open log » ❝ The VR Program ❞

[initiatesnpc]

Date & Time: August 5th, mid morning.
Location: Anywhere characters happen to be/the VR.
Characters: Everyone.
Summary: From August 5th to August 8th, characters are plunged involuntarily into the VR Program.
Warnings: Potential violence within the threads.

When the chance arises, she's quick to take it. The programming is incomplete, she knows; the simulation isn't ready — but she's not likely to get another shot at it. And so she moves, slipping through security codes to input the command. The machines hum to life with nothing but a flicker of a green light in a dark room, and it takes only seconds to establish connections. The signal is sent out; the weapons respond.

In a single pulse, reality drops away.

There will be darkness at first as the mind realigns itself to the signals being sent it. Slowly, the darkness fades, forms take shape. People take shape. The setting is terribly familiar, plucked from the user's own mind. It might feel like a dream at first, with events playing out as if predestined, the would-be dreamer moving through a familiar and unalterable route in them. But as things begin to feel more and more realistic, as more senses more fully connect to the simulation, awareness will change. This is not a dream. This is more than a memory.

Welcome to the VR.

Only 20 minutes later, in some underground quarters, Doctor Sponde is roused from an undignified sprawl. He's hastily briefed and shuttled toward the command center, looking grim. He knows the problem demands an immediate fix, but… well, this is some complex machinery. It could take some time. It could take days. He gets to work.

Comments

[boughtabookstore]

[ Takegami again, and this was -- interesting. Normally she'd be hesitant to strike an officer of the law, but after what she's been through so far she has no problem with grabbing the one nearest to her by his back and flinging him against the glass. ]

That's quite a change from Berlin's nightclubs.

[onemoredeath]

Mm, yes. For one, we do not have a mob of drugged youths armed with the usual bar refuse to fight. It makes things easier.

[ One left. Takegami wished the table actually was movable, but decided to just fall back on what he knew - taekwondo. His form wasn't perfect, but he still managed two swift kicks to the man's stomach. ]

I wonder what memory they pulled for this.

[boughtabookstore]

[ Easier, and she pulls the last officer out of his range just after Takegami finishes striking out at him, finishing him off with a precision nerve pinch. ]

I wouldn't know. It's yours.

[ With her glance around the room, it's obvious that that's really a question. ]

[onemoredeath]

So suspicious.

[ A slight pout, and he worked the baton free of the downed officer's belt, testing it against the palm of his hand. They had dragged him into the lower level through the basement, using the police entrance to the squad cars and the elevators up.

There had been cameras and press shouting words like mad, but he remembered the layout well enough. The only problem was the exact same reason why he had never tried breaking out in the first place - the building was a hive of officers, some of whom were authorized to use firearms. ]

In the course of my career as a host, I had been arrested six times.

[ If the police had thought to dig deeper, if they actually looked at younger files, they might have had his real name. ]

All the rooms look the same here.

[boughtabookstore]

It was a question. People are questioned for many reasons, I understand that.

[ She takes a cautious step towards the door, lays her hand on it and listens. ]

This room is a trap. We need to get out.

[onemoredeath]

It could be the time one of my clients emptied her husband's accounts, kidnapped me and dragged me off in an Porsche for a mad joy ride before ditching me and the Porsche for a blond German.

[ He tilted his head to the side, thinking a moment. He couldn't remember exactly who had been in the other rooms - maybe the police removed them in case he shook off his stupor during his transport through the halls. ]

Save I am better dressed.

[ He did remember he had been the most dangerous of their prisoners in the station. If he didn't count on the drunks in the tank. He stepped over to the door, holding the baton out to her. ]

Then we better go.

[boughtabookstore]

[ She shakes her head at the baton, only half listening to his story. She's filed it away for future reference, but right now - right now she needs to get out of here.

Gun at the ready, she yanks open the door and moves, clearing the next room as fast as she can, listening for the sounds of approaching danger. ]

Any ideas for a quick escape route?

[onemoredeath]

[ He dropped the weapon, shrugging. A gun would be useful he suppose, but the sound would alert the others about this building. He followed her, head tilted as he listened. There was her breathing, the shuffling of her feet, the whirl of the air unit overhead. ]

To the left are the staff elevators. The way down to the parking garage is there.

[boughtabookstore]

[ She takes the turn left, gun out by her side just in case. She's not getting herself shot because she wandered into Takegami's dream. That is not acceptable. ]

Anything else it would be good to know?

[onemoredeath]

The SWAT team keeps their gear down here.

[ He remembered the room, walking past it while shuffling his feet, the press shouting questions behind them. He wondered how long they let those people stay in the building. He couldn't recall just how long they had let him stew in that little room. ]

[boughtabookstore]

That seems like a place to avoid.

[ It's still quiet, for this moment. Maybe they'll make it out, or into another dream. She's bone tired already, ready for this all to be over. ]

[onemoredeath]

With luck, they are elsewhere in the building.

[ Maybe he should have kept the baton. He could have used it to jam the door up. Ah well, too late for that idea. ]

There were a number of murders around this time; the press were flocking all over the building. I am hoping they are upstairs right not.

[boughtabookstore]

[ She flicks a look at him, hangs back slightly. ]

You know the way through here. Take point.

[onemoredeath]

So polite.

[ A slight curl to his lip as he said that and he went on ahead, moving with a lightness of step that hinted that he was used to being quiet. His breathing evened out almost silent and he stood, at an intersection of halls, listening.

Around the next corner were members of the press, locked in battle with officers, but at the sight of them, they pulled from each other with the standard cries of 'You won't get away' and 'I have you now'. Takegami grabbed a reporter's wrist and casually flipped her into the path of an on-coming camera man. ]

How annoying.