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

[geekage]

He wasn't sure what it was about the man that drew his attention at first. The conversation he was having sounded distressed enough to warrant some attention, but Hardison mainly kept it a habit to keep his head low unless Parker was involved. Still, as he watched the RED Troubleshooter sneer at him and walk away, something in Hardison's mind clicked.

He knew that voice. He'd woken up disoriented, his memory trying to remember something that didn't fit with the rest of him. He was worried that the sleep gas had contained some kind of hallucinogen. It fit in well enough with the surroundings, except for the very real feeling of panic and familiarity. That and the fact that his voice hadn't been his own.

He moved over to the man, taking a seat beside him wordlessly. "Something tells me he can't hear you here."

[faithuninherent]

The voice coming from beside him startled Arty momentarily. He jumped in his seat just enough to be visible and looked over to the man beside him. The voice was familiar. He didn't immediately make the connection to the voice he had in his head with the memory so foreign he had assumed it to be a subliminal plant of some sort meant to distract him.

"It is not entirely about being heard, as it is about seeking answers." His voice was low and soft, his earlier panic forced internal and held in place with all the restraint he could find to keep on it. He was suspicious, if only because he did not recognise Hardison, and a stranger was dangerous in these times. He preached trust over paranoia, but in the middle of the changes around his world, it was a hard rhetoric to follow.

The pause gave him time to work out, slowly, the familiarity of the voice in his head. Hardison's voice.

"When nothing but the unfamiliar surrounds you, a touch of familiarity can go far in finding a moment of peace, and your voice is - familiar." In a way that could have been seen as a threat to his life and the lives of those he protected, but he had no other spots of light to put his faith in. He had to trust in something.

[geekage]

"So does yours," Hardison, studying the stranger's face. He hadn't seen him around and while he hadn't exactly memorized every face in this place, he was familiar with the ones that should've been in the same color of jumpsuit.

"You're new though, aren't you?" He talked like Nate did when he was putting on the show of father Ford. His voice was low and soft, calm. But lacking the alarm it'd had in his dream. Though, as he tried to recall the dream it came to him clearly without any of the haze that usually followed dreams around.

"Who are you?"

[faithuninherent]

"New to this place, yes. I am Citizen R T 201023, though I would prefer just Arty. Easier on both of us, and evidently nicknames are one of the few things on this ship that are not illegal." He had paid close attention to the seemingly unending list of treasonable offenses. It was a long and often ridiculous one, and unfortunately it was not surprising to him in the slightest.

"I believe there must have been some mistakes made in one of the medical or psychological wards in regards to both of our heads. Your voice is in my head as clear as my own and yet we have never met."

He knew his way of speaking had always been winding to some, but hopefully this familiar stranger would not have much difficulty following his speech.

He rubbed his face with both hands and left his hands there a moment before dropping them to his legs with a sigh.

"I can only assume I was jettisoned here by the High Council. Though why they would send me away rather than execute me is beyond my understanding. Everyone knows cloning is too wasteful a process when it is so much easier to just rebuild from scratch, so that story they fed me on arrival can not be true."

[geekage]

"Yeah, I prefer Arty, too," Hardison said with a small grin. The other name sounded a little too much like R2D2. And thank goodness about the Nicknames, he didn't know if he could handle everyone calling him Alec. He'd never really liked his name.

"It's the same for me," Hardison admitted, wondering if Arty here was onto something bout the psychological ward. Maybe the sleeping gas had allowed them to do some kind of experiment or brainwashing. Great, just another thing to worry about here. "You were hiding a drive full of religious texts."

He didn't have to ask what the High Council was, he remembered it as clearly as if he had been the one afraid of them. "Do you think you are from another facility like this one?"

[faithuninherent]

Arty nodded and took a slow breath when Hardison repeated the nickname. He remembered the phone call, the emotions on both ends of the line and the name the woman on the other end had used. Just focusing on the memory again makes his chest tighten and the world around them seem to close in, which for a mn who spent his entire life in small spaces was an unsettling new fear to feel so strongly.

"Your name is Hardison, isn't it? Those texts are better forgotten, for your sake." The last bit is added with a pained voice but Arty pulled himself back together once he had a moment to focus.

"I believe so. The place I come from was fast becoming this in the least. The list of treasonable offenses aboard the Aspiration were growing every day." With every execution and attack. What was permissible one day could be illegal the next and there was no statute of limitations for the High Council's 'peacekeepers' and guards.

"If that is true, then what you saw... is close to the last thing I remember from home. I am unsure if this is part of the High Council's doing, if this is even real, or if what they told me here is true and this body is not my own. But with the technology available to them, I can not imagine they would find usefulness in bringing minds to clones that would be easier to mould from scratch."

[geekage]

"Yeah," Hardison said, wondering what exactly Arty had seen about him. There were a lot of things from his past that he wouldn't necessarily want to get around here, but he supposed Arty was as much of a thief as he was. If it came to it, they could blackmail each other.

"I wish I knew the answer to that, but I can't figure this place out either. I don't feel like a clone, but the things they're able to do to us..." Hardison tapered off and shook his head. They shouldn't be able to transplant memories. And even if they could there was no reason to let them keep theirs.

"In the meantime though, it's usually best not to bring the attention of the higher ups to yourself."