exsiliumlogs | In UE, Valentines Day celebrates YOU.

Entry tags:

In UE, Valentines Day celebrates YOU.

Date & Time: Feb 14th, 2742
Location: Vandrova, the UE Capitol
Characters: Anyone willing to follow the origin of the broadcast.
Summary: The broadcast corrupting the AI is decoded, and Transports are able to travel to the source if they wish. OOC info here.
Warnings: n/a, tell a mod if a warning is needed.

The Transporter drops you in the middle of the street. It wasn’t supposed to, it was going to be a secluded field on the outskirts of Vandrova, but… well, time isn’t exactly behaving lately, if you hadn’t noticed. Luckily, no one around you seems to notice anything out of the ordinary. Everyone on the street around you — and it is tightly packed — is celebrating. Candies get tossed out of windows and fall into the crowds, bakers hand out free confections from their storefronts, children run and play through the crowd, even teenagers look a little less sullen today. Flower crowns have made a comeback, and you might just find yourself wearing one (or several) as you make your way through the crowd. The celebration seems to center on one grandiose building, the new headquarters of the United Earth’s council.

But, sometimes… things begin to look a little strange. Sometimes time seems to slow down around you, coming to rest in jerky fits and starts. You can still move, but everything around you is playing back like a glitching VHS. And when it comes back, all in a rush of motion and time, things are different. What had just been a celebration is now a riot. People shove through the crowd, shouting angrily, waving any improvised weapon they’d been able to get their hands on. There are still decorations and regalia in the United Earth theme, but now people are ripping them angrily down, tearing them apart. The crowd surges against a line of well-armored men in black who strain to keep them back; they seem to trying to be rush that same grandiose building, and now and then a homemade firebomb might shatter against one of its stone walls, scorching the white into black but otherwise doing little else.

But then time crumples one more time, and the celebrations are back.

Huh. Weird, isn’t it?

The new UE Council’s base of operations would be a good place to search for the signal broadcast point of origin, but characters are welcome to go anywhere in Vandrova they’d like to. And try not to get caught up in any of those sometimes-riots, those look nasty.

[[ ooc: Feel free to let Liz (

buttadventure) know if you have any specific questions about this setting or what you can find in it! There will be a second OOC info post up tomorrow about furthering this mission, so keep an eye out for that, and feel free to incorporate its information into threads here. ]]

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[ Under normal circumstances, Caesar would be more picky about who he grabbed to go into hostile territory with, but this? This is far from normal. They aren't where they're supposed to be and they're surrounded by people. This is a terrible situation. So, anyone willing to listen to him will find themselves recruited without one lick of formality, the second they end up in the crowded square.

Though the celebration isn't what sets him off with shouting orders, as that's just annoying. The second it shifts out of that gear and becomes a riot, however, that's a different story altogether. ]

We don't have time for this! [ He can only hope his voice is loud enough to carry over the din of the riot. ] The base is most likely beyond the line! We need to cut through th--

[ And then it's the celebration again. ]

...them.

[ Well, this is disconcerting. Oh, whatever. He'll gesture wildly and point in the direction the rioters that had been had been going. ]

That way! Try to get past that street before it shifts back again!

[ And good luck. Everyone will need it! ]

( Collette moves up to his side, rubbing at her upper shoulder and frowning at the whole of this crowd. )

I've seen a few crowd control mounted officers around. I'm thinking I'll go horse until we're inside.

( For the crowd alone, and it was more formality than asking permission. Collette pressed her stopwatch, sliding into the space between times without a by your leave. She doesn't bring Caesar with, nor their companions, figuring it wouldn't be useful yet. If they needed more time later on -- then.

Right now, it'd be a distraction.

Regradless, where Collette had been emerged an appaloosa horse, a mare show displaced the people in the crowd and nosed them aside. She wasn't going to hesitate in working crowd control when the riot flux hit again. )

< Are we all still here? >

[Celena steps up along with the two, nodding to Collette and Caesar, ducking deftly out of the way of a rioter when the scene 'glitched'. A frown clear on her features whatever was happening here it could not be good needless to say it appeared they would have to work together.]

Agreed, I'll do what I can to direct traffic away from our path.

[When Collette changed in a seeming instant she worked her magic, forming the illusion of full saddle and illusionary crowd control officer atop her back.]

Keeping track as best I can.

[Reaching out she attempted to subtly nudge revelers aside, using a mix of her telekinesis and illusions to make it seem to others apart from they that it was merely more revelers rather than a telekinetic field. Indicating the path while hiding a strained look.]

There, I'll hold it as long as I can...only a matter of time before someone pushes a little too hard at it.

[Johny stumbled up behind the group, pushing through the crowd. He managed to spot them just it had shifted back to the celebration. A flower crown has managed to get itself caught on his horns. The horse throws him off for a second until he hears Collette's voice. Ah, right.]

Yo, what the hell is goin' on here? How we supposed to get through with it doin'-- whatever the fuck it's doin'?

[ Caesar will keep to the horse's side. She makes for a great shield and path-maker this way, although when he sees the path Celena makes, he'll nudge her in the ribs and nod in that direction.

May as well use the clear route while they have one. ]

From what I can tell, the timeline's hit snag. It can't decide what should actually be happening. [ A party or a riot? Which is it? ] So it's overlapping instead.

Just try and keep moving.

[ That he directs to all of them, though once they begin down the clear path, the scene around them will begin gaining rioters among the revelers as the other event starts to shift back over into their current reality once again. That's a problem, see, as the rioters are more liable to run into the field or throw things in its general direction, even unaware of it as they are. ]

[ It's all a blur at first, then the scenario around her begins to jerk and pause for half a second. People, happy and caught up in their own excitement, that had been in front of her are gone in the blink of an eye and replaced not a second after with a storm of violence tearing through the street. Kate, in full cowl, manages to avoid the swarm of angry rioters before instincts override her utter confusion and shock.

Footsteps, hard and fast behind her, the metallic swing of some makeshift, blunt instrument. She drops low, avoiding the strike. Someone else goes down instead. She moves fast, her leg kicking up to knock the weapon out of his hands —

And again, the scenario is gone. People dance and cheer past her. The noise from the crowds are excitable and warm, not harsh and bloodthirsty. ]

[Jaime rarely goes on missions as Blue Beetle anymore these days. He's too bright, too conspicuous when so many of their missions rely on the simple act of blending in, and without knowing what awaited them, he assumed the same for this one. In theory, it would have worked well; in the midst of a cheering crowd, he's nothing more than one more reveler. He can see Batwoman close by, just out of the corner of his eye, but nobody seems to notice or mind her strange attire. What he wants to do is turn to say hello, or perhaps just keep an eye on her to see what she's planning on doing here.

What he doesn't count on is everything shifting on him first. In an instant, someone swings a small knife at him, looking for nothing more than another target to take their anger out on. A year ago, Jaime could have gotten seriously hurt with that sort of attack coming out of left field. Now, after all the training he's done with Nathan, it's instinct that has him veering out of the way before grabbing and twisting at the person's arm until the knife clatters to the ground.

He snatches it up, mostly so nobody else gets at it, and the next moment, it's a horn with a cheery little streamer attached to the end of it. Jaime squeezes it, and it wheezes a merry little squeak. Jaime turns his head to see Batwoman there, still present, and he regards her with wide eyes, unsure of just about everything that's happened.] Did you see that?

[Did that all really happen?]

[ She needs to get out of this crowd and fast. She knows how to blend in, but being transported into the middle of the streets has thrown her off guard and she's almost swept up as the celebrations kick up again.

Jaime's emergence mildly shocks her. She wastes no time moving toward him, a hand clamping down on his shoulder to direct him away from this crowd. It's not safe, she realizes. The timeline must be unstable. ]

We have to move. Something's not right.

[So he really had seen that. A part of him wishes that he was just going a little bit crazy, because he has some idea of what must be happening, and it's not a good thing.]

No kidding.

[He tosses the horn aside - something he'll later regret as he realizes it'd be good to see if that changes too once the riots start up again - and follows her lead. It's impossible to get away from the crowd that overwhelms the street, but at the very least they can skirt the buildings to avoid getting assaulted from every direction.] It's like the timelines just folded in on each other.

[That must be what's happening. He hasn't sat around reasoning out how time travel works for the last god knows how long for nothing. The only question is, will it happen again?]

Take my hand, Jaime.

[ It slips out before she realizes it and when she finally does, she knows it's too late to take it back. The knot in her stomach goes as quickly as it comes and she offers her arm, reaching into her belt for her grappling hook. Get to a vantage point, might help them temporarily to figure out where to go from here, get a good lay of the capital. She recognizes bits and parts, not all of it. ]

I don't think our exact destination was intended.

[Jaime gives her a strange look as she addresses him by name, but he leaves it at that. There's a time and a place to talk about the obvious elephant in the room, and that place is not the capital of the UE, and the time certainly isn't in the middle of a celebration-riot.]

Yeah, all right, [he says, looking at her in assessment for a moment longer, then takes her hand as instructed. He looks up towards the nearest rooftop, well aware that wherever they're going, they're certainly going up.] I think I can see where we're headed.

[It's the biggest building in the area, of course, the same as it would be in any video game or movie. There's some truth in fiction after all.]

[ Just before she can pull them closer to the edge of the roof, the air around them begins to shift and then the clouds in the sky pull in opposite ends like they can't make up their mind in which direction to go. The blue, clean sky is quickly replaced with a greyish fumes and the smell of something burning. The cheering below overtaken by screaming and rushed footsteps, things being smashed and people getting hurt.

Something explodes outside the building, with enough force to knock the hook out of its place and send Kate and Jaime plummeting. ]

No!

Crap!

[Jaime's free arm flails for a moment before he remembers the fact that luckily, he can fly. Not for the first time - and hopefully not for the last time - he's thankful that his suit lurks just underneath his skin for moments just like these.]

I got you! [He lets the armour on his back transform first and his translucent wings spring for in short notice. He flaps them a few times to stop their downward momentum, the rest of his armour trickling out from underneath his skin as a viscous liquid before hardening into its usual carapace. With a grunt, he reaches around to support the rest of Batwoman's body so he's not just dangling her in the air by one arm and makes his way towards a building that's not currently on fire.]

Well, so much for secret identities.

Wha —

[ The whirlwind of events that sweep them has her distracted for a fleeting moment, from the chaos that's erupted in this timeline to the boy she was holding suddenly donning familiar blue armor. She clings tightly before he's able to support the rest of her. As they approach the stabler building she pulls herself free, dropping down to land on her own. Her boots scrape the building and she turns back to look at Jaime — Blue Beetle, her surprise evident, even behind a mask. ]

It was you the whole time.

Surprise.

[Superheroes probably aren't supposed to use jazz hands, but Jaime never did receive any sort of superhero training, so that's exactly what he does. They are, admittedly, pretty shoddy jazz hands.

He takes a step closer to the edge of the building, staring past Batwoman and down into the crowd with dismay, unable to see any rhyme nor reason in the mob below. He looks back over his shoulder at her, as if remembering the obligatory discussion to be had in situations like these.]

You'll keep it a secret, right?

[ She should smack herself for not realizing it earlier, but unmasking her allies has never been her priority. As long as they are competent and not getting in her way, or anyone else's, she sees very little issue with not knowing who they are beyond the mask.

Her surprises fades finally. ]

It's not mine to tell.

[ She dusts off her knees and thighs as she rises. ]

So... that's a yes. Cool. I'd tell you my actual name - [he did the same with Helena, way back when] - but it looks like you already know it.

[It's not as if he would have just let the both of them fall anyway. Still, Batwoman has practice in keeping secrets, and luckily, the secret identity of the Blue Beetle is the furthest thing from a hot button to the public of Exsilium.]

Did you see Peter's report of what the AI was saying? That it wanted to die?

[ Her lips pursed together and she nodded, slow and almost reluctantly. Almost. Something about all of it left her with a tight, anxious feeling in her chest. ]

The AI's not usually that morbid.

I don't think it's learned enough to know how to be suicidal.

[It's an educated guess from the few times that they've spoken, but Jaime more or less knows his way around AIs. Artificial or not, Jaime considers Khaji to be alive, and he knows that it can feel sadness and anger and joy, albeit muted versions of them. He doesn't think Khaji is able to go against its programming enough to be suicidal, which is fair enough; it's not as if Jaime has gone so far down to reach that emotion either.]

So something's gone seriously hinky here, and I wanna figure out what that is. Apparently the AI's signal's been coming from here, but I don't think we're gonna find it down there. We'll probably be finding it there. [He points to the palace.]

You in?

[It's jarring, how quickly the shifts happen: like having the world tugged from out under your feet like a rug. And yet Alberto's no stranger to the chaos. It doesn't take him very long to realize what's going on, and that he needs to get out and get safe and find the source, even if he's got no damn clue what's causing it.

In one moment, he's being tugged closer by a smiling teenage girl, who drapes a string of flowers around his neck; the next, the same girl's sprouted up five inches, now a burly man, hands poised to wrap around his throat. Alberto reacts quickly and shoves the man off-- distance, distance, he'll shift back into the girl-- and a moment later they are the girl with the flowers again, looking only a little confused about having shifted several steps backward.

He's got his weapon out, and he's disappeared around a corner to regroup. His son will be fine. As much as Alberto wants to find him, Blue Beetle's probably in full gear: being a superhero is Jaime's sphere, not his. Instead, his first concern is his wife. At some point they'd been separated by the bustling crowd...

The world shifts, once more, to riot. He steels himself and falls into the crowd, shoving his way through the shouting, railing crowds. Bianca must be here somewhere.]

[there's not a moment to lose, no moment to catch their breath or even slow their pace as the world keeps glitching in and out. everyone's tracking seems to be converging on one specific point, under their feet, and so down they need to descend.

the room is bathed in the light of all the computers, humming in sync, and the signal's reached its end point. here, here is where their AI wanted them to come.

the first screen linked to a keyboard Angel sees is the one she moves to, pushing aside thoughts that the machine could be boobytrapped or that the room is. AI is the priority, above barring the door, above being caught. if it's death they want, then before they go, she wants to know why.]

[As much as it pains him to do so, Jaime knows that there's nothing for him to do out there in the riots. He could use his crowd suppression beams on them, sure, but would that change anything? Would that sort of direct action even hold?

No, his best bet is to see why exactly the AI's signal had been coming from here, of all places. It's almost eerie being in the heart of the UE at its conception after everything that it's done to Exsilium and the entire world alike. This, right here, right now, is the source of so much suffering and death. This one, quiet room, the air stale and tinny with technology, is the cause of so much. It doesn't seem right, like there should be some sort of cackling megalomaniac sitting here ready for the punching, but there's only this one tremendously bad decision of doubtlessly well-meaning people.

To his surprise, he's not alone. He freezes in the doorway, holding his breath as if he can somehow go unnoticed if he just manages to slip away quietly enough. Then, finally, he realizes that he knows her face, and his breath escapes him in a loud huff of relief.]

Angel, [he says - which is stupid; Blue Beetle doesn't know Angel - and takes a few steps forward towards the monitors.] Hey. Figure anything out yet?

[her name doesn't escape her notice, though his presence before he says it does. she flinches in surprise (it had been too easy to focus herself into trying to push her way deeper into the network to find their AI) and looks over her shoulder--does she know them? have they simply remembered her face from times she's appeared on the network? probably the latter. pushing back some of her hair, she turns her gaze back to the screen, figuring if they knew her name, they were no enemy.]

This network's dedicated to the AI system, both theirs and ours. I'm attempting to see if I can run some scans and pinpoint each of their exact locations as well as any security measures that might be springing up...undoubtedly someone's put something in here.

[it's taking too long, every second is precious when people could get curious. phaseshift, she thinks, and her left arm glows in response, the markings gone white as she accelerates the various processes.]

You mean they're linked up? That can't be good.

[He stares at what she's doing curiously, a thousand questions dancing on the tip of his tongue. His natural curiosity hasn't been quelled even by Exsilium, and as someone similarly bonded to technology, he'd really like to know more -- but there will be time for that later. Right now, they have the mission to think of.]

We need to try talking to our AI and see why it wants us to just... cut it off. If it's in there, I should be able to talk to it. [Normally, he'd want someone else to have his back while he and Angel work this out, just in case they get any unfortunate visitors, but they don't have that luxury right now. His fingers shift, forming twisting cables that he plugs directly into the console beside her.]

I'm coming with you.

[security's not that hard to break a hole in, and she expands it to allow them both through. not an ideal way of doing things, since afterwards it'll need to be patched or risk being traced, but speedy. she notices the fingers, and her eyebrow raises. later, she's going to ask him about how he did that, if it hurt...but not now. still, she thinks it's pretty cool to see.

more or less, to her, looking feels like electronically running and calling out while in an unfamiliar building, waiting for a response. two voices calling out makes them that much louder, and she's grateful that he's here to work on it too.]

[In this mixture between a labyrinth and an abyss that makes up the collective mind of the AIs, a third voice emerges, attached to neither of them. Given form, it is Jaime's suit, and the suit alone - a voice it may have, but there are no eyes and no mouth to speak of. It is, however, just as likely that Angel doesn't see it; there are a myriad of ways to navigate this digital space, and sight is but one of them.]

This is weird. There should be at least one thing we could tug on, just one thing dangling that we could talk to, but it seems like they're all occupied.

[Jaime feels rather than hears the humming in the system, a flurry of energy too large to conceive of, and far too concentrated to be normal, as far off as it may be. In its absence, the programs are hugely complicated. They're not any more complicated than the Reach's, but far more sophisticated than anything Jaime would run into on his Earth. Inside the computer, the Scarab makes a thoughtful hum, an odd mix between the static of a dead TV and a nigh animalistic murmur.]

With what, riot control?

[if so, they're doing a pretty bad job of it. the walls can't go on forever, in Angel's reckoning, and it's a relief to spread her wings in a space like this. she leaves the ground, not straying too far from her companion (companions, she amends) and tries to gain what she can from them being so self contained. the programs are keeping them up and running, but...then why the death wish? what changed?

shift them closer, she tells herself, and it is not so much the energy closer as the three of them drawn in. around it, there has to be traces, something to pull up that gives them enough clues. detective work wasn't originally part of the plan, though.]

It feels like everything's directed inward, from my reckoning...like there's something wrong.

[at least, any outward action could be seen in the flow of things. this didn't feel natural--as natural as something could be in this landscape.]

Edited 2014-03-18 01:53 (UTC)

Have you seen the riots out there? No way are those controlled.

[When Jaime wanders closer to where Angel is, his voice is not attached to the empty bugsuit, but to his own body. It feels a little weird doing something so obviously catered to the mission in what he had been wearing underneath his suit - something that wouldn't be out of place at school, nothing more than a t-shirt, jeans and some beat up sneakers - but there are more important things at hand than proper apparel and, as much as it pains him to think it, secret identities.

Even when he tries his best to be professional and stay on-task, he has a bad habit of letting other things just slip out of his mouth. Not just blurting out the first thing that he thinks of is a work in progress, and one that is interrupted when he finally sees her, face to face, and says,] Whoa. Cool wings.

[No, don't talk about the wings, don't ask to touch the wings, don't ask if she still has them in real life, they've got a job to do...!]

Uh, right! Something wrong with the insides. I guess all we've got to do is find where the system leads us?

[she sees his face and doesn't bother hiding her surprise that moves into a smile-Jaime. Angel nods in acknowledgement of the compliment, figuring they'll have time to go over the wings (which, she is aware, are there in the physical world as well) later. the system, though, the system comes first, the mission comes first.]

Exactly! Usually there's some kind of sign--incorrect data leading back to something corrupt leading back to a virus or interference. Are you more the type for sounds or sight?

Sight, I guess. Never really thought about it before. Actually, [he admits,] I've never been in a system this big before.

[Correction: he's only been in one system properly before. Everything else, he's seen, but not really; everything has been through the Scarab's eyes. Here, however, the Scarab is here with him, hovering protectively over him. They've gotten a lot closer over the past year, close enough that the Scarab's been piping up with the threat levels a lot more often. He glances at the faceless mask beside him, and raises a hand.] Dude, chill.

[The scarab nods curtly, and when it speaks, the sound seems to come from all around them instead of from the suit itself, as if it's somehow set up a surround sound system instead of using its own body for it. It's a mimicry of a human voice, but decidedly robotic in nature.]

Angel. Jaime Reyes. I can feel the presence of another here. We must continue traveling upwards.

[Insect wings spring out from the suit, and the Scarab hooks its hands underneath Jaime's armpits without preamble, lifting him into the air and hovering, waiting for Angel to follow suit.]

Oh, okay, [Jaime says, having long since given up trying to tell the Scarab what to do in these situations so long as it's not killing anyone.] So we're doing this now.

Edited 2014-04-03 07:42 (UTC)

[sight it is then, and so Angel reads what she can, highlighting the discrepancies in bright blue, telling it to repeat when they get closer and hopefully outline something like a path to the source. of course, it could go wrong and simply be scattered out in patterns, but one can try before claiming its impossible. once that's laid in, she turns to follow Jaime and the suit--

and she can't help it, she chuckles at his predicament. sorry you don't get wings too, Jaime.

going up it is, then, and she addresses the other voice after a moment.]

You say you feel a presence...a malicious or benign one?

[there are walls that can be set up to delay attacks, but they need time to be activated, and more time to counter said attack. how long they have, she doesn't know, but it's safer to operate under the assumption that it's less time than they'd like.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

In UE, Valentines Day celebrates YOU.

team we are almost in your base not killing your mans yet, open to all

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Mind if I jump in?

and room for one more i hope

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open

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{that save ai mission}

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jeSUS THIS IS LATE I'M SORRY you can leave it if you want