alphalogs | DAYCYCLE 22 [ Feb 21

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DAYCYCLE 22 [ Feb 21 - 28 ]

DAYCYCLE 22
[ FEB 21 - FEB 28]

MORNING

This morning’s briefing will begin with the introduction of a special Special. Due to an error in cloning, Matt Murdock has been introduced to Alpha without his sight. The Computer has deemed in it’s great wisdom not to start the cloning process over until necessary due to the expense scrapping an otherwise flawless model citizen. Ray Palmer has been selected as the Troubleshooter to assist Murdock in his first days as a citizen of Alpha.

Hardison will be reinstating the network for the Specials this morning at 0800.

Troubleshooter Team: L. Martin and S. Rogers
Old issue PDCs are being replaced with a new DO-44 model, which is rolling out next week. You are to take these new models and demonstrate how to use them correctly at a booth in the Commissary. Rogers is to oversee the operation and ensure that citizens are properly trained. Martin will document the name and rank of every citizen educated. Make sure that you focus on it’s more than 40 new features, which include a lie detector, heartbeat monitor, pedometer tracker and a self-destruct sequence.

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

Intel: Troubleshooters who are interested in double hazard pay for going as part of an expedition to the surface should report to their briefing officer immediately to begin psychological and physical testing.

AFTERNOON

Those Troubleshooters who volunteer for the surface expedition will be subjected to a physically and mentally gruelling day of testing. The test themselves will not help anyone determine what exactly it is that is so dangerous on the surface, but everything will be hinted from nuclear radiation poisoning to unbearable heat. Psychological testing will include inkblot tests, word association and a lie detector test. Medical tests will also be performed to ensure that applicants are in perfect health. Those who are subjected to testing will be excused from their normal duties.

EVENING

The Sector Appreciation Society will be meeting in each sector this evening at 1830 to do their quarterly scrubbing of walls and floors. They will try to recruit anyone and everyone to join in their work. Sleeping gas will be dispelled at 2100.

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Ray keeps the press of his palm into Matt's a brief one, and moves quickly to the newcomer's side. Despite his large frame, he bends well enough to make it easy for Matt to get a hold of his arm. He's had plenty of practice being Felicity Smoak's date-- a guy Matt's size is hardly an issue.

"OK, so we're in the Commissary, which you probably knew. It's mostly laid out symmetrically with rows of tables on the opposite side of us, and along the walls here are where we pick up food and make other transactions. If you're hungry, we can start there but I have to warn you that the food is ... well, it's miserable."

Dutifully, Ray holds their place until Matt gives him some heading. Fortunately being on the larger side, he's used to watching where he goes. (Though-- don't tell Lydia he thought that, given how they first met.)

Matt lightly takes Ray's arm, listening to the description of the room that Ray gives and trying to picture it in his head. It's far from a complete picture, but he can smell food (not terribly appetizing) and a crowd of people. He shakes his head a little at the idea of food. "No. I'm fine." He's not even sure that he could eat right now without getting sick.

He pauses a moment, trying to figure out how to word his next question without giving too much away.

"How--what did they do to me? My hearing, my sense of touch, my sense of smell, they're all....muted. A lot."

And yet, his senses are still quite a bit better than most people. He's just too busy panicking to really realize that because they are so diminished from what he's accustomed to.

"Oh, uh, well--" Ray sighs, trying to figure out just where to start on that can of worms. "We're still working on understanding a lot about this place. Here, let's get out into a corridor and head back to the quarters. Talking about this in the open is tough."

Ray guides him, trying to do his best to explain the general layout including patterns. Matt sets the pace, though Ray will make sure to slow him down as they approach steps or have to squeeze through a doorway one by one.

"One of the main things we've learned recently, and now confirmed by you is that despite the advanced technology, it's not always reliable." Once they reach Matt's RED quarters, Ray starts to speak a little more freely. The Specials do their best to make sure cameras in their vicinity are disabled-- fortunately Dick is a most capable teenager in that respect.

"Take me, for instance. I didn't even realize I was a Special after I was recloned a few days ago. Either there was a glitch or someone neglected to give me my personal memories."

He's got no idea it's a can of worms. He just knows that something has been done to him and it's seriously affecting his ability to fend for himself. He doesn't like that. He hasn't actually needed a guide since he was first blinded.

Ray is doing a good job of laying the room out for him. His cane tap-tap-taps in front of him. Occasionally he asks a question about the surroundings. He's slowly calming a little as he learns a bit about his physical surroundings at least.

"What do you mean? It's not always reliable? What isn't reliable?" Matt will invite Ray into the room and shut the door behind them.

"Someone with special abilities?" He's assuming that's what Ray means. "I'm sorry. This is all completely new to me."

"Right, sorry-- uhh, so there's a pretty rigid caste system in place in the society here. I'll explain promotions later-- we skip the lowest caste, INFRARED. It's a point of contingency among the RED citizens who had to work up from the bottom. They call us Specials. And it's not a compliment."

Ray takes a breather, but keeps pacing as he talks, sticking close to Matt out of a desire to just build a habit of being available. His steps echo, quiet but hurried as he goes. He doesn't carry much of a scent, given the hygiene standards don't really offer any Old Spice options.

"This entire culture is a product of generations of poorly-replicated information and corruption taking root in the system, unfortunately. Let's say, uh, for instance-- what did you do back home? You know, for a living?"

"Ah," Matt makes the 'I understand' noise more for the sake of making it. He doesn't really understand. There are about a thousand other questions he could ask, but he doesn't want to scare Ray off. For the moment, he still needs him to help out. He'll get more independent once he gets his bearings.

Matt listens to Ray's footsteps, listens to that intake of breath and concentrates on his senses, slowly realizing that his senses aren't gone but incredibly muted. He's going to have to push them and see just how muted. He tries to listen for Ray's heartbeat, but his senses don't stretch that far.

"I'm a defense attorney," he answers. He wants to ask how this culture differs from his culture because many would say the same about 21st century America. However, he suspects that Ray is about to tell him so he holds his question for the moment.

"Oh. You're going to hate a lot about this place, then. As far as I can tell, the laws boil down to: Don't do anything that might be seen as treasonous and also you're not allowed to know what falls under treasonous because that is treason."

Whether that's the truth of the matter remains to be seen. What is obvious, in the tremor of his voice and the heat with which he speaks, is that Ray feels very passionately about it. He's seen far too many people carted off without reason other than that they were deemed traitors to the Computer. How do you keep from being pissed off about that?

"So when I mention unreliability, I mean everything. The technology, the society, the reactions of the Computer? It's all extremely tenuous. And I don't know any Specials who've been here longer than twenty-two days, so..." This stage of working on it is the one they'll be in for awhile.

That's not exactly what he wanted to hear, but it's sort of what he'd expected. He doesn't expect to like this place. He doesn't like this place any as it is and he's only been here a short while. "That's illogical. How are we supposed to fall in line if we don't know where the line is?" Of course, he assumes that Ray realizes that makes no sense.

There is no mistaking the passion in Ray's voice and Matt appreciates that. He can work with Ray, he can be friends with him, respect him, talk to him, help him or be helped by a man who demonstrates this much passion. He likes to think one can fix things with enough passion, but then maybe that's the idealist in him.

Matt takes a deep breath. "Can the computer be hacked? Or can someone instill more reliability? Maybe a take over of some sort?" Even more than being kidnapped here he hates the idea of a society and a system that isn't fair or just, that isn't reliable.

"Without getting too technical: the systems are extremely difficult to break into. We've-- err, they, sorry. I'm still a little jumbled up here." At that, Ray has to take a moment to huff out a few breaths. To remind himself that he is in fact a Special. Barry filled in a lot of the blanks, and he can work with that. Just because he doesn't possess those memories now doesn't mean he's not himself.

Sure.

"Before I got here, I was pretty good at breaking into systems. Not the best, but I can recognize when something is too complicated for someone better than I am." Another breath. "Then there's the matter of secret societies fighting for control of the Computer as well."

It's a giant clusterfuck, Matt. Ray's just too polite to say it that way.

Matt's brows crinkle at Ray's confusion. One might argue that one's memories make a person. However, Matt won't say that because it's discouraging, or he wouldn't if he knew and understood. He simply assumes Ray's confusion is from this place in general.

"Secret societies? Tell me more about those."

What he really wants to ask is what this place did to him, how they've taken out his senses, but he's not sure he can just come out and tell Ray about his abilities. So few people know about him back home and it hadn't gone over terribly well with those people.

And yes, Matt is getting the clusterfuck aspect of this place. He doesn't like it much.

"I only know of a few. Free Enterprise, are pretty much profiteers running a black market. Mystics, who are possibly just escapist drug addicts? Maybe they started out as something else, but I didn't get much info out of the guy I talked to." Talked to, as if they'd met for tea and had cucumber sandwiches between conversations instead of Ray offering himself as a replacement hostage while the Mystic threatened the pharmacy with a bomb.

"There's also one called Pro-Tech who are mostly just in it to play with the tech. I've heard there are more, but since I'm not Internal Security I don't have a lot of details, sorry. I do know that they recruit you, though. If they notice you, they invite you in." Which he knows because he's experienced it. Naughty Raymond!

Matt furrows his brow because honestly it doesn't sound like anything he'd want a part of. He was hoping more for rebellion slash revolution sorts of things. "Hmmm. Not what I was envisioning. I guess I've read and listened to too many books."

He nods a little at that. "Tech isn't really my thing either," he says scratching at his cheek as he considers everything that Ray has said. It definitely sounds as if Ray has some experience with this thing. "How long have you been here, if you don't mind me asking."

"I was--" Nope. You weren't born here. "Just over three weeks, I mean."

That it means he's one of the five remaining original Specials escapes Ray's thought process. Saying the time aloud makes it a little easier to remember that the progress they'd made has actually been rather astounding.

"Oh but before I get sidetracked: when it comes to the technology here, there's nothing assistive or adaptive. I could probably throw something together for you. It shouldn't take me too long, considering everything's already digital. Would you be able to wait for the morning for me to make modifications to your PDC?" Adding TTS and a voice-response system keyed to Matt shouldn't be too hard. The technology had to be built-in somewhere.

Matt notices that pause but he doesn't have enough information to read anything into it at all so instead he nods a little. "That doesn't seem like very long. Is the settlement new?" It doesn't seem new to him, but what does he know? He is still trying not to panic over being blind, deaf and numb.

That would be useful information to know! He doesn't know useful for what, but useful for something surely.

There's a moment of frustration on Matt's face when Ray says that there's nothing assistive or adaptive. That fades away when he says he can tweak it. "That would be really helpful and yes, I'm sure I can wait until morning. Thank you."

That alone will earn Ray Matt's loyalty and friendship. He likes being able to be as independent as possible and this will help a great deal.

"If you trust the information, it's about 200 years old, apparently." There's definitely a lot of assuming being done here, if the sarcasm in Ray's voice is any indication. The how's and the why's of Alpha Complex seem to work off of quite a bit of nebulous assumption, in fact.

"Overall, it's not horrible here. Just be careful how many questions you ask non-specials. That's the easiest way to get yourself in trouble, because everyone is looking for someone to step on so they can move up."

The look of skepticism on Matt's face says he's not entirely sure he trusts the information. The sarcasm isn't something Matt misses either. He doesn't need his supernatural senses to catch that. "That's...surprising to say the least. I would have assumed a place two hundred years old would have better food." He jokes because he's not sure how to process this, any of this really.

He nods a little. "That makes sense. It certainly encourages backstabbing and betrayal of each other at least."

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DAYCYCLE 22 [ Feb 21 - 28 ]

DAYCYCLE 22

[ FEB 21 - FEB 28]

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