voice;

[hanzer]

[There's very little preamble before the network gets an earful of the distinctive, raspy tones of a certain ex-cop. Guy sounds like he smokes his cigarettes and eats them too. He also doesn't sound exactly comfortable to be speaking on the network, but anyone who's met him in person in the past few days knows that that forced impassivity is kind of his thing.]

I'm looking for someone who can work with cybernetics. Some know-how with computers or engineering would probably help, but I figure some of that comes with the territory. [A pause, and then:] Discretion preferred.

[The way he says it, one kind of gets the sense that he'd gladly find a way to make even the most indiscreet person suddenly learn the meaning of patient confidentiality– but it's just as easy to believe that that's just the way he talks.

There's another longer pause and then, at length, he adds:] I'd also be interested in speaking to anyone who can talk about the crewman we've got in the hold.

[Spooky, scary, skeleton-like – you've probably heard of Ploiatos. Adam certainly has, and (being the security-minded guy he is) he'd love to know what having a literal skeleton in the closet entails.

And since Adam Jensen's never exactly been known for ending conversations gracefully, that's where he chooses to cut the message off.

Certainly, no one can say he isn't to-the-point.]

Comments

[text]

[coolskeletonnyehntyfive]

[Ask and you shall receive! One spooky scary skeleton, at your service.]

YOU MUST MEAN PALATINO! BE CAREFUL, HE ISN'T VERY SOCIABLE.

[imaginary_wife]

That's Ploiatos. Don't go near him.

[Firmly. Just don't do it.]

We have a some skilled technicians and engineers but I can also help you. I'm Doc Yewll.

video;

[kaijumanic]

No idea what's going on in the hold, dude, but I can totally help with cybernetics. Depending on, y'know, the complexity and how integrated with organic materials they are. I mostly specialise in the organic side of things, but I did one of my phD's in cybernetics.

[he certainly doesn't look like a doctor, with his tattoos and all.]

You could always just come down to engineering, we kinda need a new pet project.

voice;

[hanzer]

Pretty sure I don't mean that.

[Isn't that a horse. Or a font? Either way: what?]

I don't need to be his friend. Just looking to know what his deal is.

[hanzer]

[Nowhere near enough of an answer for him, and he'll surely say as much– but introductions first. Just to be polite.]

Adam Jensen.

Is "Doc" a title or a name? [Gonna assume the former, if only because she'd offered to help, but...]

voice;

[hanzer]

"Pet project," huh? You really know how to make it sound appealing.

[Far be it from him to judge anyone by their looks, but– does this guy really have even one doctorate, much less several?] It'd probably be easier to discuss it in person, but it's not really the human parts I'm worried about.

[And then, curiously:] You said "we?"

voice;

[deconstruct]

[ Spotting the name attached to this post, that'd be one of the two set to babysit skeleton man's cell with him, so if he's going to put forth the effort to share this with anyone, may as well be him. ]

Got this from Robin, the ship's historian -

[ and Jensen will have the following forwarded to him: ]

"But as far as I can tell, he used to be a crew member of this ship. One of the original crew members, not someone like us who showed up by accident. He's wearing a Moira uniform, so that seems to make sense.

Nobody says they know what caused it, but one day he changed. I don't know if he had powers before then, but he started using them all of a sudden to kill his fellow crew members. The Captain and the First Mate escaped through the Ingress to keep from getting killed themselves.

I don't know what happened to the rest of the crew, but Ploiatos got locked away in one of the rooms of the ship eventually. The old captains said that they didn't know he was there when they found the Moira - which I guess makes sense, because they didn't seem to know what to do when he got out.

Then he went around and killed some of our current crew, including one of the captains. She didn't come back, but from what I could tell she was the Captain in charge of the Ingress - probably the one who knew the most about it.

Eventually they locked him back up in another room, and it's been mostly safe in there ever since. I think Sans and Papyrus tried to get inside once (I guess they heard that Ploiatos was a skeleton monster and thought he'd be more like them) and he hurt them both really bad.

That's all I know about him. I wasn't there for the actual attacks, so I can't tell you much about his powers, but I can show you some video of it if you wanna see? It's pretty ugly, though."

[ he's leaving out the part about that coming from the two new officers, and the fact the sources aren't all that trustworthy, for the sake of covering Robin's back. but that's something he can tell Jensen in person later. ]

[imaginary_wife]

Doctor. I'm a big fan of multiple opinions too, so I'd definitely shop around.

["Don't touch Ploiatos is her first priority because she remembers treating the people he got ahold of.]

[hanzer]

I do like keeping my options open. Appreciate it, Doc. [And that flat, neutral tone of his does even sound a bit more appreciative for it!

There's a short pause before he adds:] But about Ploiatos– I'm gonna need a bit more to go off of than just "stay away." I've got this account of the first incident, but it's a little light on the details.

[He'd probably be a bit less critical if he knew the ship historian's an 8 year-old, but alas.]

[imaginary_wife]

He was a member of the previous crew. He was able to get to even our strongest crew members, moving fast so long as no one was looking at him. Going out alone while he was on the loose was a huge risk. You really needed two pairs of eyes.

He would attack people and drain their energy. First attack would lead to scarring. Second would result in death. The scarring resulted in cellular damage that's shown no evidence of repair in the time that people have been recovering since. A team got together and led Ploiatos into a room and trapped him, having to take advantage of that "blind spot" and prey hunting behaviors.

Another crew member misidentified him and almost released him and was badly injured. [Papyrus up there.] A medic had to be called in to help heal him.

Basically? Don't go near him, no matter how curious you are. All he has to do is get his hands on you. It doesn't matter how fast you are. How strong you are. If you don't have extra eyes on him, he'll always have the upper hand.

Another reason I want to get this power back on. I prefer having lights with things like him on board.

[ventifact]

what kind of cybernetics?

[hanzer]

[He takes a minute to absorb all the info – all very salient info too – before he replies.]

Thanks for the warning, but I can't really promise I won't be near him. I've been reassigned to guard the hold. [A hint of wryness creeps into his voice.] Figured I should educate myself.

[It's not a lie– but it's only a half-truth, at most. Part of his curiosity's due to this suspicion that's been nagging at the back of his brain, that there's far more to this story of the previous crew, Ploiatos, and the returned captain and first mate. He'd learned a long time ago to trust his instincts, and right now they're telling him that the creature in the hold is at the center of all this, somehow.

He quickly changes tack, before his response can invite any questions.] When you say "eyes," do you just mean that someone has to have a bead on him? Do cameras work?

voice;

[hanzer]

[Adam takes more than several minutes to read the account over once, and then a second time, and then a third and final time before he replies.

Not much there– but it's something, at least. Raises a hell of a lot more questions, though. Unsurprisingly, many of them are about their new management and the crew that had come before them.

Still, one thing at a time: he'll start with the most obvious threat, which is that thing he's supposed to be watching.]

Thanks for this. [A pause, and then:] Glad to see someone else is doing their homework.

[Because you can be certain the name attached to the reply doesn't escape his notice, either. What's up, teammate?]

[imaginary_wife]

Not that I know of so I hope they don't have you guarding him alone. It's not a risk worth taking.

[If not, she'll have strong words for any people in charge.]

voice;

[hanzer]

Is "all of them" an answer? [He only sort of sounds like he's joking. That – as well the sound of a slow, audible intake of breath – is probably signal enough that he's not going to be talking about one simple prosthetic, here.]

Full limb replacements, cranial implants, a telecoms package, artificial eyes and retinal prostheses, a health system, nerve boosters... [Way he just lists them off like that, he could be reciting his grocery list.] Some others, too– but those are the crucial ones.

[hanzer]

No, they're handling this carefully. [But it does make him wonder under where in the purview of "keeping an eye on the creature" his ocular implants fall.

For now, he deigns not to mention it.] We're going in groups, but I was trying to come up with ways of tightening up security even further than that. It's what I did before– all of this.

[The ship, he means. Outer space. Other universes.]

[imaginary_wife]

[Her assumption is that it requires something of sentience watching it directly more than something organic. Or else the ship's cameras might have stopped it before.]

Good plan. As long as it stays locked up, and no one gets in.

[hanzer]

[Drily:] I think that's the bare minimum, yeah.

[A pause; another thought occurs to him.]

You work in the medbay, I'm guessing?

[There's the whole "doctor" thing– as well as the clinical description of what Ploiatos had done to people. But after his (blessedly short) stint working in the cargo bay, Adam's not going to assume that everyone's assigned to a position aligning with their skillsets]

[imaginary_wife]

I practically sleep in MedBay. I've been here about ten months now.

[hanzer]

[Christ. And he'd thought that the "five months" he'd heard from someone a couple of days ago was bad.]

How does a new arrival go about getting a copy of their medical history?

[He only vaguely remembers the process, as disoriented as he'd been upon coming through the Ingress. A near-death experience just prior hadn't done a whole lot for him and his faculties– but now that he's had a couple of days to reconstruct some of the gaps in his memory, he finds himself with some questions that those records may be able to answer.]

[imaginary_wife]

We only will have what we got when you first showed up, but if you want to it all you gotta say is pretty please and I'll have it ready in a beat.

[hanzer]

[Cheeky. A snort might just be audible before he replies.]

That's all I need. [A long pause.] Pretty please.

[With his voice, it's probably the least cute a "pretty please" has ever sounded in the history of "pretty pleases"– but there it is.]

[imaginary_wife]

I'll sent it to your MID. Let us know if you need to come in for anything.

[Hey, serious politeness is still politeness- not that she's the most personable individual.]

[Video]

[armsmode]

I've been assigned as a technician. I'll do what I can if you still need assistance, and I will be discreet.

[hanzer]

[Good thing his ego's made of some sturdy stuff! Adam doesn't sound like he died inside even the littlest bit when he replies:]

Will do. And thanks again.

[And that's the end of the conversation, for him.]


(( is there an official template for ic med records, or should i just wing it? O: ))