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Post by Slytherclaw on Aug 6, 2016 15:17:38 GMT
Amber hums to herself as she works, noticing the strange similarities to the computer systems she's worked on back in the vault. Actually, there are a lot of similarities...did vault tech get taken over aboveground and just never really update or...?
And then the console unlocks and she stares into the new opening at the vault logos with a delighted grin. She's stepping into the opening as the noise summons Christine and she glances back at the medic with a wide grin.
"I did it," She says needlessly, throwing her arms off as if to show off the new room. "And there's a /vault/ Christine!"
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Post by DataNinja on Aug 6, 2016 17:22:17 GMT
"A...wait, what? A Vault? Wha-" She decides to shut up, and just takes a deep breath and tries to compose herself at the abject surprise. "Okay... well, that was... unexpected. If they were doing anything like Skrub was, though... we might want to expect a welcoming committee. Also... it might be a good idea to stop bandying the word 'vault' around in a place that will be within earshot of my patient when she wakes up." She glances back at where the woman was laying down.
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Post by Lockdown on Aug 7, 2016 19:48:15 GMT
Outside, the Bonsly surprisingly shuts up quickly, sniffling a little, but looking at Kat with surprise. Actually being able to look at it when it's not sobbing, it looks like it may not have been as upset as it had been appearing up till now. Even as it looks up at you expectantly, there's a constant drip of fluid from the corners of its eyes. The Bonsly toddles along behind you as the group heads inside, called together by Bunnie's shouting. After deciding to investigate the upper floors, Cecil and Kat make their way upstairs, surprisingly with Bunnie on their heels. The upstairs is divided into three rooms, a landing, a room with numerous computer consoles and several racks of holotapes in mesh-steel cabinets... and thick cables leading from the computer equipment to a room containing six strange pods, each one large enough to hold an adult person with room to spare... or a human-sized pokemon. There's a lock on them, but through the glass fronts they appear to be empty. Inside are a set of electrodes attached to a headband, as well as a small screen that looks like it unfolds down in front of the pod's occupant. Bunnie finds a pair of keys and another holotape under the desk in the computer room. The computers appear to still have power, and unlike the door downstairs, are not password protected. Downstairs, the raider is beginning to wake, slowly and with great difficulty as she tries to recover from the haze of painkillers and head trauma. "Wha..." She tries to move her head, moaning as the restraints keep her in place. "Damnit Annie, not tonight, I gotta headache all over mah boday," she slurs drunkenly.
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Post by DataNinja on Aug 7, 2016 20:01:54 GMT
"Please, try not to struggle," Christine says, gently. "I don't want you to tear your leg back open. Just try and relax, because the best thing for you right now is time and rest."
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Post by Slytherclaw on Aug 7, 2016 20:14:09 GMT
Amber nods at Christine's direction, and settles on her seat to wait for the 'brave protectors' to do their scouting or whatever it was they'd headed to do. She's muttering to Topaz, petting the soft sparky little pokemon in her lap, when she hears the groaning from the other room. Topaz climbs back up to its perch, clinging to her hair as she rises to go watch with Christine.
Amber blinks at the phrasing, frowning. Annie was..one of the others, wherever Cecil and Kat had stashed them, weren't they? The name was familiar. She glanced in the direction the others had gone, debating if she should call and let them know that the raider was awake. She decides it's fine, and leans against a wall to watch.
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I'm not going to say it was damage, but it was damage.
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Post by Robot on Aug 7, 2016 20:55:59 GMT
Cecil meanders the upstairs for a short while, drawing what conclusions he can with his limited technical skills. Playing the holotapes only gets gibberish, which is a little confusing, but he leaves them the way he found them. Making his way back downstairs, he leaves Kat and Bunnie to their own devices for a moment.
"Amber, got something else for you to look at upstairs. There's a bunch of tapes that won't run on my player, and all sorts of weirdness. It's safe though, just don't uh... get into it just yet. Rather know what it does first." At her quizzical look. "You'll understand when you get up there. Oh good, she's up." He grumbled flatly.
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Post by Slytherclaw on Aug 7, 2016 21:07:45 GMT
Amber looks over at Cecil's appearance and pushes off the wall with a nod. "I'll check. No promises I'll know what it is, though," She says with a shrug. She heads upstairs to join Kat and Bunnie. She looks around in the room with the pods, frowning. "Any chance either of you can see if you can get one of these open?" She asks the two, looking at the lock. But she heads to the other room, following the cables, in the meantime. She settles at one of the computers and tries to figure out...well, literally anything about this, to be honest.
7ihzViGZ3d6 Tech Edu 4d6 Perception 2d6 Intuition3d6·4d6·2d6
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Post by David Hilm on Aug 7, 2016 21:27:48 GMT
After a bit of searching, Bunnie finds a pair of keys and another holotape. Looking at the pods, she notices one of the keys looks like it would fit them, but the other key is still a bit of a mystery. She walks over to Amber and sets the holotape she had found near her.
"I think this key will open the pods. This holotape might tell us exactly what we're looking at first though."
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Post by Seya on Aug 8, 2016 0:38:38 GMT
Kat spun her hatchet in her hand and advanced towards one of the pods on little Amber's request, but was stopped short by Bunnie's input. She frowned, looking longingly at the lock on the nearest containment; it would have been nice to try, at least, but maybe she'd get the chance. Damn it all, she still needed to break something.
She gritted her teeth, kicked at a piece of rubble nearby, and crossed her arms as she waited for Bunnie to test out the keys.
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Post by Slytherclaw on Aug 8, 2016 2:19:25 GMT
"Go ahead and try the key..." Amber says distractedly. She's pale as she reads the screen, a few of the records in the room sitting next to her. And...I think I need to talk to the group. This is kind of big? And horrifying?"
She looks up at Bunnie, sliding away from the console. "This is some sort of brain interface device, if I'm not misunderstanding. Like...implanting memories and knowledge, that sort of thing? Only...only, you can put more in than your mind has space for, so when you use it, you also lose things."
She picks up one of the records and continues in a very small voice. "If you're not careful, someone could just put the things they want in you, and just... erase everything else."
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Post by Lockdown on Aug 8, 2016 15:08:56 GMT
Downstairs, the raider woman has launched into a slurred rendition of "Louie Louie", and seems rather at-ease about being bound down to a lab table by plastic straps.
Christine leaves the woman in the care of Bones, coming upstairs to find everyone gathered around Amber, while Bunnie has just opened one of the strange pods with a key, the lid rising up on nearly silent pneumatic risers. Amber's expression is pensive as she inserts a holotape into her Dex and hits play. The voice that emerges is stern and female, sounding like they're in their late twenties or early thirties.
"Log entry, March 27th 2077. After much debate and showing our backers preliminary results from our testing on subjects M and A; the General has come through for us. He's managed to divert assets from another project to assist us in our endeavors. Some of my colleagues may be a bit squeamish, but this is our best chance to aid the war effort. Hopefully this "Project Overwrite" can assist with the mental degradation that seems to afflict out subjects. At the very least it will enable our less evolved subjects to utilize their new powers more efficiently by implanting working knowledge of physics and biochemistry into their minds. And even if Hopkins thinks that the tradeoff of existing skillsets is too high, I say it's a small price to pay. They're thieves, criminals and dissidents; this is how they'll give back to the country they've been sponging off of all their lives."
There's a pause, and then a second recording picks up.
Log entry April 13th, 2077. The preliminary tests of the Overwrite process were a success. We used one of the security personnel as a testbed to make sure everything was intact and working according to the notes we'd been provided. She came out having forgotten how to speak Spanish (a useless skill to start with in this day and age) and proudly proclaimed that she "knew kung fu" before proceeding to demonstrate on a dummy provided for the purpose. Her skill level is equivalent to that of a Red belt, which seems to collaborate with her former ability to speak and understand Spanish on an advanced level while not being inherently fluent. It seems the notes about skill insertion adjusting itself to the level of the skill being replaced are accurate. Otherwise her personality and mannerisms appear to be completely retained Truly the human mind is a mysterious and awe-inspiring machine; though I suppose a more in-depth replacement of skills or a memory tweak could plausibly change her behavior. Something to keep in mind if one of the specimens becomes unruly, though according to the notes the overwrite can only be used once. Using it again on a subject creates irreparable neural damage, burning out the learning centers of the brain. Perhaps we should simply include re socialization protocols in order to maintain control when we apply the other info packets? Something to note at least..." she sounds speculative, and you can hear the scritch of pen on paper, before she continues.
Side note, it appears that Sampson has been logging unauthorized time with the programming tools. When pressed, he evaded my questions, simply producing an authorization from the general to work on a "morale booster" for the troops in his off time. Unfortunately this also means he's been allowed to set aside several test subjects. I have no idea what he has planned for those girls, but orders are orders, so I suppose I should let it go..."
The tape ends there.
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Post by David Hilm on Aug 8, 2016 15:14:34 GMT
Bunnie reaches into her pocket and sets another holotape down.
"I found this one in the safe with that Vault card. I want to see if it mentions what was done with the other subjects."
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Post by Lockdown on Aug 8, 2016 15:21:31 GMT
There's a brief crackling, before a male voice begins to speak, sounding frustrated and harried.
"Damnit, I know that Kirkwell and Sampson think they've got this all under control, especially with the new equipment upstairs, but you can never be too careful. We're giving people that have no reason to like us incredible powers, even if it's inhibiting their ability to think properly, and that's before we get them into the pods! There's a stash of darts upstairs wih the tapes just in case something goes wrong, but I'm going to leave a little extra protection here... along with a backup access card, Sampson's been getting a little too forgetful about checking who he's gassing when people are taken into the Vault, bastard nearly got me along with one of the interns yesterday. I think he's just set it to automatically trigger now. Idiot's too caught up with playing with his "special project" to pay attention to his actual duties."
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Post by DataNinja on Aug 8, 2016 15:35:20 GMT
As Christine listens to the tapes, she just gets more and more horrified. "This..." She's at a loss for words. "Thing. It... shouldn't exist. We should get rid of it, so that it can't be used." Just the sheer implications of such a machine's existence... "The power to change who a person is..." She trails off. "The Pokérus was bad enough... but that was a mindless thing. This... has intent behind it."
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Post by Seya on Aug 8, 2016 15:43:29 GMT
Kat shivers, stepping away from the pod she'd been eager to hammer into only moments before. She lays a hand on her gas mask thoughtfully, listening to the second tape, and nodding at Christine's condemning words. "Makin' scraps from this shit could kill two rats with one blow," she grumbles. "No more head-fuckery machines, and we get a buncha scrap and pieces we can sell back at Purewater. Clean finds like this might be worth somethin'. But if it's all the same to you lot, I'm more eager to see what's in that vault down below before we test our luck with these. They even give me th' creeps."
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Post by Robot on Aug 8, 2016 16:07:49 GMT
The soft click of Cecil's shoes as he was already starting for the open tube. An odd wetness about his eyes as he strode forward. Expression distant, his mouth was set in a thin, resigned line. "Let's talk about intent versus reality for a minute, Christine." Cecil's voice was a clear, if pained tone.
"We're a bunch of fuckin' ignorant little squirts from a hole in the ground, thinking we got any goddamn concept of the world. Can't even reconcile our own shit with each other. That little bitty goddamn hole in the ground where there ain't no secrets and you know what's what. Now we're up here." The greaser's face pulled into a half grin and he shook his head, thumbing at his right eye for a moment to remove a spot of wet as he waited in front of the chamber. "You're telling me if you could fix what was wrong with me, you wouldn't?! You saying there was nothing we could've done different for Joe, or Bunnie?! Fuck!"
Tears rolled steadily down Cecil's face now, chin tightening as he turned towards the open pod and prepared to step in. "If I had been anyone else..."
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Post by David Hilm on Aug 8, 2016 16:23:06 GMT
Bunnie closes her eyes and sighs to herself. She walks over to Cecil and gives him a hug, squeezing him tightly and holding it for a good half minute or so. As she releases the hug she steps back a tick before reaching back and swinging her arm with all the speed it can muster and smacking him across the face.
"Don't you dare, Cecil Deloria. Don't you dare place the blame on yourself, or anyone else, for what happened to me and Joe. Yes, you were sent out here to watch out for us, but you are NOT our babysitter. We made the decision to go off like we did. Yes, it was a stupid decision, and in hindsight it was the stupidest thing we could have done. But we made the decision to go with those people. If you want someone to blame so badly, blame me. Or blame Joe. Or blame the people that tricked us. But don't you dare blame yourself or anyone else in this room. Because all of you have done your absolute best. If you didn't care you never would have gone looking for us. He'll you could have stayed in town and forgotten the whole reason we came up here. But you haven't. You've done everything in your power to help this mission succeed."
She takes a deep breath, hugging Cecil again.
"I haven't said it yet, because to be honest I'm still shaken, and mad, and every other emotion you can possibly imagine. But thank you for coming for me. I probably didn't deserve it, but you did anyway. I'll owe you forever for that."
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Post by Robot on Aug 8, 2016 16:36:24 GMT
Cecil's soft gasps accompanied genuine tears as he sagged into Bunnie's embrace. It was something he had wanted as long as he could remember, but it paled in comparison to her words. Christine had blamed him when they were taken, and somehow he'd taken that to heart along the way. Slowly, tentatively, his arms found her waist. He cradled her the way a collector might hold something truly priceless and irreplaceable. The reddening hand print on his face was steadily obscured by a growing embarrassment that bloomed near his ears, and flooded along his skin. "Sorry."
Jerkily he released the girl, and awkwardly surveyed the room, at a loss for words.
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Post by DataNinja on Aug 8, 2016 17:00:24 GMT
"Look, DeLo- Cecil," Christine says, gently, "You and I have had disagreements, but there's no change that I would want, that you haven't decided to do yourself. You already aren't the same as when you left the Vault, and I know that you've been making an effort. Every time that there's a setback, you react to that, you set yourself to make sure that doesn't happen again. That's why Skrub sent you."
She takes a breath. "I've probably been too hard on you, I admit. I sometimes forget that this place is just as alien to you as it is to me... you've just adapted to it better. Like he knew you would." She pauses, looking away. "If you, within your heart, truly want to do this... then I won't stop you. Just know that I wouldn't want you to change..."
She looks back to him, almost whispering, "Just tell me... if you had the choice, would you change me?"
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Post by Robot on Aug 8, 2016 19:25:55 GMT
"Christine..." Cecil's brow furrowed at the question. It wasn't unfair of her to ask it in turn, he'd posed the same. The boy's dark eyes wandered from face to face, finding averted eyes, uncomfortable expressions, and otherwise evasive body language. Wasn't going to get any help there.
"Nah. I get it now." Cecil's hands slid into his pockets, and he peeled his eyes away from her face. First they gravitated to the ceiling, then the floor. "You don't... care... about sides, goals, motives." Shrugging his shoulders, his hands slipped out of his pockets again, palms towards the medic. "You only care about people's suffering, which is really fuckin' noble." With a great deal of effort he pulled his eyes from the floor and met Christine's properly again.
"I got respect for it, it's been good for me more times then I can count. It also scares me to tears because this ain't the right place for it. Don't believe me, tell our friend downstairs you fixed her leg then untie her, won't get the kind of thanks you should." Heaving a heavy sigh, Cecil jerked his head back towards the stairs. "I get her too though. Mighta made some bad decisions in life, never had nobody to steer her right. Dangerous but nobody wants anythin' to do with her, may as well be me with my leg cut open, bound up like that. Only difference is I had Pops, and people that cared enough about where I ended up in life that I wasn't a complete fuck."
Cecil's eyes wandered from Christine to Amber. "Out here, under this endless sky? We're memories to each other. A last taste of home, some bittersweet nostalgia like a first crush gone wrong." Cecil subtly turned away from Bunnie just a little with that particular statement. "Even Joe." He barked a dry, sad laugh. "I didn't respect him enough when he was around but goddamnit if I don't see him as family now. You all are." The last was very quiet.
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