gone_byebye | (no subject)

The door opens onto an alleyway between two buildings- one residential, one not. "Here we are," Ray says, stepping out and holding the Firehouse door open behind him. "Home sweet- uh, hang on a minute, I need to check the year."

He trots off to the newspaper box on the curb, then gives Kitt a thumbs-up.

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From:

gone_byebye

(( The detailed lessons would probably take too long; I'm good with handwaving, based on what we've got so far. And... hm. ))

"Oh, okay," Ray said. "That makes sense. I understand completely."

As for the scans, Kitt ran into a somewhat frustrating situation early on. The police computers of New York City communicated with the police computers of New York State- and that was it. Their technology, as was so often the case, was woefully behind the private sector's, even in 2004, and the sharing of data was not a common thing in a world without a Department of Homeland Security. To get any kind of national record would require sweet-talking computers belonging to the FBI or some other federal agency.

On the other hand, rummaging through the Internet- available easily enough, as several of the nearby homes and businesses had badly secured 802.11g wireless networks- made for an interesting time. There were references galore to a pair of Star Wars movies called Episode I: The Price of Order and Episode II: Clone Error, with a third, Revenge of the Sith, due out in 2005. There were a few very sad little cult sites devoted to a movie called "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", and quite a lot of sites dedicated to some cartoon called Jace and the Wheeled Warriors.

And on a number of specialized mailing lists and Usenet discussion archives, particularly one called Inside Line, there were some extremely bizarre discussions of whether the rumored-to-exist 'men in black' ever drove anything other than large sedans. Specifically, whether they might possibly be seen driving something in the Firebird family, at least in the western United States if nowhere else.

From:

steadfastknight

But Kitt was higher technology than that. If there was a small connection to the internet, he could get into it by sweet talking the right servers. With a little silver binary and some smooth hexadecimal, as well as a few whispered promises of 256-bit encryption, and he found just a few tiny hints--

But that forum was the most interesting. Firebird family.

There was a kind of sweet satisfaction in Kitt's thoughts at seeing that part. A satisfaction that could've left him purring.

He'd tell that to Michael later.

If he could get over the want to go find himself, even if he knew it would risk paradox.

While Ray was eating, Kitt gathered all the information he could, even scouring for possible images, because he was masochistically curious that way.

From:

gone_byebye

The Inside Line discussion was probably the most straightforward rendition of the material. Virtually every other reference to a supposed mystery black sports car had the hallmarks of urban legend all over it- no dates beyond 'a few years ago' or 'February', no link of the person who'd supposedly seen it to the person posting the story beyond the 'friend of a friend' sort. The one site that Kitt finally managed to track down that had any sort of image file to it was... well, not reliable. It featured some painfully obvious faked footage of ghosts and a few moderately convincing 'human hybrids' (one of which turned out to be a sculpture rather than a photographic fake). The car photo was blurry, nearly as much so as the famous photograph of 'Bigfoot', and had been tentatively identified by someone as a concept car from 2002.

A cross-reference with more reliable photographs revealed that none of GM's concept cars from that year had been nearly that angular, as that was a year when even the sports vehicles had been moved sharply towards smoothness for aerodynamics' sake.

From:

steadfastknight

The image, Kitt took and stored into his databanks. He'd run it through his image refinement software later. Oh, satisfaction could've been seen dripping off of him if he were human. As it was, he just wanted to crow.

So with that information tight in his grips, he waited for Ray to come back outside.

Concept car, Kitt thought, amused. Concept car! Oh, how much the world could change in twenty years!

From:

gone_byebye

Two hot dogs, one large soda, one medium fries, and one trip to the restroom later, Ray emerged. "Sorry to keep you waiting," he said as he reached for the driver's side door. "Find anything interesting?"

From:

steadfastknight

"Quite," Kitt said, voice more than satisfied as the door opened for Ray's grip. Could cars purr? Kitt was making an effort at it. "It seems I, or someone like me, exist here. Or there is a possibility through second-hand tales. I don't dare test it just yet, but I do know the exclusive Knight Industries frequencies."

It could be done. But he wanted a few rumours of his own first.

From:

gone_byebye

"Oh, cool!" Ray said. "Did you want to keep looking, or did you need to do something else first, or should we just go back to the airfield now? I'm good with any of them at this point."

From:

steadfastknight

"Lessons are a bit more important than my following what may be a false lead. I've yet to run the image I found through my filters, but that can wait. I don't want to et off any alarms that may come from my presence. Though..."

Here, he got a bit cocky.

"Though if we caused a few rumors of our own, perhaps you could tell me if they contact you..."

From:

gone_byebye

Given how much of parapsychology was once founded on nothing but rumor, Ray saw nothing wrong with this. "Excellent idea, Kitt," he said with a smile. "Got anything in mind?"

(( OOC: Bed calls in RL, I fear. ))

From:

steadfastknight

"I'll think of something, keeping in mind that I don't want you arrested," he said. "But I do believe that if I were to make enough rumour to reach that board, perhaps I, here, would find out about it."

((No problem.))

From:

gone_byebye

"There's enough areas in Manhattan with public security cameras for us to do something that might attract interest," Ray said. "Or upstate New York if you think Dutchess or Ulster County is a better choice for staging this kind of thing. That's highway driving and mostly rural territory, except for a few places like the Culinary Institute and a couple of relatively secret information technology company installations."

From:

steadfastknight

"I'll have to find a situation, first," he said. "A turboboost over a potential accident would be suitable, I think. Of course, it would need to be later on, so I can get the action off of police radar as quickly as possible afterward."

Because he wouldn't get Ray in trouble for the sake of intraspecies communication.

"I'm sure you understand."

From:

gone_byebye

"Shouldn't be a problem," Ray says. "We can get onto the BQE and head for the Triborough instead of going straight back to the Firehouse- there's always plenty of potential accident situations along that stretch of highway."

Oh, he understand, all right. Although- "Uh, is there any chance you can darken your windows when we do? People know what I look like."

From:

steadfastknight

"You are something of a local celebrity," said Kitt. "Of course. But they will likely see us heading toward the Firehouse, unless you'd like me to drop you off elsewhere so you can walk. That would depend on just what I did, of course."

From:

gone_byebye

"Well, it's not that much of a problem, actually," Ray says. "If we head for the Triborough, we're going north almost to the other end of Manhattan Island. That puts us out around 125th Street, and the Firehouse is clear past Canal. That's a good ten miles off and an entire river away from any jumps that might happen. If we can throw off anyone who's following us, nobody's going to associate the perfectly sedately moving black car in Manhattan with the one that was spotted in Queens."

From:

steadfastknight

"And I can certainly throw off pursuers." Kitt was very good at that. Extremely. It was what he was built for.

"But first, would you prefer to continue your lessons, or is there something else on your mind?"

From:

gone_byebye

"Mmmm... let's go back to the lessons," Ray decided. "I"m good otherwise, thanks."

From:

steadfastknight

The engine fired, giving a beautiful rumble. "Then let's return to the airfield. I think it's best we have our lessons there until you're more ready for real-life application."

From:

gone_byebye

Ray beamed. "Fine with me," he said, and wiped his hands on his shirt before taking the wheel again.

From:

steadfastknight

Kitt let Ray guide him out into traffic with a quiet confidence in his competence. Ray had already proven that.

((How do you want to continue from here?))

From:

gone_byebye

(( I think we can handwave the rest of the lessons at the airport; we have a good idea of what's going to be covered, and I'm quite happy with what we've had already. ))