Daycycle 122 [ January 15 - January 21]

[computerized]

daycycle 122

[Jan 15 - Jan 21]

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

Early, Early Morning [0200 - 0400]
At approximately 0200, several explosive devices planted in Technical Services by PURGE will detonate, damaging several memobanks. In a rush to prepare for the morning upload several Technicians will mistakenly put the wrong memories in the wrong banks. They will catch their mistake before the final upload, but as a result several memories will now be shared across different alpha citizens' consciousnesses. These memories will be experienced as dreams and characters will retain knowledge of them when they wake.

Memory Swap Pairs

• Adam Parrish - Derek Hale
• Zatanna Zatara - Oliver Queen
• Steve Rogers - Ronan Lynch
• Katniss Everdeen - Matt Murdock
• Morgana LeFey - Tony Stark
• Clint Barton - Allison Argent
• Isabelle Lightwood - Lydia Martin
• Buffy Summers - Barry Allen
• Emma Swan - Parker
• Cisco Ramon - Gracie Cannell
• Natasha Romanoff - Jack Harkness
• Primrose Everdeen - Alcide Herveaux

Room 1101 will be woken up at 1200 when a squadron of Internal Security Gray Ops come to arrest Bucky Barnes for treason. He will be led away at gun point and his roommates, Ronan Lynch, Adam Parrish and Oliver Queen will be immediately taken into IntSec for questioning. They will be questioned about the activities of their former roommate for several hours before being sedated and returned to their room before 0500. Bucky's roommates will not remember his arrest or their questioning when they wake, though they may feel the lingering active effects of the sedative for several hours into their day.

The memory of Bucky Barnes having ever been present in Alpha will be erased with varying degrees of success from all those he came into contact with.

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

No Specials will be selected for a mission today.

---

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

At 0900 it will be discovered that the shooter from Steve Roger's assassination attempt has, ironically, been assassinated along with her guards in Armed Forces the night before. The letters mod will be left written in the shooter's blood along her cell wall.

---

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 the Commissary and will be overseen by Clint Barton. Izzy Lightwood from Medical Services has been assigned to assist him in giving a demonstration on basic first aid and wound care.

---

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

[rouxgaroux]

While sometimes it might be the easier path, Alcide has never been very good at pretending. He likes to confront things head on, even while he doesn't begrudge those who might need to hang onto something for awhile. This means that if Zee goes too long without talking about it, whatever it is, he'll be sure to bring it up. He doesn't like to let things fester and it's obvious that something upset Zee. He also doesn't want secrets between himself and her. He'll never not welcome her to sleep with him if she needs it. Sometimes being held, knowing someone gives a shit, is just as therapeutic as talking about it.

"Yeah, let's go." He has an arm around her shoulders as they walk. He wonders what she might have to say to him. He also wants to talk about her powers, the amazing things he saw her do in his dreams. There's no way his imagination could have come up with half of the stuff she's capable of. But now that he's 'seen' it, it's surreal... and amazing.

As they walk, Zee pulled in close to his side, he dips his head and speaks softly. "I had a dream about you... and somehow about that girl Prim too. I've never met her. You've made guest appearances in my dreams before but this was different. It was real, almost as if I felt like I was you. Your magic... I saw you do some bad ass stuff, Zee."

He pauses there because he wants to give her a chance to embrace the idea that something weird went down last night, dream wise. He doesn't know how or why it happened. And it almost feels like someone or something was in his head, which is not okay. But something happened and he's pretty sure that they all have yet another reason to be pissed off at the Computer.

[satnalahcsauoyekil]

It's easy for Zatanna to take some comfort in not only the arm around her shoulders, but the way that he makes her feel like it's okay to just move past whatever happened last night. He isn't pushing for an explanation now any more than he did when she showed up at the side of his bed and it's nice. It makes it easier for her to tell herself that everything is fine and it doesn't matter when nothing is fine and it does matter, because that dream wasn't just a normal dream. She felt his frustration. She didn't see him at all, it was like she was Alcide in it and the only thing more terrifying than seeing your best friend killed is seeing it happen through your best friend's eyes...and feeling the sharp pain before actual nothingness right before waking up. All of it, every piece of that experience is disconcerting in a way Zee doesn't want to think about.

And then he says that.

Zee looks up sharply as he goes on and the more he says, the more she feels like she's been slapped. A chill goes down her spine and Zatanna looks around to make sure they're not being seen or potentially overheard. "I had a dream about you, too," she whispers and it's the first time since late last night when she doesn't sound put together. She certainly doesn't feel put together. "Everything happened so fast, but I felt like I was you. People were shooting and other people were like exploding and there was blood everywhere... I was so mad on the one hand, but on the other I just felt kinda like...betrayed, I think, and then—" she stops abruptly, eyes on a passerby in an ORANGE jumpsuit. She pays Zatanna and Alcide no attention and just keeps walking. Zatanna does not pick up where she left off.

"I can do the magic, now," she says, instead. "When I was on that mission with Prim, you know how I'm always muttering spells just to see if I can do it, but it worked. And it kept working, but then when we got back, I couldn't do it anymore," she admits, frowning. "So our abilities, they're still in us. We just have to find their triggers and I haven't quite figured out what it was for me, yet."

[rouxgaroux]

Alcide had it easy with the dream he had seen. Zee's were spectacular. Yeah, sometimes he worried about her when it looked like she might be in trouble, but she always worked her way out of it. With Prim, those dreams/memories were horrible. But he doesn't know Prim from the next person, at least not until this morning, so while he'd felt and experienced those horrible things, there was still a detachment from her because who is Prim? It could have been worse, much worse.

As Zee explains what she had seen, he'd have to be daft and dumb not to see that he was let off easy. Zee had dreamed of him too. And what she dreamed, he's trying to suss it out. He's been around people shooting plenty of times. People exploding, those are vampires. He gets that. And Alcide's been around that a lot too. Mad and betrayed? Alcide has felt those things a lot of times in his life, simultaneously even. But the only time he's felt it around vampires was with Sookie. And the only time he's felt that because of Sookie where gunshots were involved is right before he arrived here. He remembers being shot in the shoulder, then the sharp pain in his temple and waking up here. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what happened there. That's the end for him.

"I'm sorry you had to see that... to feel it. Not my best moment." He adds the latter with a shake of his head. He should have smelled the wolf hunters in the brush close by. Normally he would have, but he let his emotions override instinct in that moment; anger at Sookie, fear over Sookie's well-being, hurt that she has run off with Bill and lied to him about it to his face, sadness that she only pretended to love him as much as he had loved her. Basically, he was dumb as shit on all counts in that moment and leading up to it. Maybe he got what he deserved.

He thinks to tell her all of this, to fill in the gaps of the dream, but then she says that and he stares at her in shock, almost stopping in the hallways as they walk but making himself keep walking. "You still have your magic." He still has his wolf. "Holy shit..." It's the best he can come up with. He'd hoped, but he'd maybe started not to believe. So this is... heartening. "So we just gotta figure out how to... they're suppressed, like we thought in the first place." He pauses. "How did it feel? Using your power?"

[satnalahcsauoyekil]

With a silence unlike herself, Zatanna shakes her head. She's nearly never speechless, God knows Zatanna Zatara always has something to say, useful or not, but in that moment, she just...doesn't. After a pause, words finally come to her. "It's not your fault," she says. "I'm okay. Now. Now that I know you're okay, I'm okay," she adds because she thinks that it's important for him to know that she's not scared, anymore. Traumatized, yeah, a little. But not scared. She isn't actively afraid that she's lost her best — also? Only — friend in this place.

Admittedly, it comes as a huge relief when Alcide latches onto the fact that she'd been able to use her magic again and he moves on with the conversation. It's morbid, talking about his death. That's what it was, after all, wasn't it? His death? She thinks that the abrupt nothingness just before she woke up must mean that, mustn't it?

So, she nods. Moving onward to a less uncomfortable discussion. "I still have my magic. You still have your wolf," she replies and the latter part comes out in barely a whisper. She doesn't care if people overhear her saying she has her magic — maybe the trigger is that last second when she's found herself in deep doo-doo. That's when it started working in the escape route, anyway.

"Exactly," Zee replies with a nod. He's exactly right; the two of them had been on the right track all along, they'd just been looking in all the wrong places. "So I was thinking that we should find out for sure where they do the clone stuff. It's gotta be there," she says, and the "if not in medical" is implied, since they'd already looked. His question has her smiling a little. "Amazing," she breathes. "You never realize how much you love something until you can't have it anymore; like when it's just out of reach. Don't worry...we're gonna get it all back for good, Al. We just have to keep going."

As they go on walking, winding their way toward Specials HQ, Zee looks around again just to make sure that they really are alone before she adds in a quick whisper, "there's more. There's a way out of here. I just couldn't leave without you, or I would've gone," she admits.

[rouxgaroux]

He hadn't said the words. So when she says them 'you still have your wolf', he feels his heart ricochet in his chest with an erratic staccato he hasn't felt in some time. Excitement, adrenaline, hope, Alcide feels them all. He feels more alive in this moment than he has in some time... wholly and completely alive, not just half, not just bits and pieces that the Computer has allowed to exist in this place, but all of him. It feels good.

"Cloning. Yeah. That has to be it." Alcide hasn't put much stock in the whole idea of cloning, but now it's all he can think about. They had been right. He and Zatanna had been right all along, if not misguided in their own assumptions of which path should lead to where. That's a huge revelation since he's been questioning everything so much lately.

"That's gotta be tech, right?" Maybe. And if it is, he's not all that happy about it. Tech and Alcide do not get along all that well. Sure, he can figure out how things work if given time. But technology as a whole is beyond him. He can hook up electrical and even install some high-tech security systems, but that's about as close as he gets to it.

The corners of his lips pull just a bit into a small grin when she explains how it felt. If he ever gets his wolf back, no... when he gets his wolf back, he's going to need to shift immediately. If he goes too long without it, things build up inside of him, emotional things, necessary things, that need to be released. To have all that flood into him after so long, Alcide can only imagine the adrenaline of it, the intensity of it, and yes, again, the necessity of it.

"I'm not stopin' if you're not. We'll get it back together." He assures her. Damn, he's filled with so much hope right now that the fall is gonna hurt so damn bad if nothing comes out of it. He has his wolf. Zee has her magic. Yeah, he's hopeful.

As she continues, his gaze turns sharper, more serious. Zee had a way out and she'd come back for him? His heart twists just a little bit inside his chest and he stares sideways at her. "You came back for me? Zee, you should've..." No, he would have done the same thing for her and for Buffy and Derek. He gets it. His arm around her shoulders squeezes just a little bit tighter. "What'd you see?"

[satnalahcsauoyekil]

Nodding, Zatanna tries to think of all the names of all the different sectors here. He suggests tech. Medical is in tech, so they've been in there, just clearly in the wrong place. "Yeah, technical...or maybe research and development?" she suggests as a backup plan. Technical seems like as good a place as any, although, on the other hand, there's also the possibility that perhaps research and development is where they'd come up with a way to suppress pieces of a person in a way that keeps that piece in tact, but inaccessible. She really has no idea, this was always kind of Robin's expertise. Not Zatanna's. It's a shame he's not here now...

His response to her determination is nothing less than she would've expected and she's glad they're still on the same page. "I'm not stopping until I have my magic full time," she hisses back, trying to illustrate her continued indignation while keeping her voice down. "We'll get them back. The missing pieces of ourselves. I'm never going to quit," she goes on.

Zatanna gives Alcide a warning look when he starts to tell her that she should've gone without him, at least that's what she assumes he's about to say. She's not having it. There's no way she would've gone without him. No. Way. At least he catches himself because she knows that if the tables were turned, he would've come back, too. At his question, she holds up a finger to tell him to wait.

Zee leads the rest of the way to HQ and only speaks again when they're safely inside and they appear to be alone in there. "There's, like, an underground railroad sort of thing, you know how they got the slaves up North way back when?" She pauses. "So, that mission that Prim and I were on? We were sent to it to rat out all the mutants that were being trafficked through it. Instead, we got them to incapacitate us so we wouldn't get arrested for letting them go. Barring any unforeseen retaliation on the space from IntSec or something, there's absolutely a way out of this dump. You can come back home with me. We need to get our wolf and my magic and then we'll get the heck out of here. I'm betting with your wolf, you'd really give Wolf a run for his money. He's my friend's wolf, but he's a wolf-wolf, no person part in there. But Wolf is totally on the team and you'd be awesome, I bet." She stops abruptly. "...if you wanted to, I mean, if you didn't want to go somewhere else instead..." Since home is clearly not an option for him, that is.

[rouxgaroux]

Alcide is quick to agree with the research and development idea with a nod. He would have sworn it would have been in medical before they'd come up empty handed there. Well, not completely empty handed, but having found nothing pertaining to their cause. Now, he can't for the life of him figure out how else they might have suppressed these intricate and essential things inside of them and it not be medical. Where else, what other department, could they have altered them on such an intimate level?

"Two stubborn as fuck peas in a pod, huh?" He adds jokingly, even though he knows that he's not far from the truth. He and Zee won't quit, no matter how dangerous it gets.

For Alcide's part, he's even almost trying to get the Computer's attention, daring it to bring him in closer for just one minute so he can see what they're dealing with. He's on a razors edge playing with fire and he knows it. Right now he just doesn't care because if the Computer's game is to pit them all against each other, Alcide isn't distracted by that. He's thinking clearly and he knows who the real enemy is. He thinks Zee is right there with him, not cowering and waiting, but ready to spring into action all day every day, just like he is.

They slip into HQ and Alcide still leans in and down to listen even though they're the only ones and it's supposedly safe to talk in here. There's a way out, she says, and Alcide feels another spike of hope. Can they get everyone out of here? Zee, Gracie, Derek, Buffy, Prim? Would everyone go back to their homes somehow or not? What if there's only one world for them all to go to? There are so many questions and not enough answers.

When she mentions his going back with her, a corner of his lips pulls up and he nods. His wolf can be pretty lethal when provoked. So can Alcide himself although he doesn't like it so much as the wolf does. It touches his heart in such a strange way, knowing that Zee would take him home with her if she could. Because no, he can't go back to his world. "You don't think I'd cramp your style, then I'm there." He pauses. "Zee this is amazing. We're close, I can feel it. We just have to figure out, if not medical then where? Then the... underground tunnel."

[satnalahcsauoyekil]

Even though it's supposedly not necessary for him to be leaning in like that to make sure she doesn't have to speak up and be overheard, Zee still appreciates it. They're always so in sync, right on the same page with one another and, quite frankly, that makes all of this feel so much easier, to her. It means that they don't have to catch one another up on anything other than details. They're just always on the same wavelength with the way they tend to think and act. It makes her wonder if maybe she hadn't actually met Alcide by accident but whether serendipity had been at play a little, there. Like fate had decided that she couldn't save everyone alone because she does better on a team, so it delivered her the perfect teammate.

It could be true.

His comment about cramping her style gets a roll of her eyes and she laughs. "Psh, if nothing else I can one up Superboy and that's not a thing a whole lot of us can manage to do. 'Oh, you've got Wolf. Well I've got a wolf, too, only mine can speak English and has opposable thumbs, beat that!'" she replies with a laugh. "You'd never cramp my style. If you don't mind working with a bunch of teenagers, though...that might cramp your style, but it takes forever to get added to the League of Justice, so we just have our own junior team."

Zatanna grins widely. The idea that they're as close as they are to getting out of this dump is so exhilarating and she feels newly driven in a way she hasn't since getting here. They're right on the cusp of being heroes and saviors and there's nothing Zatanna likes more than being able to help people who genuinely need it.

"Exactly. So, I'm wondering if we should be casing these buildings to try to see what all is held in them. Do you think they have things heavily guarded after hours? I'm sure there's some guards, but some is easier to take down than tons. If we can find out what they keep where, we can find out where they make the clones, and if we can do that...then we can fix ourselves. Then," she says with a solemn nod of agreement, "the underground tunnel."

[rouxgaroux]

She laughs and Alcide's lips pull into a smile and his eyes shine with it as well. Hearing stories about her people from back home is always entertaining. Alcide had once hated his wolf, after his dad ruined everything about pack life for him. But he's since outgrown that as he became his own man. His wolf just... is and it's up to him to use it for good rather than the alternative. He's tried to do that back home, both for himself and for his friends. Doing it in Zee's world with and for her and her friends would be the same, he thinks.

"I wouldn't mind. Not if you were there." Without her, the age gap might seem strange, at least at first. But Zee is Zee and anywhere she is is alright with him.

He's glad she feels that same sort of energy that he does now that it feels like they know things and might be getting close to kicking ass and taking names as far as setting this place to rights or even getting the hell out of dodge is concerned. Once again, they're on the same wavelength, as they so often are. It had initially surprised Alcide to find someone here who thinks like he does in so many ways. Now, just like his wolf and her powers just are, so is Zee and his clicking so well.

"Do you own a gas mask? Buffy got me one and we can use them and go out when most of the complex is sleepin'. Investigate while security's lax." It's an idea. Sometimes he can't tell if it would be easier at night while there's nobody around or in the day time under the cover of crowds.

[satnalahcsauoyekil]

Zee smiles back and looks thoughtful. The idea of having him come home with her is appealing because she's grown rather attached to Alcide. She's not sure how she'd feel if they had to separate when they got out of here and she doesn't like to think about the fact that there are other people Alcide could want to go with. Like Buffy, maybe. "Cool," she says and her smile broadens at the idea of going back to Mount Justice with Alcide at her side. "I'll be there, don't you worry."

At his question, Zatanna shakes her head. "No, I never bothered to buy one," she admits. The idea of giving any of her credits to the Computer always seemed counterproductive, although it's not like she spends them on anything else. Maybe some Bouncy Bubbly Beverage now and again or one of Lydia's soaps, but that's kind of it.

But the way he describes his use of a gas mask is admittedly intriguing. "Yeah?" she asks thoughtfully. "Maybe it's time I get one, then." She says maybe, but she means 'that's absolutely happening.' Anything that will give the two of them an edge when it comes to the intense snooping they intend to be doing soon is a good thing.

[rouxgaroux]

Right now the thing is that whatever he feels for Buffy is one-sided. She's still caught up on her boyfriend from home, which is par for the course for Alcide, to be all in when the other party is... not. He might be attracted to Buffy and care about her a great deal, but he knows the position he's in with her right now. He's been in it many times. And at the end of the day, Zee is his girl in an entirely different but equally important way. He's closest to Zee and that's the bottom line.

"Let me get you one, pay it forward in a way." Alcide isn't a fan of giving his credits back to the Computer either. But this is useful toward their main goal. Besides, Alcide isn't sure the black market funds go directly back into the Computer. Whatever he's funding, it's worth it if it helps them figure out where exactly to look next.

"We can use them to sneak around at night... look through the rest of Tech and figure out what area to infiltrate next." He says. "I already know that security is a little more lenient after the sleeping gas is pumped into the rooms." Which is information he's discovered from going out after hours before - an idea he got from Buffy and Derek.

[satnalahcsauoyekil]

For a moment, Zee lets herself think on that. She should probably buy her own gas mask, because it's not like she's spending the credits on much else and maybe Alcide is. But she gives him a smile and nods. "Yeah, okay. That sounds like a plan. So I just put it on before they release the SleepAid and then do I have to keep it on?" she asks, "or do they shut off the gas eventually?"

She's never bothered to find out how that works because, if she's being honest, she sort of relishes the fact that they force her to sleep if only because if they didn't...she might not ever bother. It's hard to fall asleep when you're stressed out and worried and hungry and Zatanna feels all of those things practically all the time. So if not for the stupid gas, as much as she hates having that freedom of choice taken away from her, she'd never get any actual rest. It's probably a bad idea to do this, for a lot of reasons, but when has knowing something is a bad idea ever stopped her from hopping on board?

"Okay, yeah, that sounds good. Come on," she says, nodding her head a little and starting to move. "We should start heading back because curfew's creeping up. But yeah, you get the mask and we'll start snooping at night. Maybe we can actually make some headway doing it that way."