DAYCYCLE 5 [ NOV 16-20 ]

[computerized]

 

DAYCYCLE 5 

[ NOV 16-20 ]

 

MORNING

You wake to yet another exciting day in Alpha Complex at 0600, but you may immediately sense that something is off. Your mind is muddled and it takes you a moment to remember where and who you are. But even that is uncertain, because if you think hard enough, you can remember people calling you other names. In fact, you can remember a singular, life changing memory that makes no sense when you compare it to all of the others that you possess…

Heads are going to roll at the MemoMax facility. Apparently, last night instead of downloading memories, someone hit the upload switch instead. Each Alpha Complex citizen now possesses life changing memories from another citizen’s life. This doesn’t make much difference for the majority of Alpha’s citizens, but makes a big difference for the Specials who possess the glitch that left them with past memories. Enjoy this window into a stranger’s life while you can, by midnight tonight the MemoMax facility will be under new management and memories will be restored to normal.

Ray Palmer and Alec Hardison are pulled from the morning briefing for interrogation regarding Maria Hill and her recent actions. Hardison is released after a brief session, but Ray is subjected to almost an hour of questioning due to him being the common link between recently convicted traitor Abbie Mills and Maria Hill.

No missions are issued to any of the specials today.

All other Troubleshooters: You are to report to your Service Firm positions for the day, until called on for Troubleshooter duty.

AFTERNOON

There is an R&D Synovation conference today beginning at noon. R&D Project Directors host these conferences so researchers can share ideas and show off their latest triumphs. However, because R&D researchers tend to be highly secretive about their work, many present bogus projects and inaccurate data, to throw off their jealous rivals. All citizens at a clearance level of RED or higher are invited to attend.

EVENING

There will be a TopWare party in the Troubleshooter’s common room at approximately 1800. Come see the wonders of TopWare and all it’s capable of! Bring your ME cards.

Sleep aid gas is expelled into the sleeping quarters at 2100.

 

Comments

[sanguinescry]

Well, if that's not an invitation, then Lydia's not really sure what is and she's not even sure she can remember the last time she got invited back to someone's room. Certainly before whatever this place is, that goes without saying. She grins mischievously.

"Okay, lead on then," she says easily, brushing a piece of hair from out of her eyes and tucking it behind her ear.

She's not exactly used to not being wanted; her mind goes there because it seems obvious enough to her where he's going with this whole thing. And again...look at the guy. Seeing whatever he wants to "show" her in his room sounds infinitely better than some creepy stepford party, anyway.

[shrinkage]

The gesture makes him pause before leading the way back to his quarters. A minuscule moment that conjures that gut feeling again, takes him back to his dreams from the previous night and seems to string gossamer between the two of them.

But it's a short way back to the RED residency, and before long they're approaching the door. Fortunately he'd been trained by a particular blonde with legs much shorter than his own about the merits of making sure you don't leave your partner three hallways behind.

"Oh-- it's not very big, by the way-- but it's intricate!" He pauses at the door, and then swings it open to allow Lydia entry at her will. "And I did say it could be boring. It depends on your interests, I guess. Fair warning and all."

[sanguinescry]

Lydia's right behind him all the way. She's always the one who needed saving back home, so she's learned at the very least to keep up. Between his awareness of his strides and Lydia's unwillingness to be left behind, there manages to be little space between them by the time he reaches the door.

The comment catches her a little off guard and the fact that she's thrown off a little is evident on her expression, but she regains her composure quickly. "Well, that's awfully honest of you..." she thinks aloud before giving a shrug. She'll take what she can get and if there's one thing that's always been proven to help Lydia clear her head and be more zen, it's sex. Are you really sure you want to know what the hell he means by intricate in this context, Lyds? she thinks to herself for a split second before dismissing it.

"Well, there's only one way to find out," she says smugly before letting herself into the room when he opens the door.

[shrinkage]

"Oh. Oh my god. No I meant--"

He's doing the awkward unintentional innuendo thing again and Felicity isn't here to fix it. Whoops.

"Hang on." Ray rushes past Lydia then, a flurry of too-long limbs fueled by the desire to exit this awful misunderstanding as quickly as possible. He squats at his bedside, knees angling out away from himself as he drags out what looks like just a rusty metal container, no bigger than a shoebox.

Once it's clear, he stands, lifting it with ease by the handles at the sides.

"This is what I was talking about." One hand moving to support the container from below, Ray pulls the top off to reveal dismantled electronics and wiring. If Lydia has ever seen anything like it before, she'll recognize the bomb parts as such.

[sanguinescry]

Oh. ...so...this is not going to end in sex. Lydia looks a little disappointed and feels a little more disappointed, but she watches him pulling a metal container out from under his bed and wonders what the actual hell he actually did mean.

He lifts the lid and Lydia moves closer to look inside. It takes her a second, because at first all she sees is the forest — wires, metal, and plastic — and then she sees the trees — electronics, their wiring...and the light bulb moment — and Lydia's eyes dart back up to meet Ray's face.

"Is this...what I think it is? Or, more accurately, was?"

[shrinkage]

Ray looks way too excited given that there is no sex being had at this moment. Unfortunately he's ... not always the most observant of people, and with his focus trained on the pieces in the box he completely misses the billboard before him. Way to go, bud.

"A bomb, yeah! Well-- parts of one. I had to hand in as much as I could, but there was some advanced circuitry I wanted to take a look at." Because who wouldn't, right? That's a totally normal thing to want to do, examine a cyberpunk bomb. Yep.

"It was piecemealed together, I think. The guy we took it off of probably scrapped parts for awhile before finally getting enough to make it."

[sanguinescry]

Ray, you sweet summer child. Her disappointment shifts into discomfort. Lydia's lips press together as she listens to him while looking down at the parts and clasping her hands together behind her back to quell the urge to touch the thing.

"We?" she asks curiously rather than accusatory, eyes shifting back up to Ray's face. "Where'd you get it? I mean...you know?"

[shrinkage]

At least that shift in Lydia's mood is clear enough to get Ray's attention. He watches her, that spark flaring between them again in some deja-vu-eqsue tug in his gut.

"Oh-- it's from the hostage situation another Troubleshooter and I handled a few days ago. I turned in the explodey-parts, really. I just..."

He sighs, putting the box to the side and wringing his hands for a moment. "If I can learn more about the technology in this place, maybe I can stop feeling helpless."

Ray looks back up at Lydia, curious and almost suspicious. The screaming, the feeling of imminent loss shadows his subconscious. "And I just got the feeling you know something about that."

[sanguinescry]

Tucking her hair behind her ears, Lydia looks back at him as he explains and she nods. The other Troubleshooter — we — got it from a mission — where. Lydia doesn't really have any reason not to believe him and, while she's no bomb expert, she doesn't really see any kind of detonator or sealed chemical containment unit in the pile of rubble he's found, so it's not like she thinks it's still active.

He says he wants to feel less helpless and Lydia knows that feeling. All too well. She doesn't realize that he's said that on purpose, though, until he continues. Lydia looks up sharply, a plethora of emotions swimming in her eyes: the sense of loss because she hadn't been able to help Allison and then she'd lost her; worry, suspicion, the helplessness that's still hungover from the mission yesterday with Barry. The memory that didn't belong to her at all... "Something like that..." she admits softly, a ghost of a smile trying to tug at the corners of her mouth and managing still to fall short of her eyes.

[shrinkage]

Ray smiles back, and reaches over to squeeze Lydia's shoulder -- a brief acknowledgement that she's trying. That he understands completely.

"You know," he starts, voice quietly amused. "I don't know why but even though I knew your name was Lydia, I wanted to call you Allison. Isn't that weird? I mean, I don't know any Allison's but it just seemed to... stick to you."

That's totally the best way to distract Lydia from all of this crazy, right? Cause Ray totally has the best luck ever.

[sanguinescry]

If Ray is going for a more genuine smile, he's gone far in the wrong direction. Lydia's breath hitches and the color drains from her face as her eyes widen and she looks up at him. One of her feet moves as if to take a step back while the rest of her body fights it because she knows he's not a threat and, really, how could he know?

"That was my best friend's name," she tells him, attempting to regain her composure and recover. At least, she's trying to look the part. "She died," she adds, as if to explain her reaction.

[shrinkage]

"I'm sorry." That kind of pain isn't something anyone should have to go through. It changes people, carves them out. Leaves a person-shaped hole behind that never quite fills back in. No matter how hard you try.

"I lost my fiance." He says it quietly, and not that he owes it to Lydia, but-- sometimes just knowing another person has been there helps. Like it dispels some of the resentment and guilt. You become a member of a really depressing club instead of just a single person, left alone.

[sanguinescry]

When Lydia had been little, her maternal grandmother died in Eichen House. They'd been really close, but Lydia was so young that she doesn't really remember it.

Jackson died, once, but he'd come back. It hadn't stuck.

It isn't like Lydia didn't know loss, but losing Allison had been different. She'd felt Allison's lifeline being severed. She'd felt that sword in her gut and she'd known. She'd just known.

Beyond the loss of her best friend, which Lydia wouldn't ever wish on anyone, having to feel something she didn't understand, something on a higher plane that connected her to it and made no sense to her, all the same, that felt worse, she thought. It felt worse because she still didn't understand it and one couldn't ever move on from something if they couldn't accept it...but how could she accept it if she didn't understand it?

Lydia's hand found Ray's and she gave it a little squeeze. Heroes do that, Ray. She sucked in a sharp breath and pressed her lips together. She didn't understand that vision, either, and she didn't want to. It wasn't hers to understand; she knew that much. "I'm sorry."

[shrinkage]

One corner of Ray's mouth turns up-- not the kind of smile that's full of joy and unironic enthusiasm for life, but real all the same in its subtlety. The kind of smile people like them use to connect to each other, that says: it gets better, but it never goes away.

"I haven't even been here a week, and this is the first time I actually feel like I'm having a real conversation with someone. Thank you, Lydia. Really." To suddenly feel human and real again? Ray is pretty sure that is a priceless gift. And something he'll never forget.

[sanguinescry]

Lydia met Ray's weak smile with an attempt of her own. "I just got here, but the same thing is true," she said. "Yesterday was my first day and they sent me out on a mission and..." she paused, trailing off slightly.

They'd let her out of containment and sent her off on a mission with Barry wherein they'd been carjacked and she'd almost had to shoot someone to keep them both alive — not something she'd ever thought she would have to do and certainly nothing she would have ever wanted to do.

"Well. It's different having a real conversation than congratulating one another on surviving something terrifying. So thank you, Ray." In retrospect, that was probably the moment when Lydia decided Ray was going to be stuck with her as long as she was here.

[shrinkage]

He nods back, glad for a mutual connection. It would be awkward were Lydia to just be fulfilling something he hadn't realized he'd needed. This is nice.

"You know, you might be my first new friend. If it wasn't lights-out soon, I'd say we should celebrate." His smile comes back in full force. It's nearly painful, how genuine Ray is. All of his emotions sit on his sleeve on display for the world to see.

[sanguinescry]

Technically, lights out should be the commencement of celebrating, sweetie, she thinks, but holds her tongue because he didn't bring her to his room for sex and she's certainly not going to be the one to proactively offer it up as a possibility now, especially after a heartfelt conversation like that one. She shuts the thought down.

"You too," she says, because she's not entirely sure that Barry counts, all things considered. She does know that this feels like a first friendship in this place, though, and if it walks like a duck... "Maybe tomorrow, hmm, sweetie?" she asks with a smile.

[shrinkage]

"I'd like that." This is a pretty good end to a pretty crazy day-- well, several crazy days. He nods and moves to tuck the box away back underneath his sleeping area. His PDC dings a warning.

"Oh-- five minutes to sleeping gas. You might want to head back to your room."

[sanguinescry]

Lydia nods and smiles. "Tomorrow then," she says, taking a few steps backward toward the door. "I'll see you then, Ray."

With that, she turns and leaves him in her wake, hurting back down the hall to her own room before the sleeping gas is released for the night.