshit, but he wishes he was me."