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

[fe_male]

[ That is not as different from himself as he was hoping. ]

At least we're consistent.

[myownbestfriend]

There are far worse faults to have.

[Trust Emma. She used to be a supervillain.]

[fe_male]

[ He just wants to brood here for a little while, okay. ]

Like what?

[myownbestfriend]

In all the time I've known him, he's never been cruel.

[Which is a major point for Emma, given her chilhood and long tenure in the Hellfire Club, and a claim she herself can't make.]

[fe_male]

[ Again with the consistent. Tony liked to fuck around with people, push their buttons, put them through extraordinary social gauntlets and see how they would do with them, and then how they would deal with him once all was said and done. He loved being difficult, but cruel was a line he'd never once managed to cross, nor was it one he wanted to.

He shrugs some, not a whole lot of effort but enough to mean something more than indifference. ]

Has he ever been good?

[myownbestfriend]

[All the gravity of the moment can't keep Emma's lips from twitching at the double meaning.]

Frequently.

[fe_male]

[ Hey wait he saw that. ]

See that's just not fair. That's on par with, 'it happened, but you were asleep so you won't remember that it happened.'

[myownbestfriend]

What's "fair" got to do with anything, Tony? You've never played fair a day in your life and you know it.

[That's not an accusation. Emma thinks anyone who plays fairly is an idiot.]

[fe_male]

Of course I haven't. It's my advantage. You can't also be paying not-fair, it just means we'll both be losing.

[myownbestfriend]

[She laughs.]

Tony, darling, in this particular game, I control the board.

[fe_male]

How come every time we have a weird gameboard metaphor in our conversations I suddenly no longer want to play games with you ever?

[myownbestfriend]

Because your sense of self-preservation is stronger than your behavior suggests.

[Angelic smile.]

[fe_male]

I always feel like I'm in some kind of philosophy class with you.

[myownbestfriend]

Philosophy? This is Advanced Topics in Banter.

[One thing she can't get from Scott is that lightning repartee. In fact, that's mostly been missing from her life since Hank left Utopia.]

[fe_male]

Ahh, no wonder it felt like I was doing so well for a while. That's totally different.

[myownbestfriend]

I'm going to have to grade the rest of the class on a curve.

[That was an unqualified compliment. Maybe because it was concerning something so inconsequential.]

[fe_male]

[ Aww, you really do like him. ]

Thanks for the warning. Being scarce after tests is usually safer.

[myownbestfriend]

[He's not bad, for a baseline.]

I had no idea MIT was so cutthroat.

[fe_male]

It's a school full of ridiculous overachievers who are all used to easily being the best in their class. They practically just hand you a shank at orientation.