2014.04.02 - A Strange Sim

It's afternoon, and Jocelyn is spending some time programming a scenario in the Danger Room. She didn't take to actually putting in a program often, but she figured she should do it every so often, if only to keep up the knowledge of how to do it. It wasn't something the woman was incredibly good at, but she'd run into enough situations that she felt she at least, at this point, had something to contribute to the system. So she can be found up in the control room, fiddling with the keypad as she puts in the data she'd collected and observed for her latest scenario. She didn't want to intrude on anybody's time, of course, so she was trying to do this during the rare bit of 'free time' the Danger Room saw, as it was a pretty busy part of the X-Men's training routine.

Odds are Jocelyn isn't intruding on anyones time. Or at least she's not intruding on one Laura Kinney's.

And yet, as Jocelyn does input stuff, the door behind the redheaded mutant does open, and in walks that clawed clone, looking as emotionless as ever.

And yet as she enters, she can't help but pause, and blink, before nodding slightly and saying one word. The name of her friend.

"Jocelyn."

"Laura," Jocelyn responds in greeting. "How's it going?" She's likely seen Laura about, but Jocelyn has been...busy, to put it mildly. The fact that Jocelyn had time to sleep some nights was a minor miracle. "How're you doing?" she asks. "Hell, haven't had a chance to chat much or anything like that lately, I've been so in and out". If Laura glanced over at the program Jocelyn was putting in, it appeared to take place in outer space. "You on the clock for the room?" she asks.

"No. Not on the clock." is said in Laura's usual, emotionless tone. And yet, as she tilts her head towards Jocelyn, she does frown ever so slightly.

"And.... Slow. Training. School. The usual. Not joining the 'big things'."

Then there's a slight nod.

"You have your own life. Do not worry."

And as for the room...?

"I wanted to find a record on here..."

"Well, I haven't heard of a lot of 'big things' going on over on this neck of the woods," Jocelyn admits. Of course, Jocelyn was good at falling into the big things, regardless of where they were. "You're getting a bit restless". Jocelyn got that. She hated when she didn't get to go on the big things.

"Ahh. Well, I can put this file away and let you find it. I was trying to build a simulation of an encounter I had that might be helpful in the future," Jocelyn explains to Laura. "There aren't a lot of space simulations in the database, so I thought it'd be useful". She pauses. "Space sucks, by the way".

Restless? Odds are that's a bit of an understatement. But then again, this is Laura after all...

And yet, at the mention of what Jocelyn is working on....

"Zero-G does not. Vacuum does." is said in reference to how 'Space sucks'?

Maybe?

And yet, at the mention of the lack of space simulations...

"How many of us can still use out powers in space, for us to need them?"

Jocelyn shakes her head and smiles at the comment about space sucking. "Some powers will work. Some won't," Jocelyn agrees. "Still, having the option is something". The woman closes the file up, however, and the screen goes back to the main menu. "So, what file are you looking for?" Jocelyn would normally not be so direct, but this was Laura. Jocelyn tended to be direct with her, because it was easier. She does, however, give up her spot at the console so Laura can take it.

Odds are, all Laura needs to say, and odds are Jocelyn will understand, is three words.

"Ninja all nighter."

After all, she did end up seeing part of that with Nate and Rachel after all.

"Yours will. Others won't."

"You planning another all night session?" Jocelyn asks. "How does that one work, anyway? Is there a set number of ninja, or does it just spawn them endlessly for a predetermined amount of time?"

A nod is given when Laura mentions that Jocelyn's would work in face. "Yeah, they do. Don't really look forward to using them there again though".

"No." is said as Laura moves over towards one of the side panels, and flicks it on.

"Checking something. And never ending spawn. No set number. No time limit."

Then there's a shrug. "Need to check something." is said before there's a blink, and then a glance.

"You had trouble in space?"

"Got asked by the Justice League to help out with the Darkseid problem. Thought putting some of that in might make for a good educational experience for others who hadn't been in space before," Jocelyn explains.

Jocelyn nods as Laura checks over the details. "No time limit and never ending. So how does the program end? When you're knocked out or when you call a halt to the program verbally?" Jocelyn questions. She hadn't set a program like that up before, so she was curious.

And the answer to that question...?

"Yes."

Yeap, like always, Laura is insanely verbose.

Yeap.

"Good idea. You test it?"

"Still coding it up," Jocelyn tells Laura. "I'm not Doug. I'm still a bit slow at it," Jocelyn tells Laura. "Though if you want to go through something in the room, I'm sure we can pull something interesting up," Jocelyn tells her friend.

The answer to her question is noted, but Jocelyn doesn't pursue it further. She got the answer she wanted, so she was perfectly content with it.

"There's a slight head tilt, as Laura.... Shrugs.

That is before she starts to type a bit on the panel she's working on.

But if Jocelyn were to glance at what the clawed clone is working on, they might find she's working on something rather.... Unique as well.

The indifferent shrug gets Jocelyn's curiosity up, and the woman does glance over to see what Laura is working on. Unique simulations were the best kind, and it isn't exactly hard for Jocelyn to look over Laura's shoulder, given their difference in height. "What are you working on?" Jocelyn asks. She wasn't going to be sneaky about it. She just wanted to know what Laura was creating in the system.

Dinosaurs.

That turn into robots.

That merge and turn into larger, Sentinel sized robots.

All while giant monsters attack a city, including a certain well known one with atomic breath comes out of the water.

And a UFO... A silver spinning disk that looks like it came right out of an Ed Wood movie floats over the city shooting random people and buildings.

And little talking cartoonish horses, some in amazing bright colors like pink, purple, blue, and even rainbows, all run around trying to hug people while shouting about hoe friendship is magic.

And eight feet tall yellow birds with orange legs share cookies with blue furry monsters.

And a human sized white kitty with a giant head and a red bow in its 'hair' wanders around.

All while rabid looking guys with guns wander about shouting 'Death to mutants' while trying to shoot at who ever is in the sim.

Or at least that's what it looks like Laura is working on, with a casual glance.

Oh! There's also ninjas! Non-stop ninjas that come out from everywhere, with no end in sight and attack people! We can't forget the ninjas!

"If you want, we can. This can wait."

Jocelyn starts putting some names to things. "A UFO, ponies, Seasame Street, Hello Kitty...". Jocelyn pauses. "No, that's fine. If you want to run this, we can," Jocelyn tells the woman. Because Jocelyn is now absolutely, morbidly curious about what sort of sim this thing was. Really, it couldn't get much weirder than some of the stuff she's seen...but it was interesting, nonetheless!

There's a blink at that, before Laura starts to stand up.

"Not finished yet. Just have enemies. And civilians. No objective."

"Want to try it? Can set it to 'kill them all'...?"

"Can you comment out the civilians?" Jocelyn asks. Jocelyn suspected that was fairly quick to do. "Otherwise, we could see how the difficulty is, sure". No way to know how the enemies would work until you actually tested them, right? Had to learn Danger Room coding at some point.

With a slight nod, Laura says, "Will do." And with that done, she does hit some keys, so that the civillians are excluded from the 'kill them all'.

She just doesn't say who they are, and it's not clear who via the screen.

Thus with that done, she turns and starts to go down to the main Danger Room.

And of course, as soon as Jocelyn gets down, the sim starts up. The dinosaurs and robots are running wild. The UFO is still shooting, but not destroying anything, the ninja's keep appearing, the kitty is wandering, the 'muppets' are still sharing their cookies, etc.

This was going to be the strangest simulation Jocelyn had run, that was for certain. The woman heads on down and looks around. "Okay. So, everything in here except each other is what we should be going after". Jocelyn isn't entirely sure where to start, so she decides aiming a blast at one of the robots and trying to put a large hole in it is a good way to start things off. Because everyone loved blasting robots to death, right?

And of course as Jocelyn says that...

Big Bird and Cookie Monster start throwing their cookies at her and Laura! And the cookies, as soon as they hit anything, EXPLODE!

And from another direction, Hello Kitty pulls out a Tommy Gun from her tiny little purse, lets out a laugh worthy of The Joker, and starts to open fire on the ninjas! Only the dinosaurs get in the way, are shot, and fall over, exploding with such force that bits of them go flying up and splat against the flying saucer!

And what about the ninjas? They turn and run like they're in a panic! Heck some end up pushing baby carriages as they run, while others duck for cover!

And Laura...?

She just sort of stands there as all hell breaks loose, blinking once at Jocelyn.

"My sim. Your call."

Well, shooting the ones who are shooting at them seems to make sense. "Well, alright then. I'll take the bird. You take the monster". Jocelyn says this as she ducks a pair of cookies that explode behind them. She launches a blast of kinetic energy at Big Bird, trying to knock it down, because she suspects he's not terribly well balanced and will have a hard time getting up. The fact the ninjas are running scared is noted, but she doesn't do anything about it for now.

And as the 'Big' bird gets blasted, he stumbles. He doesn't look that hurt, but well... He does look pissed. That is before he points at with a finger like appendage, and shouts, "CXHARGE!"

And from nowhere (or everywhere) a trio of woolly mammoth like creatures appear, charging towards the redheaded mutant. Only as they do...

Well, a couple of ninja get trampled.

But what about the blue monster...?

Well, before Laura can do much, he turns his attention towards the clawed clone, and starts to toss cookies at her like mad. And as he does, Laura starts to charge forward.

Or at least she tries to, before she gets pelted with a pair of cookies to the chest, that send her flying, right into the path of one of the giant robots who's walking on past, who up and steps on her!

Jocelyn focuses her energy and opens up an energy blast below each of the wooly mammoth in rapid succession, the blast launching upwards and angled towards Big Bird and Cookie Monster with the intent of dropping the creatures on top of their foes. If that doesn't work, Jocelyn will be taking to the sky to evade the creatures, because seriously, she didn't like the idea of getting trampled.

She turns to look where Laura ended up, attempting to determine what the status of her friend is. She suspect Laura will heal from whatever steps on her, but knowing her current condition would be good, too!


 * CRASH!*


 * BAM!*


 * BOOM!*

The three wooly mammoths land on the monster and the 'Big' bird in short order. In fact, a few moments after they land, a yellow feathery arm, and a blue fuzzy arm sneak out from under the pile, waving white flags.

On the other hand, as that happens, the white human sized 'kitty' starts to open fire on Jocelyn!

As for Laura, as the giant robot continues to walk, it's revealed that she's still there. Still mostly in one piece. But she's stuck in a massive Laura sized (and shaped) hole in the pavement. And she's lying there, wide eyed for a few moments, before she tries to get up. Only as she does, her legs make odd crunching noises, and her arms hang from odd angles in several places.

Jocelyn makes her way over to the hole, augmenting her toughness to let the bullets bounce off her. Laura would heal quickly enough, but she needed time and perhaps cover in order to do that. As for the kitty, Jocelyn aims a pair of energy blasts at the cat, trying to send it flying in the process. "You still in one piece, Laura?" That crunch sounded nasty.

"Yes." Laura starts to say. In fact, she's already showing signs of healing.

But well, before anything else can be done, everything vanishes. N That is before a 'blue screen' appears on one of the walls.

'Windows encountered an unexpected error' is even flat out on the screen.

To which the clawed clone says....

"Told you it wasn't done."