milliways_bar | (no subject)

"Hey, Agent K!"

Enzo has his guitar again. He also has a shiny new almost-adult voice. It sounds, of course, just like an unfinished version of Matrix's, because it is.

"Hello, Enzo!" K calls out in response with a grin.

Lord, but they do get old fast.

"How are things back in Mainframe?"

"Pretty good. I'm back at school now, but vacation only ended a couple weeks ago. How's your world?"

"Oh, the usual: a few invasions, couple of assassination attempts at Zed (you should've seen what he did to them back), and somebody's tried to steal Earth's entire supply of habanero peppers, which is a damn good way to get on my bad side."

"Any interesting classes this year?"

Enzo grimaces a little. "Dot's got me taking another version of Interface Protocols. You'd call it diplomacy. And Tactics, but that's not as bad."

It just requires a bit more sitting still than he likes.

"And I have to do Debate Forum."

"Diplomacy and tactics?" K frowns thoughtfully. "You should let Zed know that. He could give you some case studies from our universe if you need to write any essays."

"Actually most of them would probably work for both classes."

Funny how 'diplomacy' in MiB-speak is often just another term for shooting lots of weapons at somebody else.

"All right. Thanks!"

There will definitely be essays. So not Enzo's strong suit. Any edge will be helpful.

The MiBs always watch out for their trusted allies.

"Got a concert coming up?" he gestures at the guitar.

"Nah, just looking for music to bring my friends. Did I tell you I told them about here?"

"How'd they take it?"

"Hey, these are my friends I'm talking about, they're all random anyway. Val and Tone thought it was awesome, Caret just nodded like he'd figured it out already. Maybe he did, he figured out about the time stop."

"So the Landlord let them in, eh? Well, that's good then. He can get a mite particular about that sometimes when it comes to letting some people in and some people not."

Edited 2010-12-19 03:27 (UTC)

"Oh, no, they haven't been here! I said I told them about it. That's why they're having me bring them User music now."

"Just some cross-dimensional cultural outreach then, got it."

"It's a start. Any suggestions?"

"Well, from a diplomatic perspective, it's hard to go wrong with music. You're on solid ground there."

"Well, yeah, but what're some good songs? Something... human, but not too confusing, you know?"

"Enzo," K says, settling back a bit in his seat with a sudden air of gravitas. "When it comes to the music of Earth, there is only one place to start, and that's with the King himself."

K reaches into his Suit and draws out one of those universal thumb drives he had the MiB labs come up with shortly after arriving at Milliways.

"The complete works of Elvis. Including his latest recordings from 2009, when he went back and revisited his greatest hits. Straight from his studio compound in Digitalis VI."

"Oh, yeah! There's an Elvis in Userspace, too, isn't there? What's his last name there? I know it was different."

K blinks. "You've got an Elvis there too, huh? Well, the King is universal, and that's no mistake."

"He's Presley on my side. What's his name on yours?"

Enzo can bet the next question K will be asking is whether he can supply a flash drive right back. There might be songs K doesn't know, after all.

"Pressanykey."

What did you expect, really?

K chuckles. "Now that's good."

"When you've copied everything on there, do me a favor and fill it up with what you've got on him. Looks like we both stand to gain here."

"Sure thing!"

Most of the songs, in both cases, will probably be extremely familiar, but with some... odd lyrical changes.

"Nothing wrong with some cross-cultural sharing, right?" K asks.

"Wonder what 'our' Elvis would think if he knew he had an analog in Mainframe?"

It's enough to boggle even K's mind.

"Dunno, dude. Some people just show up in a lot of different worlds. One guy I met said he thinks it's 'cause there's so many worlds that everything's gotta happen somewhere, but I dunno if it's that or if worlds, like, leak into each other."

"Well, there are definitely a lot of MiB bureaus out there in the Multiverse."

"Hell, we've conducted joint-operations with a few of them."

"But you probably heard plenty about that back when we were dealing with all the Black Oil mess."

"Yeah, I sort of remember."

Mostly he remembers sulking about not being allowed to participate.

"That was a rough one," K says, and his voice goes hard for just a moment before he lightens again and gives Enzo a slight smile. "But a long time ago now too."

"Yeah, well, remember. Next time something goes down..." Enzo gives him a mock-stern look.

"Better believe it, Tiger. If we run into something like that again, it's the old allies who get the call first."

"Crashing straight." He pauses to ponder. "Guess judo wouldn't be much use against that stuff, huh?"

"No, but I think we're good as far as Black Oil goes. I don't see it coming back."

"And judo works just fine on all kinds of other things."

"Mostly things with arms and legs, but I can totally adapt."

"Long as you don't mind the slime too."

It comes with the territory, after all.

Enzo grimaces, but says, "Yeah, I can deal with slime."

K chuckles.

If he's ready for that, he might just get the call someday.

Jessica woke feeling a bit better so she decided to sneak downstairs. Pausing by the front door she opens it a crack, just enough to get a fresh data stream before making her way to the bar. Once there she orders a fresh pot of tea and checks to see if any new crisis have hit her world while she's laid up here at the end of the universe.

The flash of a certain logo on the boot screen of her PDA may catch K's attention but whether MiB is aware of S.W.O.R.D. this narrator doesn't know but wouldn't be surprised.

Oh, the MiB knows about S.W.O.R.D. all right, though whether they know about the one from Jessica's world specifically remains to be seen.

For now, gives the PDA a glance and a knowing nod. And a neighborly nod and 'Evening' for Jessica, if he happens to catch her eye.

Just to be helpful, the holographic display in the air above his MiBlackberry is showing the MiB logo at the moment.

Clandestine organizations and their logos...

Jessica catches the nod and greeting and replies, "Hello." She does keep her distance though as she is sick and supposed to prevent the spread of the disease.

"You wouldn't happen to answer to Fury, would you?" K asks.

Considering how often the chain of command gets scrambled in Earth-616 (in all its permutations), K knows it's always best to ask first.

"I have form time to time. Assuming you mean the man and not the emotion," she replies cautiously while giving him a curious once over. The suit looks like it could be S.H.I.E.L.D. but she's not hearing any of the high tech surprises that mark stealth suits.

"Well, if you run into another guy dressed like me only... bigger... don't tell him."

"My boss has never forgiven Fury for that fifty bucks he says Fury owes him."

Hence Zed's usual euphemism for Nick Fury: 'goddamn tightwad.'