deernet | [VIDEO; UN: LittleGreenLiar]

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[VIDEO; UN: LittleGreenLiar]

[There are a number of indications that this is a misfire, even before it becomes clear what's going on. First, there's the fact of the username. Ariadne has never once set a username. Everyone who keeps promising to show her how to do it keeps disappearing or dying on her. So she's been "username not set" for years, at this point.

Then, there's the angle. It's tilted. And the feed isn't vibrating and shaking as Ariadne tries to hold it steady. Clearly, her Omni is sitting off to one side, forgotten, at the moment.

Ariadne is standing in her bedroom, sunlight filtering in through the gauzy curtains. She's in her underwear. Of course, it's pretty medieval underwear: a ribbed corset, tied in front, and knee-length bloomers. Bare feet. Green feet. She's in her natural form, her candy-floss blue hair loose and streaming down her back, practically to her knees. She wags her hand in front of her face, as if she's holding a fan. Daintily, she touches her fingertips to her collarbone.]

Me? You want to dance with me?

[There's non one else in the room. It appear, she's been caught in a game of make-believe. Adorable? Creepy? Hard to say.]

Why, sir, I would be delighted!

[She dips into a neat, perfect curtsy. And then rises, eyelashes fluttering.

At which point, she starts to dance a waltz, her arms around an invisible, imaginary partner. She moves smoothly, gliding across the room, looking very much like she's ready to fall in love in a ballroom.

One, two, three. One, two, three...]

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I thought as much.

[He can hear her moving around, but he too was up and moving about. He was hissing and there was a hissy growl in reply from Ruin. Time to go for a walk.]

You aren't disrupting it. I need to walk Ruin. I'll be there soon, alright?

Yes. I'll meet you downstairs.

[A small pause. And in an even smaller voice:]

Thank you, Savage.

Very well.

[He was heading out and the rathtar was leading the way. It didn't take him long, and while he hadn't been to Airy's place before, he had been by her shop on more than one occasion.

He arrived and well... a tentacle ball with teeth was rubbing on the door. Savage shooed the rathtar away.]

You can't come in, but stay close.

[By the time he's arrived, Ariadne is dressed, her hair pulled back into a braid. It's all been quite embarrassing, and she's not used to feeling flustered.

Perhaps that's her mistake. Getting a little too comfortable.

At any rate, she opens the door in time to see Savage's...pet?]

Uh...is that Ruin, then?

[He nudged at Ruin with a foot, but the door was opening and that meant the rathtar was offering hissing squeaks and tentacles were reaching out to 'feel' and 'taste' her.]

Yes, that's Ruin. [His tone had a rare fondness generally only reserved for his brother.]

Probably best it doesn't come in. It will make a mess of things and probably chew on you.

[He nudged Ruin, who was the size of a giant dog.]

Well, I would rather not be chewed on.

[Nevertheless, she steps out of the door and immediately squats down to Ruin's eye level.

Not exactly what she would call 'cute.' But Ariadne is the last person to judge on appearances.

Besides, she assumes that the creature is either from Savage's world, or a close approximation of something from his world. Which is important context about her new friend.]

Hello, Ruin?

It's not that bad.

[No, yes, it was bad but that was fine for Savage who was huge and had a different tolerance for being chewed on. He thought it was adorable in his own way, but few seemed to have the same fondness.

He moved a bit closer as she moved to be on Ruin's level and the rathtar didn't have eyes but boy was that mouth big and full of teeth. He reached out to take one questing tentacle but let Ruin hiss and chew on the edge of her clothing to learn the taste of her.]

Careful, whatever fits in its mouth goes in its mouth.

[She curls her fingers into fists, pulling them slightly behind her back. More for Ruin's protection than her own.

But she really doesn't want to be chewed.]

What...what is Ruin, exactly?

[Ruin rolled back and forth, chewing on cloth before releasing it with Savage's foot nudge and bouncing off to the street. The rathtar wheeled around there, tentacles questing for living matter that could be stuffed into that maw. An unfortunate rodent made a quick snack.

Savage looked between Airy and Ruin swallowing the rodent whole.] Ruin is a rathtar, a vicious beast of a jungle planet. Normally they grow much much larger, but Ruin appears stunted. I also doubt they bond with a potential meal, but it only chews on me so far.

[He looked down at Airy.] You dressed and returned to your illusionary life. Shall we fix your user name inside then?

[What an unusual pet. Of course, she's terrified of horses, and plenty of people keep them. At least a rathtar won't trample someone under enormous hooves. It's all a matter of perspective.

With a little nod, she stands up, stepping back into the shop.]

I've had Windy occasionally broadcast without my knowledge. But never had the Omni do it before.

[She seemed at least curious of Ruin, which wasn't a normal reaction now that the rathtar was getting bigger compared to when they had crawled out of the sea some months ago.

Still, he followed her inside and left Ruin to scavenge in the streets of rodents.]

Brute has never done that so far. [Maybe too obedient. Or too enslaved.] Odd that it was your username that changed. I expect you took some offense to the name.

It was hard not to take personally...

[She frowns thoughtfully.]

Of course, it would be more personal if I knew who did it.

Why? You don't like such commentary on who you are, I expect.

[He was looking around the shop, sniffing with little bobs of his chin.]

Are you going to investigate who did it? Though, wasn't it the ghost you were dancing with?

[Ariadne laughs.]

I wasn't dancing with a ghost, Savage. Just imagining a partner, that's all.

Why do you need to imagine one? Just ask someone and probably show them to steps.

[Dancing always seemed like one of those universal things that every culture had and could be prompted to do.]

Well, there wasn't anyone to ask.

[Which is true enough, as her bedroom was quite empty at the time.

She takes out her Omni, giving it a little glare, before she passes it to Savage.]

Anyway, where I come from, it's expected that a male asks his female to dance. Not the other way around.

...I don't know why.

So no male here has asked you to dance then? Humans have odd customs, but I come from a different kind of society.

[For someone of a matriarchal society, the idea that it was a male's expectation for such things was odd to him. Then again, humans in generally did things rather backwards, which he was slowly getting used to.

He took her Omni and eased into a crouch so that she could see what he was doing as he brought up the settings then profile.]

Here is settings then profile. Scroll down a bit and your network identifier is here.

[It isn't entirely true. She'd been asked to dance a few times. But all of those males seem to have vanished on her, by this point.

Eagerly, she peers over at the screen, watching Savage work.]

How did you learn to do that?

[He tilted his head away so his horns wouldn't be at risk of spiking her or impeding her vision of the screen that he was working on.]

Playing around with it mostly, but traveling in space sometimes means scrambling identifiers of the ship. I learned to do that. Our technology is more advanced than this but also simplified.

Scrambling...identifiers?

[She considers this a moment.]

An act of deception?

That doesn't make sense. I mean, I could list my name as Princess Tranns Harkin, but anyone would know I'm me, just looking at me. Wouldn't they?

[It was rare for Savage to feel like he had knowledge that others did not, and he blinked at Airy as she questioned him. Normally, Maul would answer such questions and he'd remain silent. His smarter and infinitely more learned brother.]

It's... every ship that can travel between planets has a unique code set to it that space ports and spacefaring ships can read and identify. To disappear in space, you have to change that identifier when you're wanted by Jedi, bounty hunters, and space authorities.

But ships are abandoned all the time on planets or sometimes in space, so it's easy to steal identifiers. War does that.

[He shrugged his shoulders as he scrolled through her profile until the network name was displayed.]

In the Outer Rim, there is a lot of lawlessness. It's easy to disappear if you're smart about it. Still, some of it comes down to luck and staying off the busier hyperspace lanes.

Do...all ships look the same, then?

[She's seen ships in Obi-Wan's memories. But always from the inside, never the outside.

They seemed pretty different.

But maybe that's part of the design...]

No. There a hundreds or different designs and new ones coming out every cycle. They are built for their purpose and how many people or goods are needed to transport. Some of the transport used for troop movement are the size of a city.

[He had been on a few large ships, but he preferred the smaller ships that could skirt around the edges and get in to planets without detection.]

What type of transport does your world have?

Then what's the point of an identifier? Can't you just...look at the ship?

[She shakes her head, still confused.]

We have sailing vessels in my world. Horse-drawn carriages. Sometimes roller skates.

You can always see the people operating the vessel, whatever it is.

You can identify a ship before it is close enough to see it. Any planet can have hundreds of ships come to its surface every hour. If you have a hundred people pushing through a door, how do you identify who is the spy when it is a sea of humanoids?

[He hadn't been on many sailing vessels; he wasn't a strong swimmer after all.]

What are roller skates?

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