lovely corte
Persistent Member
Lindsey Looseflaps
HE LOOKED AT ME! HE LOOKED RIGHT AT ME!
Posts: 1,402
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Post by lovely corte on Jul 22, 2014 4:09:01 GMT -8
A shit, shower and a fresh change of clothing later, Ben was sat at the counter-top in the base, his rifle laid out in front of him in several uniform chunks, a blackened rag in his grip running over the dismounted barrel of the rifle.
From his experience, a jammed rifle was a life-threatening situation. Too often, dirt and grime got into the receiver of his old rifle and all he got was a resounding clink and the dissatisfaction of no flying sections of metal royally fucking up whatever fresh piece of meat was in front of him.
Left a man hungry and scarred.
But it was also a session of relaxation and meditation. Nothing else to focus on but the rhythm and the pattern of disassembling the rifle, cleaning every individual part, assembling the rifle and checking it. It let him think about the rest of the day.
Most notably, Pink's funeral. He thought about the family and how they had almost had their daughter taken away from them once more. Another thought cropped up, more vain than the others.
Was he just going to wear a jumpsuit to the funeral? Wasn't that disrespectful? Didn't people wear suits or their uniforms?
"Lyra! Ryan!" Ben called out, unsure of where the others were, currently going through the process of assembling his rifle once more. He didn't want to have to rush out without it in the case anything happened. "You guys here!?"
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Post by Penny Royals on Jul 22, 2014 9:22:13 GMT -8
Breakfast had gone over simply, and that was good enough for him. His head still ached somewhat, and he wasn't sure if it was just from the overdrive of last night, or what else. He just felt tired, but he, like Ben (and they would probably assume the others), had decided to go to the funeral. It was a duty - they were her teammates, and they had fought to get her back, after all.
He was sitting in the rec room after getting dressed in some of the clothes he'd brought, jotting stuff down in a little notebook. It took him a second to hear Ben, but when he did, he scrambled to pocket the notebook and search for him.
"Ben?" He called, trying to find where his friend was and leading himself to the kitchen, "What's up?"
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Post by JW% on Jul 22, 2014 18:30:12 GMT -8
Brian had headed back to the bedroom, if that's what you'd call the room with the closets and bunks. He was, at the moment taking all of Tick Tock's attention as the brass boilerplate robot adjusted and tailored the clothing to him.
"This isn't color coded, is it?" Brian asked.
Tick Tock's jeweled eyes blinked, letting Brian hear the slide click slide sound. "No, these articles of more formal attire are not color coded, though if you'd like we could add customizations."
"It's just a black suit." Austin said, waiting for his turn and looking through the clothing on hangers that Tick Tock had revealed. "They're all black suits. Well, dark charcoal, not as black as Zeph's body suit. No, wait, this is a dress. So's this one." He glanced up. "For Lyra and Zeph I guess. What? They don't get a tuxedo too?"
"They could if they wish. They also have an option of the dress in a dinner, tea, or cocktail length, as they prefer." Tick Tock's moustache twitched and you could almost hear the sniff in his tone. "That would not, of course, be White Tie appropriate, but neither are these suits. They should do for this event however."
"White tie?" Austin asked as Tick Tock adjusted Brians sleeves.
"A level of formality above Black Tie, named after the color of the bow tie worn." Tick Tock rattled off. Oz was all about formality. "This is a dinner jacket, and should be more than suitable physical activity such as arriving on your motorcycles, and the fact that the event is taking place during daylight hours when the funeral is to take place."
"I'm going to look like James Bond?" Brian asked, not sure how he felt about that. On the one hand, it sounded really cool. On the other hand this fitting process was starting to annoy him.
"Sorta like a blindfolded penguin." Austin remarked and jumped back at Brian swung his white cane at the boy.
"I would ask that you do not attempt to activate your transition into your body sheath, as it will destroy the suit." Tick Tock said, fixing Brians tie.
"If we get attacked, no promises."
"Who's next?"
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Post by Alkonost Storm on Jul 23, 2014 22:50:42 GMT -8
She made sure to park and conceal the motorcycle before heading off towards the site, doing her best to not draw attention to herself while she was on the move.
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Post by JW% on Jul 24, 2014 16:46:50 GMT -8
What Trivia came across, after hiding the motorcycle and climbing towards the first strange thermal reading was, at least on first glance, a disappointment. All she saw was a metal pipe sticking up through the large rock outcropping.
Some thought about this though lead to some interesting conclusions. Somebody had taken the effort to drill a hole through solid rock in order to make this barely handspan wide hole, and the temperature of the air blowing out of it was warm, implying a cooling system. What Trivia was looking at was an air conditioning vent of an underground base.
"Perhaps the tire tracks should be investigated next?"
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Post by Alkonost Storm on Jul 30, 2014 12:58:07 GMT -8
She nodded and climbed down the outcropping, heading back to where the tire tracks had been spotted. "Hmm...I could be wrong but these might match the vehicle we chased last night." She remarked while crouching down to examine them.
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Post by JW% on Jul 30, 2014 16:36:18 GMT -8
"Ah, little ooma, that would be an insumatt unlikely scenario." The voice purred in her ear. "Give me an image and I can check the police database just to be sure. Then can you see where the tracks lead? To the north they head towards a motorway, but south the little surveillance clanks couldn't follow it into the rocks."
The tracks were fresh, likely made only the other night, and they headed out of a collection of rocks similar to the ones the air vents came out of. In fact, the tracks seemed to lead into overhangs that were nearly impossible to get a good look at from the air. Whoever drove this route didn't do it regularly, but there were actually several sets of tire marks.
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Post by Alkonost Storm on Sept 7, 2014 23:22:22 GMT -8
She nodded, reaching for one of the white accents of the bike helmet and pressing into it, revealing it was actually a paneled button.
"And it should be turning on now." She murmured, leaning forward a bit for the cat's benefit.
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Post by JW% on Sept 7, 2014 23:25:57 GMT -8
A little green outline on her helmet's visor sprang into existence and it traced the tracks, lighting up the pattern of the tire tread. A soft, artificial, clicking of a camera could be heard.
"Groshing ooma." The voice purred. "Checking the police database now. This could take some time, and assumes they have records of last nights... accident. I'll tell you what I find, when it comes up."
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Post by Alkonost Storm on Sept 21, 2014 21:42:59 GMT -8
She began to search the area, looking about for an entrance...
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Post by JW% on Sept 22, 2014 1:41:39 GMT -8
The large rocks here seemed worn away by weather, much like the plateau they called their base. The difference here seemed to be that there was a river that had worn into these rocks, many eons past, leading to sharp overhangs. Journeying down the path the tire tracks led took her into one such overhang, and as her eyes adjusted to it, she could see large doors, wide open, large enough to drive a truck through.
The doors were well hidden from above, and the little flying cameras completely missed them, but Trivia found them easily enough. Inside was what looked to be a parking garage, smaller than the one her motorhome was parked in, it looked like it could barely have fit two moving vans or large pick up trucks. The walls were mostly concrete here, rather than the bare stone of the overhang, like some kind of bunker or bombshelter. A thick door with a computerized lock was at the far end of the garage, and it looked like a keycard was needed to enter.
"Ooma... do you still here me?" The Cat asked, though there was a little static, which would get worse as she progressed deeper. "I'm going to teach you a little trick now... you see that silver pad on the palm of your glove? Touch it to the keycard box. After a moment you should have an uplink with that computer and you can unlock it." How much of that was her doing, and how much of it would be a relay like the voice was remained to be seen of course.
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Post by JW% on Nov 4, 2014 3:27:34 GMT -8
((Okay, trying to advance this! Moving forward in the day to the afternoon.))
The children had all been fitted and arrive on time to the funeral. The ceremony was somber and to anyone who didn't care that much, quite dull and uninteresting. A few new facets of the life of Lucy Grace were opened up by the speakers, such as how she had lost her parents, how she had stopped growing, but had always kept a cheerful face, organizing the gardening project for her neighbor hood area, and even found a caring boyfriend(who was crying throughout the funeral and trying not to let anyone else notice).
Some of the closer family members talked with the children, wanting to know about Lucy's last moments. Awkward hugs were exchanged between people who probably didn't want a hug and others who felt they really needed them. Ben in particular was singled out, as he had delivered the body. Comfort could be given in that Lucy, unlike the rest of the children, hadn't suffered great pain. Her body hadn't been torn apart as theirs had and left naked and raw with salt rubbing in their open wounds. Lucy had died before the process had gotten that far, and while she had lost her hair, she hadn't lost her skin. A simple wig had made her corpse quite presentable for the open coffin.
It was getting well along in the day as the funeral ended and everyone parted and went their own ways. By somewhat mutual agreement the children who had left the base on this excursion stopped by a fast food place. Over sporks and plastic plates of some not particularly Mexican food they cheered slightly.
"We've got to do some grocery shopping." Austin said, having stripped off his jacket and tie and put them in his motorcycles storage compartment. Tiktok would likely have a fit about all the wrinkles in the tuxedo when they got back, but at least he wasn't spilling hotsauce that was so mild it didn't deserve the name on it. "And I'd like to check in on my little bros again."
"I suppose I should call my girlfriend." Brian sighed, picking at the pseudo-taco in his hand. "Wouldn't surprise me if my parents hadn't told her what they did with me."
"How much money do we have anyway? I mean for the grocery shopping. You think we'll need to go to the bank? I think Oz gave us an expense account. Wait, you have a girlfriend?" Brian couldn't really give the source a dirty look, given that his eyes were blindfolded again, but he did his best.
"Of course I do." Brian snapped. "Before this, what kind of a life did you think I had?" He gestured at himself. He had taken off his jacket as well. "Look, does anyone here ever gone shopping for groceries for this many people before? Do we know how much it's going to cost, or what we need to buy?"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Trivia lay on the floor in front of the main computer terminal. A ringing in her ears and a distant and tiny "Trivia! Trivia! Wake up! Ooma Trivs! Get up! You need to get up!" could be heard. Probably her connection with the Cat.
A bit of drying blood was on the floor, more of it on her face. She hurt all over as though having endured a very thorough beating. It vaguely reminded her of the muscle cramps she had experienced as she was leaving the pod after her bodies reconstruction. Spasms. Whole body spasms.
She was also missing time. She tried to remember where she was or how she got here and two strange imaged popped into her head.
The first was a layout of the base, a perfect clarity image, which didn't really help at all since it was a "you are here" map without any arrow showing her where she was. Divorced of context, it simply became a map she had glimpsed and her memory decided to tease her with when she tried to remember where she was.
The second, and much easier to understand, was a memory of some time back. The Cats instructions on how to connect to computer systems. It had gotten her through the front door, and worked the elevator, and opened several other doors through the facility. Had the facility been empty? Had she needed to evade detection? She couldn't remember. She did remember touching the conductive pad on the palm of her glove to this main terminal she was laying in front of. She wasn't sure why she had done that. Though maybe she had been trying to download information off the mainframe? Wasn't that how spies did it? They hacked the mainframe and downloaded the harddrive and a bunch of other technojargon that she didn't quite understand.
What had followed was pain. The suit connected to her nervous system, and downloading data with it, particularly massive amounts of data... she saw it all flashing before her eyes, rapid fire, often seeing the programming language rather than useful images, all scrolling so fast she couldn't keep up with it. Blinding flashes behind her eyeballs, intense pain ramming through her skull. She had looked down at her hand through growing tunnel vision and seen her hand in cased in shadow, tendrils of it reaching out and shoving themselves into the computers connection ports, eating it, sucking every bit of data out of it. She'd passed out in epileptic seizures, at some point bleeding from her nose, eyes, and ears in addition to having bitten her tongue pretty badly.
"Don't be dead! Please, don't be dead!" The Cat pleaded over the earbud that had fallen out of her ear but lay close enough she could almost make out the voice. "Come on, the suit says you're not dead... I don't want to have to alert everyone... talk to me ooma..."
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Post by Alkonost Storm on Jan 13, 2015 18:27:02 GMT -8
There was a responding groan and Trivia finally moved, sitting up on the floor. "Uurgh...what happened?", she murmured as she fumbled for the earbud and stuck it back in place before finally answering the distressed automaton's cries.
"Bastet, I'm here!" Trivia called out, in as low a voice as she could manage.
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Post by JW% on Jan 13, 2015 20:02:41 GMT -8
"You tried to read their server." The cat explained hurriedly. "Then your vitals went crazy. You started surging with power, like your brain was burning itself out."
The room she was in was unfamiliar to her. This was not the parking garage. Somewhere in Trivia's mind flashed the mental image of a floor plan of the facility. She was five stories underground in the bunker. Her limbs felt like they were trying to push through heavy sand, as though her body was buried as she tried to sit up.
"I'm still sorting the data you uploaded. It's massive, we burnt out two relays and I had to reposition them. I hope nobody noticed. Look, you need to get out of there, we have what we need, there's no sense in you getting caught."
Further flashes of information, momentary glimpses of the recent hours she had lost to the brain trauma, came to her. She saw animals in cages being euthanized as the organization evacuated the facility. Experimental subjects that had to be disposed of before they revealed the group to the world.
"Can you walk? Your suit is giving me some really bad readings. You need to get back to your motorcycle, there's some candy there to stabilize you blood sugars. I don't know what to do about some of these other things. Are your limbs tingling? Pins and needles?"
She had a glimpse of the scene shifting as she collapse on the floor, the download in progress running through her nervous system and burning out her body. The last one was a live feed from a security camera. It was the cages again. And the human children sleeping within them, awaiting the poison gas to be pumped into their cell, unaware that they only had hours left alive.
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Post by Alkonost Storm on Jan 14, 2015 15:25:32 GMT -8
"I...think so...but I also feel dizzy..." She muttered as she forced herself to stand, her balance somewhat unsteady as she made herself walk through the empty base, doing her best to ignore the pain and lethargy. There were times her surroundings darkened and it seemed like she was walking in a shadow-covered version of the world she knew. It was erratic, but whatever it was seemed to help along, with Trivia taking less time to get out and back to her bike than she took in getting down to the main computer.
She slumped down on the seat, reaching for the candies in one of the compartments and starting to eat them, forcing herself to eat them regardless of whether she liked the flavor or not. She was starting to feel less dizzy and lightheaded but...
"Bastet, can you take over? I don't think it's safe for me to drive back like this."
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