Grand Theft Sofa

[illestgangsta]

Niko has found his way into the Nexus, and in his hand, he has a six-pack of Sprunk soda in his hand that he plops down on a table beside him. "Not sure what this place is, but anything has to be better than that apartment." He comments to nobody with a thick Serbian accent, and he takes a seat in a comfortable chair. After a hard day of driving, a taxi for his cousin and getting his cousin out of trouble Niko looks exhausted.

"Guess I ought to ask a question like it says on the paper. All right, I got one. Has anyone told you a something that was too good to be true? Something like they've got millions, drive fancy cars, or live in a gigantic house. And then only to see that it's a tiny apartment where the only thing that's big are the cockroaches." Niko does his best to try explaining his question for any ears that might catch wind of what he has to say from his seat on his couch.

"And for something simpler. Where's the farthest you've moved or traveled to?"

Comments

[onemorebounty]

*A woman in skintight blue sitting nearby has an answer.*

I once went forty-six thousand lights on one chase. The bounty turned out to be too good to be true, too.

[illestgangsta]

Niko turns his head around to look at the woman with a look of confusion on his face. "Other than mentioning of a bounty, I'm afraid I'm a bit lost at what you're trying to say."

[onemorebounty]

Lights--light-years? The distance light travels in a year? The galaxy is a hundred thousand or so across?

((Sorry to tag and run, but it was subjectively very late.))

[illestgangsta]

Niko raises an eyebrow. "So you're some kind of astronaut bounty hunter." He asks, having never met someone like her before. "I'm sorry it's just where I'm from I never met an astronaut bounty hunter before."

(ooc: It's cool. I sorta posted that thread in the wee hours in the morning. :])

[onemorebounty]

That... describes me fairly well, really. Yes.

*His admission is met by a slight nod.*

You're handling it well, at least. Welcome to the Nexus.

[illestgangsta]

A smile suddenly crosses Niko's features. "It's nice meeting you, Ms.Bounty Hunting Astronaut. And if you'd like I could flail my arms around, and act like a total fool! That is if that's what most people do when they come to the Nexus for the first time." Niko is always cool and collective when he comes face to face with difficult situations for the most part. Then again this whole Nexus place is very much outside of the ordinary for Niko.

"Anyway the name's Niko."

[onemorebounty]

*Well, Niko, you've made her laugh, or at least chuckle. That's more than many new acquaintances can manage.*

Samus. It's nice to meet you, Niko. Frankly, I wouldn't mind seeing more people face this place without panic, it'd save time. So what's your "too good to be true?"

[illestgangsta]

Despite what he thinks, Niko has a strange way with people or so his cousin and friends think. He won't deny it feels good to make someone laugh. "Nice meeting you too, Samus."

He places his hand to his chin, and it doesn't take him long to come up with one. "My too good to be true was told to me by my cousin. He told me he was in America living in a big giant mansion, drove expensive cars, and women everywhere." He lowers his hand, and he leans forward to grab hold of the green can of soda from the table besides him. "It ends up the only thing big and grand were his debts." Niko holds back on almost everything about his life up until now is one big ‘too good to be true’.

"And what's your too good to be true?"

[onemorebounty]

*She gives a sympathetic wince at his tale of expectations and reality.*

My sympathies. My too-good-to-be-true was that the bounty I was chasing never existed in the first place. A biotech corp had posted it, looking to lure in high-end bounty hunters, people in good physical shape, then use us as test bodies for their products. Who would miss us?

*She sighs, annoyed.*

In the end, there was no payout, the company lawyers disavowed the "recruitment drive," and I got fined for criminal trespass and destruction of private property.

[illestgangsta]

Niko gives her a sympathetic wince of his own. He's been where she's been more times than he can imagine. "I take you ended up doing time, or you had to bribe your way out of a prison."

[onemorebounty]

GalFed doesn't really have prisons, but I managed to get out of it with just the fines--no mandatory rehab. People in my line of work, at my level, can be expected to accrue a certain amount of collateral damage in the pursuit of a bounty, or in self-defense. So, it could've been worse, but it certainly didn't feel like a win.

[illestgangsta]

"Yeah, I don't know many wanted men who are going to make it easy when their freedom is at stake." Niko sounds as if he talks from experience. "So if there's no prisons, what happens to the people you bring in? Do they make them do hard labor or do they just execute them?"

[onemorebounty]

Especially not when their crimes include stealing weapons from armies.

*She considers his question for a moment, trying to couch the ideas in terms that will make sense to what she's guessing his background is--twentieth or twenty-first century Earth.*

Most crimes get Rehab; for small things, it amounts to talk therapy and maybe some mandatory classes. For worse crimes, though, there might be behavioral conditioning, inductive association adjustment, up to a full-on neural scrub, where when they're done the parts of you that want to commit that crime aren't in you anymore. It's controversial, some argue that making someone no longer themselves is no different than killing them.

*That deserves an afterthought.*

Of course, the death penalty is also an option, and in many cases that's the sentence passed, and I get to go find the defendant and carry it out.

[illestgangsta]

Niko listens and he nods his head as he ingests what she's telling him. It doesn't seem all that different from any other prison minus the rehab. That seems to be something left to the individual to do.

The frequent use of the death penalty is something that rings true, and while it isn't the straw that broke his career as a criminal it is one of those things that sat heavily on his mind. "I thought bounty hunters had to bring in the defendant in alive. Or is that something Vinewood came up with?"

[onemorebounty]

It depends on the judicial system. I'm guessing you're from an Earth, probably the United States? Where, yes, bounty hunters are tasked with bringing defendants in to stand trial. In the Galactic Federation, it's possible to conduct a trial in the absence of the defendant. The standard for proof is set higher for the prosecutor than it would be with the defendant on hand, and a counsel pro tem is assigned to make the defense case on procedural grounds. At any point, even after the verdict is rendered, a defendant can turn themselves in and get a continuation of the trial where they get to present their side, but if they don't avail themselves of their judicial rights, then they're stuck with the verdict they've got, and depending on the severity of the crime, bounty hunters may be empowered to deliver the sentence.

[illestgangsta]

"I am from Earth, and I just recently moved to the United States from Serbia." Niko shuts himself up again to listen to Samus explain how the criminal justice system in her world works. He places a hand to his chin as he finds it to be very... " Interesting. I almost thought space would be a bit more like the American West."

[onemorebounty]

*She nods at his confirmation, pleased she can spot someone's origin in the Nexus.*

Oh, parts of it are, make no mistake. The Spinward Fringe has some fairly wild patches, I see a lot of action there. The Federation makes a serious push for civility, though. With thousands of sapient species all jostling for the same galaxy, they kind of need to.

[illestgangsta]

"So who represents this Federation?" Niko continues with the countless barrage of questions, and he doesn't the least bothered with it. He does hope he's not becoming much of a bother. "And does Earth even exist?"

[onemorebounty]

Represents? In what sense?

*He hasn't asked a question that bothers her yet.*

Earth exists, yes. It's been a member of the Federation for a long time; humans make up about 2% of the population, 4% if you count hybrids and derivations. That's high.

[illestgangsta]

Niko purses his lips as he tries to word her question. "Back where I'm from, Earth tries to do the whole Federation of different countries." He laughs a little. "But they're not exactly good at doing it. It is more for the different governments to do business. So I can only imagine how well it runs on a much bigger scale."

[onemorebounty]

Ah. It's not quite like that. To carry the analogy, if the galaxy is a world, think of the Federation as a country. People might be of different races, or from different regions, but they share a common identity in all considering themselves as people of that country. Make sense?

[kalel_ofkrypton]

The second question is ridiculously easy. "I've been to the center of the universe, if that counts," Clark Kent answers. "Only a few times though."

[illestgangsta]

Niko raises an eyebrow, and he looks impressed with Clark's answer. "I wonder how long that took you? The universe is a pretty big place."

[kalel_ofkrypton]

"Not as long as you might think. We were home by the end of the day. It was kind of special circumstances though." For his part, Clark doesn't really look like he's bullshitting about this.

[illestgangsta]

Niko has just met an astronaut bounty hunter, so he is getting the hang of this place resembling a Vinewood movie studio. With one hand holding onto a still warm can of Sprunk, he laughs a little. "I guess we're a lot closer to the center than we'd like to think. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong."

[kalel_ofkrypton]

Clark chuckles at that. "Well, maybe. Space is huge, so it's really hard to put it in terms that the human brain likes to comprehend. Even just our solar system is pretty big on its own."

[illestgangsta]

Niko takes a break to take a quick drink of his soda, and he goes to place it back down on the table beside him. "Oh even I know the solar system is bigger than people like to think. Just like people like to believe Liberty City consists of just a small section Algonquin."

[kalel_ofkrypton]

"In any case, I don't actually know how far we went. The whole trip was faster than the speed of light, by a lot. Now we can just teleport there, which is way easier."

[illestgangsta]

"Teleport? Because now I'm starting to think you're pulling my leg."

[kalel_ofkrypton]

"How did you get here?" Clark asks mildly. Most people either go through a door that can't possibly lead them here, or just... show up.

[illestgangsta]

Niko looks back to the dirty white door he thought was going to lead to the storage room back at the taxi depot. Then he looks back to Clark with a 'no shit' look on his face. "So that's what that was? Here I thought I got hit in the back in the head and I was dreaming."

[kalel_ofkrypton]

"Well I suppose I can't discount that either, but yeah, that's how the Nexus works. It seems to know when you need to just get away for a bit."

[illestgangsta]

"I guess that's an easy way of putting it. And that's a bit troubling to think this place knows when I need a break."

[kalel_ofkrypton]

"You get used to it." It's hardly the most troubling thing about the Nexus, to be fair. And Clark has long since stopped paying attention to anything out of the ordinary here.

[illestgangsta]

"I'm not sure if I like things getting into my head. That's if that's how this place works." Niko looks down at his pamphlet, sure it doesn't explain everything, but he's trying to grasp it and not panic.

[kalel_ofkrypton]

"No one really knows how it works, at least not that I've met. You can get here on your own though, as long as you know where the door is. It's not like you're at the mercy of the whims of the multiverse or anything."

[illestgangsta]

"So have you been here long?" Niko asks, and it does feel good to know he isn't going to be drug here against his will. "I'm just asking seeing you seem like you're used to this kind of place."

[kalel_ofkrypton]

"Not consistently, but yeah, I've been coming to the Nexus since I was seventeen." He looks as though he's in his late twenties or early thirties now, to give Niko some idea of just how long it's been.

[illestgangsta]

This gets a laugh from Niko as he looks at Clark. "I'd almost would say you lived here. And I can already see the people you meet can teach you quite a bit."

[kalel_ofkrypton]

"Sometimes it's seemed that way," Clark agrees, smiling. "I actually met my wife here."

[illestgangsta]

"That sounds complicated. The whole meeting your wife here, and I'm not sure how that would work."

[kalel_ofkrypton]

Clark can really only shrug at that. "We met here a few times, started dating, she moved in to my universe and now we have a whole house full of kids. It wasn't as complex as it sounds, at least not for us."

[illestgangsta]

He raises an eyebrow, and he asks. "So there was no threat of your universe blowing up?" He makes a dramatic exploding sound, and motion with his hands. "Sorry, I've been having to watch a bunch of movies with my cousin."

[kalel_ofkrypton]

"No, why would there be?" Clark isn't sure what movies might have someone destroying a universe by being where they aren't supposed to be, but they sound pretty silly.