WHO: Mystique and Markus WHEN: Day 1, morning WHERE: in front of the Hotel WHAT: first impressions RATINGS/WARNINGS: nah! STATUS: complete
Markus had rebooted in a worse place, and in much worse condition, but his processors still struggled with this unexpected event. Wherever he was, the air here was cleaner than in Detroit. He didn’t breathe, but it was still a strange comfort when his HUD reported a significant decrease in smog. The feeling didn’t last long.
[Coordinating location…] [Location unavailable. GPS and global map update may be required.]
Markus frowned, slowly turning in the middle of the sidewalk. The motel sign buzzed at a decibel that unsettled him so he walked a little farther away.
[Analyzing geography… Terrain suggests North America. Remote. Rural.]
While that wasn’t especially helpful, it did confirm he wasn’t simply on the outskirts of Detroit. Something very complex was happening here. As unsettled and out of sorts as he was, it wasn’t a surprise that he spun around a little too fast and knocked shoulders with someone passing by. He lifted his hands, palms out, showing himself to be unarmed.
“I am so sorry.” He lowered his hands a notch. “I should be watching where I’m going much more closely, I just…well, I don’t know where I am to begin with.”
Raven hadn’t bothered with altering her appearance, enjoying the blue skin that was her own and only bothering with shifting her skin into clothing to avoid even more stares than she would get if she was blue and naked. It would be easy enough to switch into someone else while roaming around this new place once she wanted to do some recognizance, but for now she wanted to enjoy being in her own skin.
She shifted quickly when she was knocked into, reflexes aching to drop whoever had done so onto the pavement below, but refrained, letting herself falter slightly. It was always good to give off some air of vulnerability in new situations. Her eyes flashed yellow in warning as she steadied her footing and looked over who was in front of her.
There was something odd about him though she couldn’t quite place it.
“Canada. And not the good part of it.”
Surprise on an android was subtler than on a human, but it was still apparent enough with the way Markus’s eyebrows raised at her appearance. He blinked his mismatched eyes at her a few times, like that might reset the optical units.
[Analyzing…] [Scan Complete: Identity – unknown; Species – unknown; Ocular Response – abnormal in a humanoid species]
“Oh,” he said dumbly, before blinking again and looking out across the landscape. They’d helped a number of androids escape to Canada. Maybe he’d come here to help them and he’d gotten damaged along the way. He glanced at her – yes, still blue - then down at himself, clenching and stretching out his fingers. “I might be malfunctioning.”
Oh lovely. Some sort of machine then, android most likely. It would have been helpful to have one of her guns on her, but everything was a weapon when one needed it to be, and he hadn’t openly attacked her yet. He also appeared to be new, unlike the rest of those she had seen around the haunted house and then roaming around attempting to get some sort of bearings for the new place they had found themselves in. Couldn’t hurt to try and figure out a way to use this and him to her advantage somehow. Especially if it wasn’t some type of Sentinel.
“Oh you poor thing.” She offered up her most sincere sympathetic smile. “Locating your room in this dreadful establishment might offer up some clues. As well as keeping an eye on any posts that pop up on the phone. You did get a phone, didn’t you?”
Primitive as it was, there was still something for reading and commenting to the various posts every so often. Maybe she should try and secure a room for her Eva persona as well.
Before deviating, Markus would have had trouble recognizing even the slightest bit of insincerity in a human. After deviating, he wasn’t always a great deal better at it. But “poor thing” did make his gaze shift back to her with a slight squint.
“Phone?” He patted his pockets until he found the device and pulled it out. It was nearly two decades old, obsolete by the lowest standards at home. “So strange. You...talk like you know this place.” She might have been behind the whole thing for all he knew, but Markus was default hopeful to a degree and her strange appearance marked her as other, not part of the shadowy government organization he assumed most likely did this to them. “Do you know why we’re here?”
“Not a clue unfortunately, but I’ve been watching the people who are milling about. A great deal of them appear to have the exact same device as that.” She nodded toward the one he had produced and drew out her own. “And I found one on me as well; though not at all with the sleekness or design that I’m accustomed to. Which made me wonder if I was somehow in the past...but other objects suggest a possible future. So it’s anyone’s guess really.”
So far the locals had ranged from a would be comedian to another who saw herself as some sort of local celebrity. Harmless idiots, but idiots all the same. Raven turned her attention back to their surroundings, watching others moving around. “Humans tell you an awful lot if you simply sit back and watch how they behave.”
Markus nodded along to her explanation, though it only baffled him further, until the word humans snapped his focus back to her. He’d never met anyone who wasn’t a human or an android and curiosity was a much easier process to run than anxious simulations about how he got here or what disaster might have befallen the friends he left behind.
“That is true,” he agreed, tilting his head. “I’m sorry, I’m being rude.” He held his hand over his chest. “My name is Markus. I’ve never met anyone who looks like you before, so I apologize if I’ve been staring too much. Do you know if there are there others like you here?”
At least he was polite; that was definitely a point I'm his favor. She didn't mind the staring, was used to it in her current form, and the curiosity instead of open hostility was a nice change of pace.
"Not that I've seen yet, no." A few were from her side of the multiverse, a few from another form or two of it, but so far fellow mutants were lacking. "I've only been here about half an hour though so there could be some that I haven't seen. And its Mystique."
Raven turned her attention back to the hotel. "I think a little further investigation is in order."
“It’s nice to meet you, Mystique,” Markus smiled, a little easier now that names were exchanged and he didn’t feel like he’d overstepped. He was usually better at getting over surprises and handling a situation with calm consideration, so he squared his shoulders and looked back towards the parking lot.
“I think you’re right. Perhaps we’ll find more of your people and more of mine.” He looked down at his phone. “I’ll look into this network while we’re at it. I mean, if you don’t mind sticking together a bit longer?” His eyebrows lifted softly, mismatched eyes still gently inquisitive and undemanding. If she’d been human and distant, he would have assumed she wanted nothing to do with an android and likely made polite goodbyes already. But he preferred to try to make friends where he could.
“I think sticking together is a better course of action than going it alone.” At least for the next bit. She might end up dumping him before long, but it never hurt to try and have a few allies here and there. She could always betray him later on and shift into some new form to carry on with her day.
“Hopefully we’ll manage to locate someone who has more information about this place than either of us do.” No one from the Haunted House would know too much about what was going on. Though maybe more would be uncovered once a bedroom was located. The real games had begun back there once they had settled in. “Shall we start with the hotel?”
“I think literally anyone will have more information about this place than I do,” Markus joked with a deadpan delivery. He smiled after a moment, though, determination easing the worry lines from between his eyebrows. “But I can run a few more scans along the way. Work on updating my database.” Hiding what he was at home hadn’t really been an option, so he didn’t think to bother here. Even though he’d removed his temple LED, his face had been plastered on every news station across the country. And it didn’t make sense to fight for android freedom while denying what he was anyway.
“The hotel does make the best sense.” He gestured politely towards the hotel. “After you.”