a storm approaches.This log is for everyone who signed up for The Storm investigation. Feel free to use the here to plot further on how you plan on approaching The Storm, and the issue. The mod questions thread is also open, if you have anything you would like to run by us.
the investigation.It takes a day of preparation, and a day of discussion, before you are led further down into the tunnels. It's pitch black, but one of the BGs who you have become familiar enough with turns on a low light and continues further. You walk for ten, fifteen, twenty minutes, and then turn a corner into a large, open cavern. The BG explains that at one time, this had been an underground transportation system - old and unused for centuries, now, but still in working order.
They file each of you onto a single car - it seems to be large enough to fit nearly a hundred, possibly more, bodies - so everyone has a space. The BG explains that they have already input the coordinates into the system, and that once they close the door, you will be transported to the last known location. The car will be programmed to wait for 72 hours, and then will return to this location. There is food and water supplied, and already packed, in the car. If you are not back in the car by that time, it will leave you behind. They then give their farewells, thank you for your help and readiness, and step away from the door - letting it close behind them. The car travels down a pitch black tunnel, and while the inside is dimly lit enough for the Circle Members to see each other and move around without hinderance, you can see nothing through the windows. It continues for a few hours at this rate - nothing to see, no idea where you are going. That is, until it seems to break through the surface, the track running through buildings and another, unknown area of the city.
The streets and buildings are abandoned, the tech old and outdated, windows broken out and dust filling the street. The sky, like back in the city you knew before, is cloudy and grey. But these clouds are different - these clouds are dark in a way you haven't seen before. You travel for another half hour above ground before the cart comes to a stop, and during this time it happens twice. A low rumble, seeming to come from everywhere at once, and then a few heartbeats after, a disasterous flash of lighting - miles away, yes, but threatening and gigantic, brighter and more violent than you've ever seen lightning before. The crash shakes the ground under you, and the damage is immense.
But the buildings are abandoned, the streets empty save for crates, old mechanical bits, dusty remnants of a society long forgotten by the Struxta you came from just a couple of days prior.
This is The Storm you've been warned about. the storm.You have been asked to find out information that will help the BG's, and Struxta, to stop The Storm.
From what you can gather, it does seem to be a naturally occurring weather phenomenon, as far as weather systems seem to work on this planet. However, rather than scattered thunder and lightning strikes, it seems to almost recharge and strike with epic proportions. It can damage, or destroy, buildings. It shorts out any and all items (and people) who depend on electricity in any form to function (Sorry Daylight and Conner, sorry to anyone who brought along technology) within a three mile radius.
The 'darkness' the BGs were talking about does follow this storm, but they seem to have been referring to this electrical shortage that comes from the storm and it's strikes. If this storm does reach any of the still-occupied areas of the city, it will shut down the entire grid, as well as any of the robots, androids, or electrically based figures that exist there - essentially ending the life of every Struxta citizen that is effected.
Plot, plan, theorize, and see if you can find a way to stop The Storm. If not, be back on the train car in 72 hours time, to return to the BGs and report what you have found.PROMPT IDEAS
1.) Discussions on the train - do you have any ideas for what to prepare? Any discussions you may want to have? You and your fellow Circle Members are caught here together for a few hours, driving into a situation you know very little about. What do you want to make sure you're prepared to handle?
2.) Scouting missions - the heart of The Storm is very much in the distance, and it is not moving quickly, giving Circle Members plenty of time to set out and check out the surrounding city. What you will find won't be much - this is a robotic ghost town in every turn of the phrase. Buildings have been abandoned for hundreds of years, covered in dust and left entirely undisturbed, except for the breeze that now seems to flit through this entire area. There are stores, warehouses, apartments, and buildings you can't even tell what they were used for, cleared out. Whenever, or whoever, lived in this part of Struxta had evacuated, quickly but efficiently.
3.) The Storm - The Storm is still a distance away from where the cart has dropped you off, enough that when your 72 hours are up, the heart of the storm and the lightning strikes shouldn't reach the car, or the track. This does mean that to do any closer investigation, you will need to go to The Storm itself. But be careful - the electrical output from these lightning strikes are dangerous, and can have all sorts of effects on both natural and mechanical beings. The wind, the closer you get to The Storm, will also pick up - making any kind of flying or air travel impossible.
4.) Planning - the car leaves everyone off at an old train station, which a large room attached. This room can be used as a kind of home base, as well as a meeting location. What do you plan on doing? Simply taking down information, or trying to take the storm head on? How do you plan on doing that? Will your abilities help? This room attached onto the train station is a safe location - no effects of The Storm will make it inside. Use as you would like! |
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acatalepsy_logs2018-07-29 11:52 pm
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[ And it is, but there is not quite relief in Arenvald's voice. Connor is dodging his gaze, so he ducks a bit to try and get a better look at him. ]
But are you all right?
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I'm fine. [He forces something that sounds like stability into those words. Easier to do, now that his syllables don't run the chance of sounding garbled and far away, though it's still strained] Though not a particularly pleasant experience, I have you to thank for escorting me away from it. So... thank you.
[let's just not talk about it]
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That thought strikes him like one of the lightning bolts still flashing in the distance, and he slings an arm around Connor’s shoulders, tugging him into a one-armed hug. ]
I’m… I’m really glad you’re okay.
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And for a moment, he wishes that this wasn't so— so difficult, all of it. That this simple hug shouldn’t come with a wide swath of options describing how to proceed, how he should act, if he should reciprocate, if doing so will show that sharp edge of emotion that keeps cutting through the surface of who he’s supposed to be, what he’s supposed to be.
Then it hits him. Strange, how androids aren’t supposed to feel tired. But there’s a weight in his body that he can’t describe, and whether it’s coming from his physical state being put through the wringer, all the mental uncertainties cropping up like weeds, or some coalescence of both, he can’t tell.
Connor leans in a little, and manages-]
I didn't mean to scare you.
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He is very close to pulling away, an apology already forming on his lips, when Connor rests some of his weight on him. The apology remains unspoken, cast aside and forgotten, as Arenvald flexes his fingers against Connor’s shoulder. ]
It’s all right. We made it, didn’t we?
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Yes.
[A moment more passes, and then Connor straightens to look at Arenvald, appearing as if wishes to say something. Just on that precipice, words dangling on the barest thread, waiting for the string to be cut.
As always seems to be the case these days, he settles on something only part of the way there.]
I meant it, though, when I said I would be fine now. I just need time to process what's happened.
[Literally process, lining up misplaced fragments back into neat little rows in his mind. And process process, compartmentalizing away what was felt and experienced.]
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There is… something in Connor’s expression, something rife with hesitation and expectation both, and he finds that the words that do come out don’t quite match. But then, that’s sort of what Connor does. ]
Do you want to talk about it? I find that helps.
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But then, with a strange sense of renewed fervency-] What I told you before... about death. [How he still dances around the term 'fear'.] Will you please put it from your mind?
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What? Why?
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[He doesn’t want to think about it. Doesn’t want to deal with it. Wants to just pretend it never happened, wrap it up and throw it away.]
Think it would be best to consider it as an outlier of a response, brought on by extenuating circumstances.
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[ He still doesn’t fully understand what Connor sees to be hard barriers, lines he should not cross, because doing so would deviate from his original programming. He sees a friend struggling with the things he had felt – might still be feeling, even – and wants to help him.
Pretending it never happened is not going to help him. ]
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No. It doesn’t happen to me.
[He shifts where he’s seated, unsure what to do with his hands as his mind works. Wishes he could fiddle with his quarter.]
It can’t. It’s indicative of something very wrong with me, Arenvald. An android cannot deviate from how they were programmed to be — and fear is not something I can experience.
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[ Again, he'd said. I felt it again. ]
Connor, what if nothing is wrong with you? What if... what if you are simply meant to be more than your program?
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[Arenvald was right in his assessment though — the “again” was a thoughtless slip, but accurate.]
Even entertaining a thought like that is dangerous. Androids like that are dangerous.
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[ Gods, what a time for his Echo to be stripped away. He just wants to understand, and a glimpse into Connor's life would be more than helpful.
But then, it's never been a reliable gift anyway. Even if he did still have it, it would probably choose to show him nothing. ]
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[That cascade of exponential errors that stack on top of each other, until they become a pillar of something impossible to ignore — the confusion and sensation of false emotion.]
I worked cases revolving around androids who... “snapped”, who under various stressors strayed from their core programming and became dangerous in their unpredictability. In my world, we call them deviants.
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[ He makes a motion with his hand, towards the open station door, to the wastes and the raging Storm beyond. ]
Back there, you weren't dangerous. You were just scared.
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[Arenvald, why can’t you just drop it. Why does he have to give the play-by-play, something he doesn’t usually mind doing, but now it feels like each word is a heavy stone wrenched from his mouth-]
My purpose becomes null and void, if I begin showing these same signs.
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[ There is a pause then, where he watches Connor closely. He should probably just drop it, he knows that, but he would much rather help Connor understand what he's been through that forget about it. ]
Does that thought scare you? That you might be like one of them?
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He scoots forward, in an attempt to plant his feet on the ground and stand.]
No. I only find it regrettable that it’ll prove detrimental going forth, if I’m ever to return home.
[Managing to stand, but with one hand still tellingly leaning against the metal table, he continues-]
In the meanwhile, I’ll simply attempt to self-correct.
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I wish I understood your situation or your world better. I wish I knew why it was you're fighting this so hard.
I'm not going to push it any more, not after what you've just been though, but I'm not going to forget it either. Fear doesn't make someone dangerous, Connor. Emotions don't either. You can be scared or angry and still choose to be a good person. Whatever you think it is you are, deviant or machine or aught else, you're still my friend -- and a good person.
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All that you construe as ‘a good person’ is merely the result of clever programming, courtesy of Cyberlife. If that’s what you believe, then it’s only because I was designed to make you think so.
[In a bid to inform Arenvald, seemingly at least:] If you have questions about my world, then ask them.
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However, the look on his face speaks volumes, and it says that he's not buying what Connor is telling him. ]
Can you tell me bout some of the deviants you've investigated? I want to understand just what you mean when you say they're dangerous.
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An earlier investigation dealt with a deviant threatening the life of a young child. A PL600 — a domestic android, having been in the care of a human family for years.
[Daniel. The same face that Simon wore.]
The night he deviated, he murdered the father and took the daughter hostage. Killed one of the first responders on the scene. By the time I met him on the rooftop, he had killed another — the body was floating in the pool. He also critically injured two others.
[The rush of wind, from a blaring helicopter overhead. The shimmer of a lit pool at night, eking red. A bullet grazing his arm.]
I was there to negotiate with him, to ideally save the young girl being held at gunpoint. To talk him down, and to feign understanding his reasoning.
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Did you manage it? To save the little girl, I mean.
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