Let's do this One Last Time [video]

[ninjavampire]

All right, people. I’m going through the archives of this place to convert all the parchment confetti into indexable data sheets.

You can thank me later for saving you all the headache.

[ The vibe of this is an 8 AM Stand-Up Meeting rather than a gathering of guardians. The video's pov is from his lab, which in addition to the completed gigacomputer, was beginning to have half-finished little magitech doohickeys scattered in sparse nooks of free space. The amount of spiderbots seems to have been left at one (1) so far.]

First item: Mission debriefs. If you've fought any dark forces recently and have extra concerning details to share, we should write it down instead of keeping it in our heads. 

Second: Current Projects. Anyone who's a friend to reindeer - you ought to talk to Phil and do him a solid for all the holiday prep. For the science nerds lurking around, I’d like to borrow your brains over here.

[ He'd normally have Lyla take care of this, but he's stuck with non-sentient computers. He hates it! ]

Last: Introductions for the new kids. And universe number, if your world has one of those - the chalkboard maps are getting digitized. I'll start.

My name is Miguel O'Hara, Spider-Man of Nueva York. No, they aren't vampire fangs. [ tired hand wave, as if recapping for the millionth time. ] I‘ve been mopping up messes in my neck of the multiverse until getting picked for fairy-tale duty with the rest of you.

Comments

[hallelujahjunction]

[Oh. Oh no. This looks suspiciously like organization, and worse than that, the kind of organization that's set up without any consideration for how people like Dan will participate or stay aprised. If his illiteracy isn't in consideration, God only knows how anyone else's need for accommodations will be interpreted.

He decides to give this a wide berth. No need to torch his own reputation in front of the whole group again - but he does intend to bring this to Bunny.]

[not here]

[credit_not_blame]

[Note to self: check in with Dan. The fact that he's not yelling about this indicates that either he hasn't seen it yet or that he's doing an Avoid about it.]

[Stacia is also personally letting it roll a bit herself before chiming in, just to see how it goes and how much she needs to inflict her Ragabash skills on the situation. So far, there's less screaming than when she said she was in charge in Wilderlands.]

[If Miguel gets less pushback than she did, she's definitely giving a few people shit.]

[not here]

[thismaskismybadge]

[ Somewhere, Gwen is faceplanting and muttering something about workaholic and it's like if he can't boss people around he'll die and goddammit Miguel and uggggggggh. ]

[actually here now] video

[thismaskismybadge]

[ Actually, you know what— ]

Okay, so, hi, I'm Gwen, and Miguel used to be my boss until we had aaaaaaa— workplace disagreement. [ that is the most charitable way she could put it ] This is kind of his default setting, you get used to it. And learn to put him on mute to get back to when it's not some stupid hour of the morning unless it's actually urgent. He literally cannot stop you.

If you don't know what he means when he says universe number, just— just don't worry about it, most people do not know their own universe number. For example! I'm from Earth-65B, but I didn't know that until he told me. Seriously. Normal people don't know their universe numbers. Most not normal people don't know their universe numbers. It's fine. He's just really up in this multiverse stuff.

Unfortunately that means he's actually pretty good at all this stuff, so, like... yeah. [ she doesn't disagree with what he's suggesting on principle, here, she's just grumpy because it's him ] But, for the record, Miguel, I am not doing mission reports in the old proper format. I am doing them however I feel like doing them.

[fromfryingpantofire]

Ah. That's what you've been doing in the library.

[Miguel will probably recognize Sam. Who is usually in the back, somewhere, buried in a veritable fort of scrolls and books. And yet, still not going high enough to cover him entirely.]

If you give me your data sheet form, I can help out with that. I spend a lot of time in the library as it is.

[He doesn't mention anything about the first two points. He was guarding the kids for most of the time they were in Burgess, after all. His job had been to protect the kids as much as possible, without direct contact with the enemy.]

Uh. Right. Sam Winchester. Earth...as far as I know, it doesn't have a number. If it does, that knowledge is above my pay grade. Regular human. [THAT'S a lie, but he's not letting out more info while Dean's able to hear or read it.]

Honestly, this isn't the weirdest thing I've ever dealt with. Me and my brother, Dean? We've been Hunters for most of my life. Going after the things that go bump in the night AND actually cause harm to humans. [He learned to add THAT caveat on the P90, after all.] Though you might have figured that out by the way Stacia bullies me into piggy back rides.

[ninjavampire]

Lyla can take on databasing a lot faster than I can, but she didn't get brought along with me. So any extra hands would make a difference.

[ he was trying to get headcounts more than wanting to boss people around, really, but Miguel is allergic to asking nicely. ]

And - yeah, good to keep in mind that a lot of the rules of your home universe get upended the more you jump around. E-7085's entire population of New York was turned into werewolves.

[ most of the rules, anyway. except for his rules, of course. ]

Voice

[rallieshearts]

[Rowan’s rough cockney accent is distinct enough that they don’t feel that video is necessary when they’ve already met. For what it’s worth, they sound interested, even if it comes with some caveats.]

What you after in terms of science? ‘Cos I don’t know shit about chemicals and nature and that crap, but tech, least ways the software side of it, that’s my jam. I’m more on the level of what they got in this world than advanced stuff, but I got a couple of tricks and all.

Also, you got a plan for all of them what can’t computer once you digitalised everything? [Paws and computers don’t mix, ask them how they know. But they’ve also watched their alpha try and use a computer, and she’s just as homid as they are.]

[ninjavampire]

[ Hm. He visibly ponders the second question, because Miguel had gotten so tunnelvisioned in his own interests that he didn't think about that. ]

Well, hard light and voice commands bridged those gaps back at HQ. I'd need to find the closest equivalent and see how to replicate that.

[ They could all work on it as a group - but someone's a little bad at delegating. ]

Tech knowhow is good, especially if you're familiar with this century. The machine back there is to start properly studying this universe and run simulations in more granular detail.

Not the first dimension I've bumped into with magic, but it does complicate all the math.

[myagents]

[Price's first thought was "Dan is going to hate this". Which is probably a good sign, he is getting more sociable, et cetera et cetera, did Miguel mention spreadsheets?]

It appears you have an efficient system figured out.

[Which he likes, but he's not exactly excited to out himself as the local disgrace to those that haven't interacted with him enough to hate him. It's not his fault he has to protect himself from people who will bitch at his perfectly reasonable explanations for the literal millions of people he killed, anyways.]

You might want to consider keeping audio logs as well, for accessibility purposes.

[It's just information exchange, and Price sees nothing wrong with it, but Dan could find it scarier if he is actively excluded from it.]

On the other hand, magic is an available resource, wouldn't it be more suitable to make a magic archive as opposed to a digital one? Not that I am familiar with magic, but I figure it would be more...Appropriate to our current setting.

[Which, to be fair, would bite him in the ass, but it might piss off Miguel just enough to become snappy and decide not to do it at all and therefore Price would not be forced to submit details about how terrible he is. He has been doing chores since the Rig but did anyone notice it? Well, Jennifer did, but she was talking to a snowman earlier. She's not a reliable source.

Either way, back to selflessness.]

What needs to be done with the reindeer?

[ninjavampire]

The day I figure out how to program a magical archive, I'll let everyone know.

[ He is a man of science(ish), not a wizard. Though he's working hard on bridging the gap. ]

And ...noted on the audio logs. May take a bit longer to get that up and running, but some of the text-to-speech functions in the gizmos of this decade aren't too terrible.

[ quite decent, to his surprise! It was rough out here for the future-timeline girlies. ]

You should talk to Phil for the details, but our hosts are pretty overwhelmed with all the winter holiday work. The sled's a big part of that.

[ beat ]

.... I don't think I caught your name.

[Video]

[onegrownup]

Master Aqua, from the Land of Departure. No number designation.

During the Halloween attack, my friends and I were able to intercept and disrupt the witches' magic, but not without pushback. They were able to conjure illusions from our memories to try and distract us.

[ninjavampire]

Aqua, good to meet properly.

[ She seems like a serious and respectable individual, thank god. ]

One way or another, the bad guys seem to have a lot of awareness about us. We could blame this on having our stories public in this world and leave it at that, or there could be more at play. Stickier situation than I'd like...

[ there is a tap-tap-tap of a mechanical keyboard as the thought trails off. ]

Do you remember anything else? The more details, the better.

[mothersson]

[Hello. Here's the zoomer who will accidentally download more viruses than your boomer facebook aunt while going through his emails. And is barely able to operate a smartphone.

Squinting.]

Indexeable data sheets?

[Please don't tell him you're trying to make everything digital, he'll have to completely hand off contact with organization to Rowan someone who does the computers.]

[ninjavampire]

It means you can type a request in a search bar and get something useful back.

[ digitizing everything is exactly what he's trying to do, though miguel is starting to realize his own blind spots with the initial idea. ]

Internal-only, obviously. Mostly to keep track of the missions and whatever else is being gathered info-wise.

Video

[mostdangerousbird]

[ Presumably the hand retracting back into the flannel lump is Tim's. ]

Go back to bed, Miguel! We already have a digital map!

[ Or... Tim does. Shoot, did he share that? He can do that after breakoffee. ]

[ninjavampire]

[ The man's already in his super suit, Tim!! He's not going back to bed.

The watch rings again. ]

Can you squeeze it into a format that can be shared with the class?

[Video]

[forceforlight]

[It's probably not surprising that the chime wakes the other Bat.]

[Who flips on his device, squinting at the time before groaning and putting his head down.]

Later.

[And the video turns off.]

[ninjavampire]

[ oh no you don't. He rings AGAIN. ]

Maldita sea - All the yeti are busting their asses on the workshop floor and you're here lying around in bed!

You okay with that?

(( *the most annoyed DAMNIT ))

[orivodika]

[Boba is in the background of some of Miguel's video, playing with the spider-bot.

At one point, you can see glancing at Miguel and messing with his watch. An image pops up in the chat.

The picture is of the back of Miguel's head and torso. In front of him is the multi-verse map, and stacks and stacks of papers from the library. Drawn on top of the image in bright green is an arrow pointing to Miguel labelling him "NERD", and an emoticon-esque angry face with fangs drawn on the back of his head.

(He doesn't actually know what 'nerd' means, just that he overhead some clones using it as an insult for the ones who liked tech.)

In the background, Boba looks pleased with his contribution to the conversation.]

[nobodytossesaclone]

[Just when Rex was thinking over Miguel's suggestions, he spots two things he doesn't like.

1. That spider-bot, for personal reasons
2. Boba, also for personal albeit different reasons.

And Rex suppresses a sigh. His lips thin instead. When he does communicate, it's to Miguel though if Boba happens to somehow hear-- Rex isn't going out of his way to talk to him. He's not breaking his word.

But surely Miguel must have some idea that there's a feral child former bounty Hunter a-- uh-- Boba, behind him. Right?]

The name's Rex. Former Captain of the Grand Republic Army, if you don't already know.

[Yeah, there might have been a subtle blink-and-you-miss-it, look Boba's way.]

Looks like you've volunteered yourself for storing all of this material. Will everyone have access? Some mission debriefs might have to be on a need to know basis.

[millenyal_pink]

Elle, were-cat, also a regular-cat. I'm good at fighting, but better at sneaking. And cat-ing. [Cat-ing is open to interpretation.]

I'm from... Earth? The year 2020? I'm a plus one with the wolves.

Big fan of the spreadsheets. I can help you convert some of the data into handy visual aids. I'm also happy to help organize holiday-things and so some metaphorical cat-wrangling. Or literal cat-wrangling.

I know that I'm late to the Christmas party, sorry everyone.

[A pause.]

...Are we showing off fangs? Because if so, I'll need a moment.

[ninjavampire]

No. Not showing off, just pre-empting repetitive questions.

[ and witty banter. pre-empting that, too. ]

I have Stacia's dimension registered. I'll add you to hers.

[ tap-tap-tap-tap. ]

What is your comfort level with programming?

[Locked]

[bestbrotherever]

[Loki looks rather more serious in this private chat than he does in the public conversations.]

Are you only interested in missions that have already concluded? Or are you also making plans for the future?

[ninjavampire]

[ Well, he appreciates the serious tone. ]

Hard to make plans without assessing what we have, first. Have something in mind?

[wisdomreceiver]

Hey. I'm Henry, we've met. So, uh, mission...

[He takes a moment to recall.]

I went to the bowling alley and did some fighting. I skewered the mermaid monster in the neck with a spear, but that's pretty much it.

[None of that counts as a concerning detail for him.]

[ninjavampire]

I remember you.

[ he is looking off screen when the flurry of typing crescendos to pull up his file. ]

Magic sword guy.

Okay. When was this? Dates, if you can remember. I'll also need a more specific location and more on what you were doing. Not fighting for fun, I'm guessing?

[credit_not_blame]

It's so nice of you to volunteer to be group note-taker! I hate having to do that part of group projects.

[Is she giving him shit? Almost certainly! She's definitely wearing a shit-giving kind of smile.]

But yeah, as already mentioned, "writing it down" isn't going to work for everyone here, so we're definitely going to need some audio options.

Also, slap a big "needs more info" on both the things in the current projects, because I'm smart and I don't know what you mean by "friend to reindeer" or what you need to borrow brains for.

[mostdangerousbird]

Most technology already has speech-to-text and text-to-speech capabilities, but I'm putting it on the list to make sure it doesn't get lost in the chaff.

I'll keep you updated on the whole "friend to reindeer" thing - I'm headed to the lab now that I've got bacon.

[voice]

[changechild]

[Nyara does not want to be Seen so it's not a video reply.]

I am Nyara. Not of anywhere, truly. ...I have a magic sword which is, very special, but otherwise there is not much I can contribute. I am - I was - ghk -

[that's Need paralyzing Nyara's throat for a second here because Nyara was about to tell the network about being a power source, a battery that can strengthen another. Need's not going to prevent her from taking some pain on but she does not want Nyara volunteering that service openly. It was always agonizing and debilitating. It might still be like that here, where - presumably - no one would be intending for it to hurt her.

After a pause Nyara goes on.]

There is nothing much I can do that others cannot better and more easily. But the sword can heal wounds.

[private][voice]

[millenyal_pink]

Nyara? Are you okay?

video

[branchifer]

[Branch narrows his eyes slightly because this falls under the role of "Helping Miguel" and despite their little moment, he is not sure if they're there yet, given he still also has the urge to unscrew tiny screws in Miguel's lab and hide them when he's being too...Miguel.]

[Buuut maybe not as much now.]

[He's also narrowing his eyes because he knows wanting to file things is a weird thing to want to do.]

...Can I help index things?

[He really wants to index things. It's wonderful that his idyllic society has a constant state of everyone frolicking about and all that but sometimes a guy just wants to fill in a daily agenda that somebody actually follows, or organize things categorically, alphabetically, or, when fate smiles upon him, sometimes both.]

It's just I really like to organize things back home but there's not a lot to organize when your people mostly just sing, dance, and hug. Occasionally, I get to handle inventorying some of the village's resources or do civil engineering projects [he suddenly gestures emphatically with his hand] especially when the others talk about using frosting as adhesive no matter how many times I tell them it doesn't create any real structural integrity -

[He's getting off subject.]

- It'd just be nice to have something to work on. [He gets bored and now he's maybe going to dial back annoying Miguel as an ongoing past-time.]

[And in doing so, is revealing that perhaps their personalities aren't as different as they originally thought.]

[Data sheeeeets.]

For any new people, I'm Branch. I'm a troll. Please look out for me underfoot since I'm usually only about three inches tall, not counting my hair. I can grow to three feet tall here - apparently - but I won't always be walking around at that height.

[Case in point, he's sitting on a little toy building block on a table right now like it's a stool and a few of them stacked behind him look quite large in comparison.]

I try to stay off the ground but I don't always have things to swing off of with my hair.

[A pause.]

Which I guess maybe needs to be explained to some people?

[He moves his hair around like it's prehensile for a second, using it to pick up and throw a tinker toy.]

[ninjavampire]

General note to any bystanders: Mind the floor for elves, and for Branch. He's ornery.

[ Miguel has softened his description. he did not call him an annoying little devil gremlin. ]

Well, it's about time you redeem yourself for all the clutter you leave in my lab. Do you know how to use a computer?

[ he doesn't have hard evidence that Branch is responsible for all the screws he can't find, but he's pretty sure like 80% of them is Branch, maybe 15% is Boba, 5% for the stray elf that ends up locked inside by accident. ]

[50millions1pint]

lol who elected you class president?

[Jake has literally just fallen back in whatever this place is, he doesn't even go here! But that doesn't stop him from poking Miguel apparently. It's the hatred for authority.]

[ninjavampire]

Let me guess, one of the resident anarchists?

[not here]

[not_your_mary]

Somewhere in the Pole, Maria is witnessing all the communication like this:

Video

[sorcererofaquamarine]

[ There's a momentary clearing of the throat before Amari speaks up. ]

I'm Amari Aquamarine, a Sorcerer of the Keepers of Order from the world of Al-Warth. I recently arrived, and I fought some creatures when I got here, however, I unfortunately lack the experience to know if there was anything noteworthy about them.

All that aside, it is a pleasure to meet you, Mr. O'Hara.

[ She's very polite and diplomatic, but she's at least sincere about it. ]

[ninjavampire]

Just Miguel is fine.

[ his one redeeming quality: not insisting on 'Dr. Miguel O'Hara'. ]

Your knowledge of magic would be good to have on hand, Amari. I've been doing some experiments to try and integrate it into the tech here, but I'm not a magic user.

video

[not_your_mary]

[Maria has been following this quietly, but she figures that hiding in plain sight would make her look less suspicious. Probably providing a full name makes her look more trustworthy so she has to, ugh, borrow it from Mary. Despite her pallor, she tries to act energetic.]

My name is [she visibly hold back a sigh] Mary Shepherd-Sunderland, but you can call me Maria. I'm from Earth...Don't know which number.

I can use a gun. And I have my ways of being persuasive, let's put it like that. I'm afraid I'm not very tech savvy, would you be a treasure teach me what I need to know? I'm sure you know how to use your tools very well...

[Her tone is oddly flirtatious as she says that last part.]

[ninjavampire]

All right Maria, let's keep it PG on the public network.

[ he does not look up from his nest of screens as he notes this down. ]

Can you fight without a gun? Can you do anything else?

video

[antigravboy]

[The man that gets on the network is familiar to a few of them from the chaos in the theater, though maybe not the most familiar to anyone especially new. He hasn't been hiding so much as just occupying himself in places where there aren't many other people.]

[Haha, that's not hiding, right?]

[He's just...maybe still a tiny bit self-conscious about, you know, having metal bits sticking out of his face.]

[And then during the whole Halloween ruckus, he and Mariner had been off on a little solo mission, sent before everything hit the Bussard collector. He felt kind of awkward coming back to an obvious mess when he and Mariner had been off trying to outdrink trolls and drunkenly steal a magical artifact, even if Jack had directed it, and even if their comms hadn't worked that far underground.]

[It'd been way too fun.]

[Buuut. Well, he's got to say something.]

Yeah, hi. Ensign Boimler, of the USS Cerritos. I'm from a universe that's a few centuries in the future of this one, where we've created a peaceful, democratic alliance between hundreds of species and member worlds called the Federation. I'm an officer of Starfleet, which is our mostly-exploratory fleet, except for the times we have to fight things like the B-

[No, he can't just blithely say it now, like it's some distant thing. Like it's a threat like the Romulans or even the Dominion. Something far away.]

- fight forces that are trying to conquer or destroy different peoples.

So, question here, what with being from an extremely democratic society, are you officially in charge now, spider-guy? And if so, was there a vote on it that I missed?

[Because he would have voted for someone else.]

[Maybe he's a still a little bitter about being covered in viscera and also he's genuinely concerned about Miguel's stubbornness and the way he hadn't understood the value of a tactical retreat, or why someone wouldn't just leave him behind, or how he couldn't expect a stranger to blindly follow an order to.]

[ninjavampire]

Hello, yes.

[ He remembers you, Starfleet guy. ]

It's called taking initiative. I don't think asking for basic coordination is too much of an intrusion in your daily lives.

[ he started with a completely empty space! He put the work in to make his equipment nice! Therefore, he gets to say how it gets used. He's in charge of his nook of the Pole. ]

...Unless this is you volunteering to chip in? There's still some work to do to improve the archive.

[manofanxiety]

Clark Kent. Or Superman. I think my Earth is supposed to be Earth-12, but I don't know if the League of Loises is using the same system you are.

[ninjavampire]

The League of Loises doesn't ring a bell.

[ he has questions. ]

...I'd like to pick your brain about that later, Clark.

[ferengineer]

Lieutenant Nog of the station Deep Space 9. I'm from the same universe as Ensigns Boimler and Mariner. I'm from a few years before them, though.

Primarily I'm an engineer, but I also have experience as a helmsman.

[ninjavampire]

Huh. I know someone who'd be over the moon to meet you if she got zapped over from my home dimension.

[ Miguel's just familiar enough with Twencen entertainment to recognize this guy, making the interaction just a little bit weirder. ]

Any objections to the scan?