Public Binary: The language of love

[Flood]

Gainz wandered the dark alleys, his cybernetic eyes easily adjusting to the dim light. It smelled terrible or at least so his nasal receptors told him. Warning him of the fetid stench via highlights of stink lines over the appropriate garbage. The lines were even color coordinated according to the smell and when something was to horrendous to be identified a sentence passed the top of his HUD which exclaimed

"What an incredible smell you've discovered!".

Gainz ignored it all as he sifted through the junk of trash piles. Someone had been looking through his treasures. Treasures might have been high praise to the crap left to rot in the alley, but that's how Gainz viewed it. Sprinkled amongst the grime were devices of every shape and size. Toys Gainz had built out of the useless scrap people threw away. He was attempting to learn the art of bio mechanics but lacked the tools. So he made simple machines to keep him company instead.

The alley wasn't much, but it was his home. He even wired and welded a couple of computerized dumpsters together to make a nice refuge from the acidic rain. He thanked the computerized dumpsters for their protection every night. There were many a times where Gainz lay in his home with the computerized tin cans blasting whatever news happened to be on the radio at the time. His creations would huddle against him like some kind of father and Gainz would simply lay there sheltered against the rain as the machines beeped amongst one another, speaking their strange tongue of baffling whirs.

However it was not rain that disturbed his home today. But, a person. Gainz could tell because his children were cowering deep in the recesses of the alley. Gainz approached and cooed them to calm. His mouse droId cee eighteen was damaged and the Gonk droid Ballios was tipped over. Gainz set the Gonk back on his feet and it thanked him with a humble "GONK". He inspected Cee quietly as he sat in the confines of his dumpster home. Three of the droid's wheels had come loose. As if someone had stepped on it.

Gainz sighed to himself as he pulled out his spare tools from the corner of his home. He began to tighten the screws when he heard the distant chatter of voices speaking lowly to one another.

"He doesn't show up soon Grotta is gonna be pissed," Gainz faintly heard the man speak, his voice like ringing brass.

He tuned his audio receptors with his mind to enhance the approaching conversation whilst he idly tightened cee's wheels.

"He'll be here," Voice Two began "It's about time for an update,".

Voice One chuckled at that. "Yeah, but if he's not here i'm gonna break every machine in that stinkin alley!" Voice one finished angrilly.

Gainz tuned them out and sighed again. He finished tightening Cee's wheels and then ran a diagnostics check on himself as the droid scurried away greatfully. They were right… Gainz was gonna be scrap if he didn't get updated soon…

 

[Lance of Dreams]

Lance of Dreams was a recluse, though not always by choice.

Extensive cybernetic modification had rendered him "societally unsuitable" for the common public. Nonetheless, even a rich corporate scientist had the desire to move out, beyond the laboratory he called home. To experience life was its own reward, but all the same merely a side effect of the iBorg Cyberneticist's desire and need to acquire peculiar supplies and specimens.

Though the uncanny body of Lance of Dreams did not exude any hostile aggression towards the denizens surrounding him, all the same a wide berth surrounded the almost gliding cloaked form with glowing red eyes and a pale face. Fear, was a common response to the unknown, and the consuming nature of his cloak concealing what truly lay below allowed a strangers mind to run wild with fantasies. Though he could not say their fear would be alleviated if he ever deigned to remove the cloak and eliminate the unknown variable. Soon fear would likely be replaced by revulsion, even hatred in some individuals.

He has learned much about the alien mind, having delved deeply into a number of their minds. It was the only effective way to understand. To understand a persons true nature, you must first become the person. For some reason, despite this perfectly sound logic, he had found it difficult to find individuals willing to share their experiences with him. Nonetheless, he found others means of acquiring the same objective.

On his way to his destination, he passed an alleyway with an excess of technological creations. There were others present, and they looked apprehensive towards him. The near-floating figure of Lance of Dreams stopped abruptly before the alleyway, and merely looked at the talking individuals. He wondered if they would turn irate or merely uneasy at his sudden interest in them...

Flood

 

[Flood]

The pair of thugs approached the alley and Gainz quickly closed the dumpster lid before they came to close. Hopefully they'd simply go away. Gainz breathing slowed almost to a stop and he futiley closed his eyes, but still his HUD lit up his mind, marking out his surroundings. The thug with the deeper voice knocked upon the dumpster

"Looks like nobodies home!" He exclaimed with a sarcastic forlorn that told Gainz they knew exactly where he was.

There was a distant crunch and a metallic screech as Cee Eighteen was crushed beneath the vice of the thugs boot. His wheel rolled beneath the dumpsters lid and Gainz panicked. He threw the lid open and crawled out of his makeshift home.

"Cee Eighteen!" He cried in monotone.

Even his vocabulator bellied the humanity he so desperately wished he still held. He grabbed hold the mouse droids bits and pieces and felt something bubble up inside him. Anger? He didn't have time to act upon it. A large meaty hand fell on the back of his hooded head and threw him back into the dumpster by his hair.

"Sup Gainz!" The thug said merrily with a wolfish grin "We've been looking for you buddy!"

Gainz mechanical body protested, beeping a warning at the sudden impact. He merely lay slumped where he was, staring lostly at Cee. He was done. He couldn't do this anymore. Working for the crime lord had seen him do some terrible things. All for the sake of living in a dumpster a little longer... He was ready to die.

The skinny thug with the bell like voice kicked Gainz leg and sneered "Get up Grotta has a job for you!" Gainz ignored them.

Gainz's anger was replaced with regret now. He stared at Cee with empty eyes. How many more lives would his existence end? The big thug barked a vicious laugh at the small thug for acting tough. Sprout didn't like that. He withdrew a las pistol and shot Ballios. The Gonk droid exploded in a shower of sparks and smoke.

Gainz lay defeated. The big thug placed a hand on the small thugs shoulder and shook his head. They'd need to try something else. The small thug holstered his pistol and got down on a knee next to Gainz.

"You know Gainz. We've noticed you don't keep any of your money... Where does it go, I wonder... Maybe we should find out!" He said as he reached to grab Gainz shirt.

That got his attention. If they learned where his cash was going Gainz would be a slave forever. Lightning quick Gainz grabbed the thugs arm and broke it. The thug gave out a strangled cry as Gainz pulled the skinny bastard into the dumpster with him.

"That's for Ballios," His hand moved from the arm and grasped the head in one fluid motion and Gainz snapped his neck while his free left hand reached for the thugs pistol.

He unholstered it lightning quick and unloaded into the big guy from the dumpster. "That's for Cee Eighteen!" He said as the thug hit the earth. He fished around the trash can and found his helmet. He put it on and began to crawl out when he noticed someone watching from the end of the alley. Another one of Grotta's thugs?

Gainz raised the pistol and shouted at the hooded man "What do you want!?!" There was something unsettling about this being...

Lance of Dreams

 

[Lance of Dreams]

Irate.

His mind would note as his eyes identified the las pistol, and identified the species of the modified human specimen. It spoke words, and his mind logged them. Eventually, after through thorough and computer-like analysis at processing speeds unnatural to his Iskalloni brain, the iBorg Engineer carefully crafted a response.

"I want to know what you want." The cool and unwaveringly monotone voice calmly settled through the grimy alleyway like an invisible fog rolling in the early morning to chill the skin. Almost belated, the cyborg rose a hand which peeked through his robes. One of an unseen many.

"I mean no harm." The hand receded gently, deftly, into the invisible insides beneath the shadows of his cloth carapace.

Flood

 

[Flood]

Gainz hand upon the pistol wavered before falling completely. This creature purposed no harm, but what worried Gainz was that this man just watched him take out two arm thugs and did not run... As well there was something peculiar about his hand.

It seemed to gleam with a metallic sheen. Gainz sighed when he realized this man must be one of Grotta's flesh slicers. Bio mechanical engineers who do cybernetic augments for cheap. Not the most reliable tech, half the time people they worked on burst into flames or exploded, but Gainz new he'd need an update. Already he could feel his processors slowing. His body shutting down one painful piece at a time. He studied the alien before him and nodded.

"I want new cybernetics..." He spoke in his montone "I won't do Grotta's job a moment before I get them," He paused for a moment as his free hand floated to his chin in thought "And I want more tools to fix my stuff," He added as an after thought. "Beyond that i'll take the usual payment," He finished with a smile beneath his helmeted visage.

He wondered what he'd get Helena this time. Perhaps he should find another way to send her money. He was sure it was untraceable, but it paid to be safe... Gainz nodded to the flesh slicer as if to tell him to lead the way.

Lance of Dreams

 

[Lance of Dreams]

New Cybernetics. Grotta's Job. Tools. The usual payment.

These words washed over Lance of Dreams, some he understood implicitly, others he did not.

"This is a function I can provide." The Cyborg nodded as a sage might.

"However, I have no knowledge of Grotta, or whom pays you in what amounts, I'm afraid." Though what Lance of Dreams said was true, he recognized it would be almost no effort at all for him to look through the local databases to find mentions of Grotta and infer what the alleyway man said. He did not think the processing time to accomplish that was worth the effort, however, when apparently he had an accomplice of this person before him. It would be rude, he has learned, not to engage in conversation to learn about something. First person accounts were more reliable than third person after all, altered only by their unique perspectives... which is something the Iskalloni deeply admired about living beings.

"My chosen name is Lance of Dreams, and it would be my honor, as well as the honor of iBorg Prosthetic Augments to repair you. Would you like to provide a name?" Lance of Dreams did not move from his spot, despite Flood 's nod. Better to walk with an acquaintance well met, than to turn your back on one whose name you did not know to curse.

 

[Flood]

Gainz was puzzled as the man spoke. Putting two and two together at a snails pace. His technical cybernetics were slowing down and he had troubles deducing the point. It was like sinking in quicksand while trying to find the rope out. If this being didn't know Grotta than who was he, and why did he offer help?

Fear.

It bubbled up into Gainz being like awful wave. He was weary of the stranger. Hesitant to accept his help. Then something peculiar happened. The fear became replaced by a strange emotion. One Gainz had not experienced in so long it was hard to put a name to it.

Hope.

If this being truly could help then it could be his ticket out! Gainz nodded slowly at first, then more vehemently as it dawned upon him.

"My name is Gainz," He spoke as excitedly as his vocabulator would allow. "The honor is all mine mister Lance!"

He did a half turn and studied the stuff in the alley for a moment then turned back to Lance of Dreams.

"Let me grab some of my stuff!" He shouted as he grabbed a bag with some sort of rodent printed all over it from his dumpster.

He began throwing pieces of tech into the bag and then approached the man.

"You have a lab nearby?"


Lance of Dreams

 

[Lance of Dreams]

Spoiler

OOC: I apologize for late reply!

"In a manner of speaking," Lance of Dreams attempted a disarming smile. In truth, anywhere could be a "lab" for the Cyberneticist, possessing a multitude of arms and medicinal tools attached to his person for the purpose of Cybernetic Upgrades and replacement. Of course, conducting such operations in a dirty alleyway, was likely not the ideal location for this individual.

Particularly in an area where bodies were present.

Connected to the holonet, the Cyborg plotted a course to a more discrete area, a Warehouse currently left unoccupied. It would provide a sufficient enough space for Lance of Dreams to demonstrate iBorg's catalogue and allow Flood to make their preferred selections.

"While we make our way there, I would like to be acquainted to you properly, Gainz. You seem to find yourself within a peculiar position in life, it makes me wonder how you came upon this point." Lance of Dreams gestured with his hands to articulate his words, as he lead his new companion where he may...