maskormenacelogs | I'm the Boss...

I'm the Boss...

WHO: Alex and Ken Kaneki
WHERE: Tir Na Nog Irish pub in Heropa
WHEN: Feb 24th
WHAT: Alex heard about Ken's "interactions" with the Porter and wants to pick his brain.
WARNINGS: Language

Tohru had inadvertantly pinged Alex's interest when he'd mentioned that Kaneki seemed to have accidentally disabled the Porter during research on it. Being alone and stranded in a new place made Alex hungry for any information that might lead to her getting back to Steelport and back to where she could lead the Saints again. So she figured a round of drinks, and maybe some pub fare, was the least she could do to pick Ken's brain.

That was how Saturday night found her, booted feet up on a table, two pints of Guiness before her and waiting for Ken to arrive.

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Kaneki doesn't drink, so he rarely goes to pubs or bars, unless asked or something important is happening. Even though he always feels out of place in such places, he doesn't look so when he meets Alex. Kaneki is wearing his eyepatch and gloves as usual, white hair makes him obvious when he enters the place (few heads turned to glance back at him) and his baby face makes others ask if Kaneki is old enough to be there.

Regardless, he walks up to counter to ask for an imPort named "Marino" (he realizes he should have how she looked like since they only texted) - among natives, it's very easy to spot imports and so the bartender points to the table where the woman is drinking along.

With a small and polite smile, he approaches the table and nods after "Miss Marino, I assume?"

Alex makes a face and swings her boots off the table. "Alex, please. Miss Marino was my mom, and if I could figure out how to get it to stop saying my full goddamn name everytime I post, I'd just be Alex."

Leaning back from the table she took in a deep breath, slowly letting it out through her nose. "Sorry, old habits. Yeah, I'm Alex. Nice to meet you."

She held out a hand to shake.

There is actually a way to do that, but Kaneki figures that would be for a later conversation. He shakes his head, smile still remaining, and eventually he reaches for her hand.

"Not at all. I'm Kaneki, and it's nice to meet you as well." eventually, he sits, even if not explicitly invited to do so. "I hope your time here hasn't been so bad" by 'here', he means this world.

"Well it ain't home, but I just gotta deal with that. I've started from scratch before, so I'm pretty sure I can do it again here now that I have super powers and shit." Not that it was a particularly enjoyable process so far. Maurtia falls gangers had proven totally opposed to her advances at forming a new gang, and it was getting frustrating.

"What about you?"

So she didn't have powers back home. Pieces of information that kaneki will be keeping to himself.

"After nearly four years, I'm very used to the place. I don't find it so bad, either." but of course, that's mostly because kaneki forged good relationships while here. "I'm certain you'll get used to it."

"Four years huh? Well there goes the idea that this might be a brief stay." Alex sighed, running a hand over her face. "S'part of why I wanted to talk to you honestly. When you were looking into that Gate thing, did you get anything from it? How long we might be here? WHY we're here? If we can get it to send us home?"

"I'm just a strange example - in truth, most people only stay around for about a year." but the Porter seems to like Kaneki a little too much to let him go.

Kaneki hums when he hears her questions, smiling a little after. "Actually, I have all of that written down." Kaneki likes to write down notes. "There was never a specific reason as to why Lachesis want us, other than that we are her charges, her legacy, in a way. But we don't know why us specifically, and we don't know why we are sent back sometimes. We don't know what requirements the Porter has to bring us, keep us, and send us home."

"Lachesis is...the Portals name?" Okay that was weird, and the skepticism showed on Alex's features. She leaned back against the chair, arms folded. "So it...she, thinks? Like you and I do?"

Well that could change almost everything. They'd told her it was more like an accident, there was no way they could control what happened with the Portal. But if there was a mind behind it, a consciousness...that was different.

Absently Alex sipped her pint, sliding the other across the table towards Kaneki.

He shakes his head. "No. The Portal's name is the Porter, which Lachesis controls. She is a goddess." there isn't any other way to call it, truthfully, but that does mean she thinks indeed. probably too much, or perhaps too little.

"She has created an Artificial Intelligence which controls the Porter for her, and it's that AI that is in charge right now; Lachesis is dormant right now."

"I don't..." Alex caught herself mid sentence and then laughed, shaking her head. "I was about to say 'I don't believe in Gods' like that'd make sense after dimension hopping and being given Super Powers like a whole host of other people."

She sipped her beer pensively. "Is the AI, uh...sentient, that's the word. Like, can it talk, does it think or feel outside of just what it's programmed to do?"

He hums. He knows that reaction very well, after all neither does Kaneki. Which is still correct; he might not believe them, but he knows they exist in some realities and that' how he deals with that.

"He is. He spoke to us, though didn't give us much of a chance to ask for a lot. Mostly, he only said what he wanted to say." so it wasn't just programming.

"Huh, crazy. What did he say? Anything useful or what?" Well this was starting to get to the point that it was above Alex's paygrade. There was a point where having information didn't matter if you couldn't decipher that information on your own.

Kaneki nods softly "He said a lot, honestly. But nothing that would help us to get home. In truth, a lot of what he said just raised a lot more questions." he sighs, a bit frustrated. "But after what happened, I don't advise anyone trying to talk to him again..."

"Yeah I didn't get the details, but I guess the Porter went on the fritz during or after that?" Alex sighs as well, leaning back in her chair, nose scrunched in thought. "Certainly seems like we're not supposed to interact much with the Porter yeah? Do you have any idea why it started to malfunction?"

"After he told us some information, he shut itself off and our powers went haywire. Also our nanites, which means whatever they healed from us returned tenfold." so basically they just rot away slowly during it.

"We don't know why it did that. Perhaps wanted to remind us we can't touch it, no matter what."

"I guess that's one helluva way to end any possibility of a revolt or rebellion yeah? You can't touch me because shit goes heavily sideways if you do." Alex shook her head slowly.

"This place seems big on 'You'll do it our way' narrative."

"Something like that, yes. At least that's what I assume it happened." Lachesis is a megalomaniac asshole, of course the Porter would be as well.

"Back in her original world, imPorts had to abide by what Lachesis wanted, so I figure this is a lot better."

"Fucking hell." Alex dragged a hand over her face, ponytail wagging as she shook her head. "This is starting to feel more and more like it was a bad deal for us from the very beginning. And that's saying something since at first I figured we were just canon fodder."

Kaneki smiles just a little. "This was never something perfect. Some people are thankful for being here, but most realize it's a screwed up way to be." they are at the whims of a megalomaniac goddess, after all.

"Though, us being canon fodder is a point of view, I'd say. Do you think that's how they see us?"

"The military at least." Alex shrugs, "I mean they're pulling people from worlds not their own, giving them powers and then sort of pointing them at the problems they have. It's like the most efficient drafting system of all time. All of the little perks and bonuses are reserved for the people who sign on and march in step like good little soldiers."

She takes a long drink from her beer before setting it down again. "Why risk your own, when you can use people who aren't even from this planet?"

Kaneki smiles a little. "They aren't the ones giving us powers or pulling us. They are, however, making the best out of a situation they can't exactly control." He shrugs after "Considering everything, they could react to us on a very different and much more violent way. The russians did." the russians didn't even consider imPorts people, just assets to be under their control. ONU had to be the one to state that imPorts are people for the whole world to get the memo.

"however, no one is forced to fight for USA. So far, of course." who knows what the future will bring.

"They're not controlling it?" Alex perked up at that, resting an elbow on the table and tapping the point of her chin. "So where do they get all the info from then? They know who we are, what we've done and what kind of new powers we're bringing into the mix. If they're not the ones pushing and pulling, how are they coming by that kind of info"

"They aren't, no. The Porter is under Lachesis control. But it does give them files on us, often incomplete." he doesn't know why it'd bother doing that, but it was never something he asked about before. Or rather - it was never a priority.

"Whenever we arrive, the Porter prints a file and the government takes it, to give it back to us."

"Huh. I guess if someone's giving you that kind of power, you just kind of roll with it." She frowned slightly, "I wonder what this Lachesis gets out of this. No one does something just for giggles...well, most times...I wonder what she gets out of us being here."

He nods. "There is a lot about the Porter I think they just end up going along with it and gave up on trying to understand." imPorts do the same. Honestly, Kaneki doesn't think it's good policy, but whatever,

"Back in the world she came from, Lachesis brought in imPorts because they were her legacy. But that's too vague, of course. In any case, we still don't really know why."

"Well maybe that's the kind of thing we'll figure out in the long term yeah? And hopefully all still be alive and well enough to figure it out." She smirks, tossing back the last of her beer. "Like you said, kinda seems like the old US of A is the only place we're particularly welcome."

"Not exactly the only." kaneki shrugs softly "The only ones willing to deal with the political baggage we bring along with us. But USA's allies accept us, some countries even welcome us."

"Yeah? Maybe I'll travel some when I'm here. Got too much to do back home you know? If I leave the whole thing would probably disintegrate before I got back."

What was she going to do, leave Pierce in charge? Shaundi? Yeah right.

"Hm, travelling is always a good option." he nods softly. "I admit, most travelling I've done is thanks to missions and investigations." nothing truly for fun.

"Missions and investigations?" Alex perks a little again, leaning forward on her forearms. "Like, stuff you undertake on your own? Or do you do the whole government sanctioned vigilante thing?"

"I usually undertake them on my own, yes" Kaneki moves to show her his arm - even though Kaneki is wearing gloves, when he pulls up his sleeve, his arms look pretty mangled and made of a strange tissue that doesn't really look very human. The tatttoo in his arm is there though and it says "UNREGISTERED".

Because he is unregistered, he can't really do government assignments so easily.

"However - because I usually share my findings with the government and am willing to work with them, and also willing to listen to them instead of just doing illegal things, they seem to trust me plenty". which is VERY helpful.

"Huh..." Alex was listening to what he was saying, but she had never seen anything quite like his arm before and that was eating up rather a lot of her attention just now.

"Is your arm always like that? You look a little like you've been skinned or something." Subtle Alex.

"Hm-" he hums softly, pulling down his sleeve again. "They used to look normal, but after they were cut off, they never went back to normal after they regrew" Kaneki realizes not everyone is used to this sort of thing - he wasn't either.

"My power allows me to heal. That's how."

"Damn, that's handy. I can recover from a lot, but I'm pretty sure my arm stays off if it gets lopped off." She shakes herself and turns back to Kaneki.

"So they're not totally opposed to working with people who are unregistered huh? Something to think about I guess." Assuming that didn't clash with her 'I don't play well with others', which it probably would. Maybe. Definitely.

It's a very useful power, indeed. But sadly it hasn't been working right. "Well, the nanites can also do that for you, though much slower." they aren't working on Kaneki's arms because technically, he arrived like this; it's not that his porter given powers aren't working right, it's that his own powers (the ones he had back in his world) aren't going that well.

"They don't, but you have to prove yourself. Or have someone to vouche for you." which can be hard, sometimes.

"Oh yeah? I guess I misread it. I figured the nanites would only step in if you stone-cold died, and if you lost a limb or something you were on your own."

It was nice to know little tidbits like that. Means you don't need to "reset" yourself with a bullet to the brain if you lose a couple fingers.

"Well either we'll see eye to eye or we won't." Alex shrugged lightly. "I don't do earning peoples approval."

Kaneki shakes his head. "They will help you regenerate when you are hurt. A broken arm won't be fixed within hours, but it won't take months either." it's useful, even if they are so controversial. After all, they were injected with them without any consent.

He hums and nods. "Most of us don't."

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I'm the Boss...

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