1st Transmission

[bot-builder.livejournal.com]

[This appears to be a giant room, ceilings as high as the walls are far apart.  It's well-lit, although there are no windows.  There's bits of machinery and half-built robots everywhere, either semi-neatly stacked on tall shelves or scattered on the floor.  The cement floor is spotted with oil.  There are green monkeys running everywhere.  You know, normal stuff.

In the center of the room there's a little work area in a cleared space.  There are a couple worktables haphazardly covered in tools, both recognizable and obviously homemade contraptions.  At one worktable a very red-haired young man is tinkering with what looks to be a mini-fridge with legs.  He's cheerfully explaining to himself what he's doing.  A small ball hovering next to him suddenly shouts something about it being lunchtime, making the man jump.]

I'm busy!  Be quiet!

[Suddenly he notices you and freezes for a moment.  Then he begins sputtering.]

But--what--how did you get in?  And why didn't my bots tell me someone was approaching the house?!

Comments

[bot-builder.livejournal.com]

[Grins toothily.] Oh, it is nice to meet someone like you. Every time I meet someone nowadays I think has ambition, it always turns out they have something petty as their end goal. Never fails. It's annoying.

[Maybe he'd even have some competition for ruling the world again! That would be great. He could relate to people like that.

Of course, even the petty-ambitious types often don't relate to him very well. Took an extra year to graduate high school? Never even wanted to go to college? It's more trouble than it's worth, usually, to convince people that he actually is smart. That his scores actually went up when he stopped cheating.]

[waterfell.livejournal.com]

[Ami had coupled her natural genius with a drive towards work and effort. She wouldn't understand what would seem to be laziness.]

My goal is to test myself and become my best.

[This includes: always becoming more powerful, defeating her enemies, defeating whatever people have the bad luck to be declared her enemies, and rising to the top of her profession entirely in her own right by her own abilities.

Her more private desires involve the revival of planet Mercury, but that's for a far-off future.]

[bot-builder.livejournal.com]

[Jack just wanted to focus solely on his bots. He wants to conquer the world, and his bots are the key. College just seemed like it would be wasting time.]

So no set end goal, huh? Just an endless cycle of self-improvement. I used to know a guy like that. Of course, he wasn't focused on being the best in everything, though he'd tell you different.

[He nods approvingly. It isn't his thing, but it's something he cand respect. Not any of this "I made partner, aren't you proud of me?"]

[waterfell.livejournal.com]

[Oh, she's proud of those things: finishing medical school, joining the staff at Meiwa University Hospital. But they aren't the end.

First, everyone there has to be ready to acknowledge her abilities instead of laughing behind their sleeves at the girl they claim only got the position through her famous mother's name. First, she has to go even further, climb through the ranks of the hospital.

First, she has to keep going - whether it be the war in her allies' world, an enemy to be defeated in her own, or her world itself, now in their hands. She has to push herself to greater and greater control of her element, greater and greater powers.]

I don't plan to just be content when I could be better. [Better than herself, better than them.]

[bot-builder.livejournal.com]

[This is great. It's like hanging out with Chase! Only without the insults, being hit, or the constant insistence that Jack stoptouchinghimandleaveimmediately.] What will you do when you're the best?

[waterfell.livejournal.com]

Become better. I'm not doing it because of someone I'm surpassing. I'm doing it for myself.

[bot-builder.livejournal.com]

Do you do anything else besides improve yourself? Like the guy I knew, he had a whole bunch of cats. Probably too many cats. The guy probably needed another hobby, now that I think about it.

[waterfell.livejournal.com]

I fight.

[She says it that simply, no explanation for now.]

And I have my own hobbies.

[One of which is that fighting, the battles that shape worlds, the way she makes it impossible to brush her aside any longer when she impacts their lives in such a hard, blunt hit.]

[bot-builder.livejournal.com]

You really sound like Chase Young. You're friendlier than him, though. Easier to talk to, anyway.

[He turns back to his bot and begins fiddling with it again.]

Any particular kind of fighting? Martial arts?

[waterfell.livejournal.com]

[She becomes interested as soon as he compares her to someone, and ignores the question for one of her own.]

Tell me about him.

[bot-builder.livejournal.com]

[He continues to work on the bot.] Who, Chase Young? He's pretty cool. Like you, he wants to be the best at what he does--best warrior, specifically. He's traveled the world, defeating other warriors and turning them into big cats, and they've served him ever since.

He's got quite an ego, but he's earned it. Not that I think you're full of yourself, or anything! It's just that he kinda is, uh... [He laughs nervously and changes the subject.]

Anyway, he turned Heylin in the first place so he could become a better warrior. He drank this soup that turned him into an immortal dragon. I've seen him in his dragon form--it is so cool!

[waterfell.livejournal.com]

[It reminds her of herself, perhaps a couple years ago, when she was still rash and impulsive about the quest for power. When she had been willing to bargain away things she shouldn't have. When she had been willing to treat humans as nothing but pawns at best and energy-fodder at worst.

Kunzite, in Econtra, had driven a lot of that out of her. She belonged to him, and had no place compromising that even for power. The rest, she'd grown out of with more maturity; humans had some value on their own, though it hadn't stopped her from taking energy when she'd needed it to save her mother's life.]

He sounds impulsive. But also determined.

[bot-builder.livejournal.com]

He drank the soup about 1500 years ago. He got less impulsive with time. But yeah, he's always been determined.

You know he ruled the world for a little while? Didn't last, though. When I conquer the world, it'll stick.

I don't think he's ever really been about ruling the world, like the other Heylin. He just wants to be the best.

[waterfell.livejournal.com]

[Well, she's torn.

On the one hand, she and her comrades stepped up to become the leaders and rulers of her world.

On the other hand, there's always the example of Beryl, an absolute textbook of how not to rule.]

What will you do once you have it? [And a sly look prefaces the next words:] If you can get there.

[bot-builder.livejournal.com]

[He smirks.] Oh, I'll get there. I'll teach everyone. They'll never not take me seriously again.

I'll imprison my enemies and the competition; that's only smart. I think I'll make Wuya wear a Jack Spicer cheerleader outfit. [He snickers.]

I'm not quite sure what I'll do with everyone else yet--I've got so many wonderful plans!

[In short: he'd be a terrible ruler, if being decent to one's subjects is important to you.]

[waterfell.livejournal.com]

[He... pretty much lost her at the cheerleader outfit, yes. She's spent the past years proving herself; she understands that. If anything, she finds imprisoning enemies too lenient; hers have died in all but a few cases. She does not believing in letting enemies become threats again.

But the cheerleader outfit is just...a symbol of pettiness, the sort of capricious exercise of power that suits Beryl and that something inside Ami doesn't quite accept.]

If those are your plans, you won't go far. [She says this matter-of-factly.]

[bot-builder.livejournal.com]

[Losing sympathy: what Jack does best.]

[He smirks again.] That's just what I want to do after I win. I've got a solid plan for conquering the world. Quite professional. And I don't even need the shen gong wu for it!

[waterfell.livejournal.com]

[She asks the, under the circumstances, reasonable question:]

Why do you want it?

[bot-builder.livejournal.com]

Because I need to prove that I can. I need to prove that I can achieve something no one else could do; not long term, anyway.

[He frowns and goes quiet. Then he steps back from the bot and examines it critically.] Gun or knife... Hm...

[waterfell.livejournal.com]

There are a lot of things no one else could do, aren't there? Or are you just pretending to be impressive?

[bot-builder.livejournal.com]

[He scowls.] You see? It's that attitude, right there! I'm sick of being told I'm a poser. I've got to prove I'm the real thing.

[waterfell.livejournal.com]

[No skin off her back either way, really; it's not her world. She has nothing to protect, nothing to admire, no prey of her own to warn him away from, here.]

But if you win it, can you rule it?

Will tag back in the morning; it's 1am here

[bot-builder.livejournal.com]

My bots will already be in position to hold most of the world. It's just a matter of not running things into the ground before I die. I'm confident that with a good system structure I'll do just fine.

no worries! 3pm for me so I will probably get back to you after -I- sleep tonight XD

[waterfell.livejournal.com]

That's your only goal?

[They're going to make Earth the wonderful place it could have been. Or so they tell themselves.]

[bot-builder.livejournal.com]

Afraid so. Not quite as lofty as yours.

[Jack's Heylin. For a Heylin, his plans are positively beneficent. When Chase was in charge, he went around setting villages on fire for fun.]