Daycycle 112 [ October 16 - October 22 ]

[computerized]

daycycle 112

[Oct 16 - Oct 22]

[OOC Plotting for this Dacycle can be found here.]

Early Morning [0800 - 0900] — All Troubleshooters Report for Duty

No Special Troubleshooters have been selected for a mission this morning.

---

Morning & Afternoon [0900 - 1600] — Service Firm Positions
All Troubleshooters not assigned a mission should report to their Service Firm for their daily duties, unless specifically assigned a different shift.

Free Enterprise is pushing a new, adjusted street form of No Fear (Dynomorphin). The original pharmaceutical is meant for those in Ultraviolet ranks, but this form is much dirtier, cheaper and more addictive. In order to get people hooked, they've put a healthy dose in the wagon wheel's ORANGE and RED level coffee-like supplies. The drug causes a very bullet proof feeling of euphoria. Side effects include paranoia, hallucinations, increased sociability, increased sex drive, panic attacks, excited delirium - extreme agitation and violence, and the temporary loss of feeling in nerve endings (inability to feel pain). A standard dose lasts four hours. Withdrawal symptoms include nosebleeds, sweating, nausea, dehydration and blinding migraines. For those that want more of the drug, Free Enterprise will make it easily accessible.

At 1200, a squad of Grey Ops will arrive at Medical Services to escort Caitlin Snow away for suspected treason. Anyone asking for additional information will be told it's classified and warned not to continue asking questions. Approximately fifteen minutes later another squad of Grey Ops will arrive at Internal Security to lead Vision away. Anyone asking for additional information will be given the same party line.

At 1400 today, Jack Harkness will be summoned by Mind Control to the Production offices on the twenty fifth floor. There he will be offered a position in Media Production where he will assist with the Teela O'Malley show. This position will come with a clearance level promotion of ORANGE, since the talk show star doesn't associate with anyone of lower clearance level. Jack will be responsible for ramping up the excitement levels of the live audience and the personal entertainment of the star.

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Evening [1600 - 2200] — Citizen Improvement
All Alpha citizens are encouraged to better themselves through Alpha’s wide variety of educational, entertainment and cultural opportunities offered each evening. Attending these sanctioned events are not mandatory, but is highly encouraged by The Computer. Citizens choosing not to take advantage of these opportunities, have a growing number of other options available to them in how to spend their hard earned credits and free time.

Tonight’s event will be at 1900 in Meeting Room G, Wagon Wheel Floor 24 and will be hosted by the Alpha Smiling Club. Join us tonight for refreshments and tips on faking it until you make it!

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Alpha Curfew Restrictions
All Alpha citizens should be in their quarters within the Wagon Wheel by 2200, unless they’ve been given permission from a GREEN or higher clearance level citizen. Sleeping Aid gas is dispelled each night in the Wagon Wheel at 2200 to assist citizens in getting a productive sleeping period.

Confession Booths
There are hundreds of confession booths available around Alpha Complex if a citizen would like to communicate directly with the computer. Please use these confession booths to report mission statuses, report treason or terrorist acts, unregistered mutants, confess your trespasses against Alpha Complex, request propaganda or speak with Your Friend, The Computer, at any time.

Comments

[stillplaying]

Katniss notices that look on Lydia's face. That anyone should have any kind of reaction to her name doesn't feel as surprising as it could be. She's been in the spotlight. She's spent a lot of time in the spotlight if glitches are to be believed. There's no guarantee that everyone here holds memories of a place similar to her own Panem. But it is easier to think like that.

"The soap doesn't bother me," Katniss admits with a small shrug. Most of her life before the Complex had been spent with cheap soap, hadn't it? And yet she had still been able to get clean. Or clean by her District's standards. The drugs keep her happy, keep her thinking too much about what the soaps were like in the Capitol because that would lead her thoughts in a direction that isn't the slightest bit happy, wouldn't it?

But apparently, the soaps might bother other Alphas. Or at least bother this girl enough to open this store and want to hire Katniss. That's the part that really confuses her. Sure, her voice is nice but being paid to sing? It seems like such a foreign concept. Besides, Katniss isn't the only singer here. She furrows her brow as she tries to recall the man who had hosted the singing contest the previous day. "Wouldn't that man - Jack? - get more publicity?"

Because everyone loves a star, don't they? And he seems far more like star material than she does.

[sanguinescry]

Lydia gives a little shrug. "You're not alone. There are some others it doesn't bother, either, but isn't it nice to have the option of something a little more luxurious if you're feeling so inclined? Because before my store, you had to be a much higher clearance level than either of us to enjoy the good soap and I didn't think that was very fair. It's soap, you know?"

She's not crazy about the hierarchy for food, either, but she can't really fix that with science. Someone could, probably, but she's not that person.

Wrinkling her nose a little, she waves a hand dismissively. "He was great, but I'm not looking for publicity for the sound. I want the focus to still be on the soaps. I like the idea of someone that isn't more 'Alpha famous' doing it. If you're not interested, then that's all right and you can say so, but I wouldn't offer it to you if I wasn't interested in giving it to you. Trust me, I know I have options." Hell, she could probably hold auditions if she really felt so inclined. She doesn't, but she could.

[stillplaying]

The option of something a little more luxurious. It seems like a strange prospect to Katniss, a luxury that she suspects she really hadn't had much in her life before Alpha. She doesn't even know what she'd do with that option - at least when it comes to soap. Food? Food would be an entirely different matter. Katniss would eagerly embrace something other than soylent. At the same time, she won't complain about the meager provisions she does have to eat. Something is better than nothing.

"I guess," Katniss ultimately replies, unsure if it's response to having good soap or interest in performing for Lydia's commercial or some combination of both. The proposition has caught her off-guard. Wouldn't people respond better to the voice of someone famous rather than her own voice? Maybe Lydia doesn't think that Jack - or anyone his status - would be willing to help her out. "Do you have ideas for the song?"

[sanguinescry]

Giving a little non-committal shrug, Lydia shakes her head. "I hadn't really gotten that far. I don't even necessarily need it to have traditional lyrics. Ah-ah-ahs would do just fine in a pinch. I'm mostly just looking for a sound to create an ambiance. That's another reason why I'm not interested in hiring that Jack guy. He's fantastic, don't get me wrong, but I don't want there to actually be attention paid to the song so much as I'd be more interested in it playing a subliminal role in making people associate my products with being especially relaxed and happy and calm."

Lydia pauses then and wrinkles her nose. "I don't even know if that makes sense to anyone other than me, sorry. I don't really know what I'm looking for, but you just have a really nice sound. I like it."

[stillplaying]

"I don't mind being in the background," Katniss admits, offering a small, awkward grin along with the words. Glitches indicate that she's been in the spotlight before. That it's where she had spent so much of the past two years of her life prior to Alpha. That it's because of that attention that so many horrible things had happened. She doesn't like the spotlight. Even drugged, she knows it's something to be avoided.

"If that's what you want." It can't hurt, can it? Singing in the background of a commercial, doing something she actually enjoys and maybe getting payed for it. Money goes a long way. It doesn't matter where she is. Every little bit counts. "I can do that."

[sanguinescry]

When the other girl smiles, however awkwardly, Lydia returns it with a warm one of her own and a nod. "Perfect, then you're exactly what I'm looking for," she announces confidently. She pauses a little. "You're, like, really pretty. Did you know? Some girls don't know. Right now, my best friend is tolerating me and bending to my whims enough to be my model for promotional material, but eventually she's going to put her foot down. Have you ever thought about like modeling? Just photoshoots, stuff like..." she trails off for a second and pulls up a shot* Gracie took earlier with Lydia's PDC and holds it up, "kinda like this. Nothing like...not a big deal or anything. Something to think about if and when Allison decides she's over it," she says with a smirk, putting the PDC down again.

"Anyway! Song. So yes, all I really want is just something for Gracie to edit in as an audible backdrop so it doesn't have to be anything intricate or over the top. If you're interested and you think you can come up with something, just let me know when you've got it, I'll get Gracie to record it and transfer the credits over to you. Does 50 credits up front and then maybe like 5 credits in royalty fees sound good?" she asks, assuming that the other girl knows what royalty fees actually are.


[ ooc: *obviously she's just wearing the RED jumpsuit, but ignoring that, consider that a reference image. ]

[stillplaying]

She doesn't mean to frown when Lydia calls her pretty but she does so despite herself. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she hear's a boy asking why he had liked her so much. Telling her that she's not all that nice and not all that pretty. Seeing the real her for the first time. This cheerful friendliness that she's feeling now isn't the real Katniss. But it feels a lot better to be that girl instead of who she really is. Not all that pretty. Not all that good.

"I'm not," she begins to protest, ready to make it clear that she isn't all that pretty. But Lydia keeps talking and doesn't necessarily seem to hear. Not that it matters so much because as soon as credits comes up, Katniss forgets that there's something to object to. "Fifty sounds good. What are royalty fees?"

[sanguinescry]

There's a reason Lydia babbles onward without giving the other girl a chance to actually answer her and it's because she wants to force Katniss to let the idea percolate before she tries to make a decision one way or the other. Hopefully, she thinks, she's been successful at that because Katniss moves on when Lydia does. She realizes belatedly that she probably shouldn't have assumed that the other girl knew what royalty fees are; most people their age don't. Lydia's nearly always been the exception to the rule when it comes to things people in her age bracket know.

"Ah, okay, so royalty fees are usually a quarterly thing, but I'll try to make it monthly for you instead. Basically, it means as long as we keep using the song, you keep getting paid. For every month that I've used the song in a commercial, even if it's just one, I'll pay you five credits for the right to keep using your work. Does that make sense?" she asks, lifting her eyebrows in sincere question. Lydia wants to make sure that Katniss understands and if she doesn't, then Lydia will break it down a little further, somehow, because it's no good to have someone agree to terms and conditions they don't understand. It feels cheap and shady to Lydia, so she's not going to let it happen here.

"If I stop using the material, then I stop paying you, but if I continue to use it, you continue to get paid. That's pretty much all it means in this context."

[stillplaying]

In a number of ways, the glitches in Katniss' mind claim that she's an exception to most of the things people in her age bracket might know. She's nearly eighteen but regardless, Katniss has had to act as mother and father in her family since turning eleven. She's had to fight to survive and kill to survive. Life experiences have forced Katniss to grow up fast. What it comes down to is a difference in worlds. Royalty fees aren't something anyone in Panem would ever consider.

How can she say no to excess money? If she's singing something in the background, it keeps her from being in the spotlight. And that's the last thing she wants; being in the spotlight again. It's easy money, especially if the money keeps coming so long as Lydia uses the song.

She can't say no. There's not much Katniss wants here in Alpha but that's not the point. The point is to be prepared and, whether or not she realizes, survive. "Okay."

[sanguinescry]

Lydia gives the other girl a moment to process her words and decide whether or not she understands the explanation given or if she needs something more broken down, and she's quiet while she waits. Once Katniss gives an answer, Lydia's face lights up.

"Oh perfect! That's awesome! Okay, great, uh...so if you want to stop by in the next couple of days once you've got something you want to sing, should we do it that way?" she asks, not sure really how to work through this process. Lydia's not a music person, after all, she's a science girl.

[stillplaying]

Katniss wouldn't consider herself a music person. Despite her talent with song, it's one of the last things that she would consider herself. Hunter, yes. Killer. A girl who used to be a sister. All of those descriptions apply. Anything not so negative? She can't bring herself to accept Or at least, she couldn't if she weren't on the HappiTime pills right now.

"I'll stop by," Katniss agrees, uncertain on how to go about this process herself. She's never actually tried to write a song before. But maybe there's one her father had taught her that might work. She'll have to think on it. "Sometime soon."

[sanguinescry]

Lydia nods and gives Katniss another smile. "Great," she says happily. "Then I'll see you soon. I won't keep you any longer, though, I'm sure you were on your way somewhere before I stopped you."

Almost as if on cue, a customer scoots her way into the store and Lydia excuses herself to assist. Not a bad way to end the first half of her day, if Lydia does say so herself.