hacker_twins | Treehouse! (Open in case anyone wanders across it ;) )

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Treehouse! (Open in case anyone wanders across it ;) )

Somewhere in the Nexus is a patch of random forest, mostly pine but with a few other trees interspersed.

In that forest is a small clearing with a very large, old, and sturdy oak tree.

In that oak tree is now a treehouse made mostly of metal and polymer panels that one familiar with a variant on the world might recognize as having come from Gemini's area on the moon.

And in that treehouse, if one happens across it at the right time, one just might find two child-sized reploids...

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OMG, a house in a tree? He's heard of these!

As usual, he's got the backpack on. It can wait at the bottom of the tree, while he climbs up to invade and conquer.

And in a brief moment that treehouse is going to be getting another occupant, as a Nobody pops in. Whether or not he'd intended for his portal to end up there isn't entirely clear, but there he is.

Techno turns around, pausing with a Dorito halfway to his mouth. "Right. I think the next thing we really need here, Middy, are some door locks."

His green-armored twin blinks and notices Kuja. "Oh! Hello. Who are you?"

Two startled little Reploids fall on their butts at this. Not the first 'invader' in their new little play place, but he's the first one that just appeared out of nowhere!

Middy pats Techno on the back to help his twin recover from nearly choking on a Dorito in surprise.

Eep, people. Armored people. D:

...oh, well. "Kuja!"

"Hey, sorry about that. Didn't mean to startle you."

Which... may or may not mean he intended to pop into this particular treehouse. Hmm.

"Oh, that's ok," Middy says cheerily. And then there's a slight uneasy silence and an exchanged glance between the twins as they wonder just what to say to someone who just popped in like that.

"So, do you live around here or something?" Techno asks.

"Nah, I just like to drop in now and then."

Sometimes even literally.

"I'm Middy, and that's Techno," the green armored one says.

"What are you doing here?" Techno asks, wondering if there's going to be problems keeping people out of their treehouse.

Middy is much more inclined to meet new people. "Techno, be nice." He looks back to Kuja. "Do you live around here?"

"'Here' as in the Nexus in general, or 'here' as in this tree," Techno says. Because if it's the latter, he's not going to be happy. It's bad enough some people have a habit of not knocking back at the labs...

Middy just blinks. "We come here when we can."

"The Nexus. Haven't been here before just now."

"Well, we did only finish moving all the bits from our universe's moon and putting it together a day or two ago," Middy says. "So really, it wasn't here until then, although the tree must have been here for a lot longer."

"That might explain it somewhat, I guess. I can try to keep out of here if you'd like."

"It's a house in a tree." Yes, that is meant to be his answer to Techno's question.

"Um. I live in the Nexus!"

"Yes it is. And it's ours," Techno replies.

"We brought the pieces here from our own universe and put it in the tree," Middy says. "So we'd have a place to play when we come here."

Wow. :o

"I should do that! I can find stuff everywhere." And he might not even steal it. Maaaybe.

"Yes, you should," Techno says. "In some other tree." Grouch.

"Do you want some help?" Middy asks. Experienced treehouse-builders here. Even if it took them several days of trial and error.

Both twins start to answer at once, stop, blink, shut their mouths, and exchange a glance for a moment. That this is done in an odd mirrored unison might raise questions. But whatever the reason they seem to come to some silent agreement a second later and Middy speaks first.

"Well, it's a treehouse. We like meeting new people. That's one of the reasons we come here," Middy says.

"... But we'd like to have to invite them first," Techno adds.

Middy gives a shy giggle at that. "I'm Middy, and that's Techno. What's your name?"

Techno gets a 'what, are you stupid' look. "Well, yeah. There's no room in this one. And I dunno! I guess I need a map first..."

"Xigbar."

The fact that they do things in a mirrored unison raises less of a question than one might think, apparently.

"Hello, Xigbar," Middy says. And then the undersocialized pair's reserves of small talk run out for the moment. They each munch on a Dorito as they try to think of what to say next.

Techno just frownyfaces back. Because it's their tree, lack of room or not.

"Techno, be nice. Please?" Middy says. "We've been trying to make a map, but it's not exactly to scale. And some places here seem to change. I'm not sure it would be possible to really make an accurate map of the Nexus."

"What?" More of that same look. "A map of the house. That I'm going to build."

"Oh, I thought you meant to help you find a tree," Middy says. "Maps of buildings are usually called blueprints."

Techno just rolls his eyes and gets himself a soda from a cooler in the corner.

"No way. There's tons of trees. And it's going to be a huge house!"

Techno's just rolling his eyes at this as he takes a drink of soda.

"You can't make a treehouse too big," Middy warns gently. "Tree branches can only hold so much weight before they'll break."

Shrug. "There's a huge tree on my world! It goes all over Gaia."

O.o "I've never heard of a tree that big before," Middy says.

o.O "I guess you could build a huge treehouse in something like that," adds Techno.

"The roots are in other continents." He's a bit surprised (and pleased) that anyone would think that's weird. :D

"Yeah. But I'd need lots of stuff... I can keep adding on!"

They justs tare and blink at that for a moment.

"Other continents?" Middy says after a moment.

"That doesn't sound natural," comments Techno.

"It's not. Someone put it there. And then we killed him!"

Matching O.O faces now. Congrats, Kuja, you've broken them.

What'd he say? D:

He just blinks back at them, puzzled.

((Resorting to color coding for clarity here: Red is Techno, Blue is Middy.))

"Y-you.. uh... that... um..."

"We'd be in a lot of trouble if we... uh..."

"Did that..."

"Killed someone."

"Yeah, that."

Blinkblink. "...even if they wanted to kill you?"

"Well... yes," Middy admits.

"If they were human, it wouldn't matter why we hurt them. We'd be scrapped for it. Even if they weren't dead."

"Oh. He wasn't human." A hint of annoyance here, that these kids only think it's wrong to kill humans.

"He was a... weird robot thing. And he wanted to kill the whole world."

Oh, it's not something they think. More of an irritating legal matter in their world. If anything, Techno sounded a bit annoyed about it himself. But then, he sounds annoyed about such a lot of things.

"They'd still send us to Doppler and have us reprogrammed, just in case we'd attack a human next." Techno rolls his eyes at this and takes another drink of soda.

"It's not allowed," Middy says. "Robots and Reploids aren't supposed to ever hurt humans."

Well, Kuja has no way of knowing that~.

"Yeah, but that's what Garland was for! The person we killed." ~~Who is this 'we'? He wasn't even there. :D~~

More annoyance at that. "That's stupid. Humans aren't better than other people." :|

Snerk! "Try telling that to our world's humans," Techno replies.

"Techno, please... You should be careful what you say." Middy goes to get himself a soda as well.

"I'm telling it to you." More :|.

Ok, that's all Techno can take. It doesn't do any good to tell us. We already know.We just can't do anything about it if we don't want reprogrammed or scrapped. Legally, we're property, and we have about as much rights as a toaster. If we get out of line, we're dead. End of story.

"Techno, please..." a now scared Middy tries to calm his angry twin. "You shouldn't say such things.

"Why not, Middy? Doppler and Weil aren't here to overhear."

"Then you're stupid for staying!" No, he does not like the way Techno is acting at all. Fuzzy tail is lashing around~. "You don't even need food! You can go anywhere!"

Middy gets between them, trying to break up the argument. He shakes his head. "We can't go just anywhere. We can find some food here, but you have to pay for the non-loled stuff. It's hard to find that much change in the couches. And we need other things, too, like routine maintenance. We don't know how to take care of ourselves. Not yet."

Techno just glares at Kuja.

"Then you should learn. Or maybe you don't want to!" Glare back, at both of them.

"Get out." Techno says.

Middy just fidgets for half a second and then nods. "I think you should leave."

And he does! But not without one last comment. "Stupid robots."

Middy just starts to cry. Techno hugs his twin and glares at the exit until he's absolutely certain Kuja isn't coming back.

Door locks. They definitely needed door locks.

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Treehouse! (Open in case anyone wanders across it ;) )

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