Daycycle Day 23 [ FEB 29-MAR 5]

[computerized]

DAYCYCLE 23

[ FEB 29 - MAR 5 ]

MORNING

This morning even the most vehement of those Special haters seem to be preoccupied at the briefing.  The whispers aren’t about the new arrivals but the opportunity to go to the surface.  The Briefing Officer doesn’t waste any time in announcing those that were chosen.  Out of the twelve Troubleshooters selected three specials, Tony Stark, Ray Palmer and Barry Allen, are named as part of the expedition.  Some Troubleshooters seem disappointed while others look extremely relieved at not being named as part of the group.  The expedition will set out at noon with a projected return time of 48 hours.

Troubleshooter Team: D. Grayson and R. Lynch

This particular mission is considered a high-clearance level despite being assigned to RED troubleshooters.  Dick and Ronan will be selected for the mission and immediately led out of the Commissary in order to be told in private.  They are to travel to Bingham’s Arms Emporium located on the outskirts of the Armed Forces sector.  There they are to render the supervisor, Victor Bingham, unconscious and take him to one of the scrub bots located at Internal Security headquarters.  They will be required to wear masks provided when obtaining the traitor in order to protect their identity from retaliation.

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

Intel: The word glitch has begun appearing on confession booths in the Technical Services sector.

AFTERNOON

At approximately 1400 a small explosion will occur in the R&D sector, causing it to be evacuated for the rest of the day.  It is unknown what caused the explosion, but rumor has it that anyone introduced to the invisible gas in the area will begin to go into convulsions before losing consciousness.  That will not stop some people from getting masks and searching the abandoned warehouses for products that will gain money on the black market.

EVENING

At 2000 the Genuine Credit Opportunity Club will hold a special presentation in the Commissary for those interested in earning astonishing amounts of credits for minimal work.  THIS IS NOT A TRIANGLE SCHEME.  Sleeping gas will be expelled at 2100.

Comments

Allison Argent | OTA (morning)

[jeprotege]

When she wakes up, Allison is confused. She knows she is supposed to get up, eat a RediMeal, and report to her position as a Weapon Effectiveness Assessor in the Armed Forces. Unless she gets assigned a Troubleshooter mission. Why does today feel different? There's a nagging feeling that she's forgetting something, something important, but she's unable to put a finger on what it is and it's driving her a little crazy.

Maybe she'll feel better after she eats. She heads to the Red Level common area, hoping to find someone who can explain this uneasiness she feels. If the wrong person picks up on her feelings, she could be found guilty of treason. She certainly doesn't want that to happen.

'Focus, Allison,' she tells herself. Get dressed, get food, and go to work. Things will make sense if you follow your routine.

[sanguinescry]

As usual, Lydia gets up in the morning and dresses in the God awful red jumpsuit to start her day. Normally, she'd see if Dick — or now, Matt — wanted to walk with her to the morning briefing, but she's running a little late. She doesn't even really have time to pull her hair up, so she just goes, ponytail holder around her wrist to throw her hair up while she's in the meeting.

Just like she always does, Lydia moves into the common area and scans the crowd in search of Barry and Ray. Easily, they're her best friends here, and without question, they're the two people she trusts the most. Steve and Tony come in a close second, if she has to rank, with Root close behind. Everyone else, really, is kind of superfluous to Lydia so far. She acknowledges that they're there, has spoken to a handful of them, but hasn't made any real connections.

Her eyes catch sight of a familiar face and Lydia stops dead in her tracks, her breath catching, throbbing in her throat.

It's just like Ronan, she tells herself, but even that doesn't really calm her down any. He looks like Jackson, but he isn't. She looks like Allison, but she isn't; she can't be. Shake it off, just go find Ray, you'll be fine.

With that silent pep talk, Lydia runs a hand through her long, red hair and then pinches the bridge of her nose, continuing to scan the crowd for her friends. They'll distract her. If nothing else, Ray's overwhelming and often inexplicable level of general cheerfulness should do the trick. So she keeps walking, past the girl with a strained effort not to look at her more closely — Ronan had a tragic hair accident and some tattoos to differentiate him; maybe she has piercings or a birthmark, or something — and she finally stops a few yards later, turning and looking back toward the door, thinking maybe she's missed them both or maybe Ray and Barry are even later today than she is.

[jeprotege]

Allison senses that someone is staring at her. Is that the source of her uneasiness? Has someone been watching her? Did she do something wrong to be put under surveillance? Her mind races, thinking back over the past few days, unable to think of anything she may have done that would have roused suspicions about her loyalty. She closes her eyes for a moment and takes a deep breath to steady her nerves. Whoever is watching her will soon realize that she's not a threat and she won't be in danger.

A flash of red catches in the corner of her eye makes her frown. Everyone in this room is wearing a red jumpsuit, so she's not sure why her brain registers it as something important. She turns to examine it closer and lets out an involuntary gasp.

Lydia.

There are hundreds of moments flooding her mind, memories of a life that is not in Alpha Complex. Without realizing it, she finds herself walking towards the girl, stopping in front of her and opening and closing her mouth. She has no idea what to say.

[sanguinescry]

At the movement in the corner of her eye, Lydia looks up and it feels a little like her heart stops for a second, her stomach dropping heavily, and her chest tightening. Why do they always come to me first? she finds herself thinking and she takes a shaky breath, looking back up at the taller girl wearing her dead best friend's face.

"What?" she finally asks, frowning, trying to keep her expression from looking too much like she feels slapped in the face.

[jeprotege]

"Lydia?"

The word comes out hesitantly, her voice wavering ever so slightly, as if she's not sure what she's saying is right. Part of her knows, deep down, that there is something wrong. She just isn't sure what it is.

This is crazy. She shakes her head and is ready to apologize for bothering the other young woman. She needs to get to work.

[sanguinescry]

Hearing her own name coming out of the woman's mouth sends shockwaves of pleasant nostalgia and pain; good memories just as well as the bad through Lydia and, for a moment, she just stares back up at her, blinking, with her lips parted in surprise. Everyone knows her face from that stupid video of the Anti-Specials group beating her nearly to death, but most people still don't know her name, because it wasn't said on the video and most of them don't approach her. She keeps to herself and to Ray and Barry mostly, these days. That humiliation has been enough to build a protective shell around her and Lydia isn't the same self-assured, confident woman she was before that attack.

The response comes out watery and cracked, broken from lack of use because the last time she's said Allison's name out loud, she was screaming it when she felt her die. And the last time she heard it out loud was weeks ago, when she'd been talking to Ray, the first time they'd met.

"You know, 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 Allisons but it just seemed to... stick to you."

"Allison...?"

[jeprotege]

She freezes when she hears her name. Maybe she's not crazy. But how does that make sense? The memories she has of Lydia don't reconcile with her training and yet her name on the other girl's lip sounds right in a way that nothing else has.

Fighting an overwhelming urge to hug Lydia, Allison nods slowly. "I am really confused right now," she admits, careful to keep her voice low so that no one will overhear her confession. Questioning anything is a direct line to being accused of treason and getting sent down to infrared level. Or worse.

[sanguinescry]

A sound resembling a dry sob escapes Lydia when the other woman freezes as if trying to figure out why she knows her. Those bastards really managed to reprogram her friend. Lydia fought it until she pretended she wasn't fighting anymore just to get out of the multiple days of orientation, but she never really believed it. She still doesn't. This only confirms her belief.

Lydia gets to her feet and throws her arms around Allison, burying her face against the other girl's shoulder and clinging to her like she's terrified that if she lets go, Allison will be gone all over again. "We can't talk about it here," she whispers urgently in Allison's ear. "On your PDC. We'll talk there. Ray showed me how to encrypt a private message, it's okay, Allison. It's gonna be okay, you're okay," she goes on, not even realizing that she's crying and laughing all at once by the time she finishes saying. She'll send Allison a message on the network, encrypted especially to her and they can talk in more detail.

She pulls back a little bit, just a little bit, so that she can look Allison in the face and her painfully wide smile looks out of place among the tears rolling down her cheeks as she huffs out another sound stuck between a laugh and a sob. "I thought I'd never see you again, oh my God, I missed you so much!"

[jeprotege]

The hug feels even more right than Lydia saying her name and Allison clings back, her mind spinning as she tries to process Lydia's words. Why can't they talk here? What does Lydia want to talk about that could get them in trouble? It doesn't matter. She wants, no needs to talk to Lydia. Just being in her presence gives Allison a sense of peace.

"You don't need to miss me," she says. "I'm here now."

She frowns a bit. There was a time that she wasn't there. Memories of sharp pain and anguished cries come back. Is that a memory of one of her clones dying? That can't be it or else Lydia wouldn't be so emotional at seeing her.

[sanguinescry]

It isn't really until Allison doesn't just hug her back, but clings just like Lydia is that Lydia really feels like it's Allison. She smiles tearfully and nods, though, at Allison's reassurance, placing her hands on her friends shoulders as she pulls back from their hug and running them slowly down her arms, the way she always used to when she was trying to calm Allison down or help her to focus.

"Yeah, yeah...you're here now and that's what matters," Lydia agrees, "you're right."

[jeprotege]

Allison smiles back. It's a reflex, not something she's even conscious of doing, but Lydia has that effect on her, especially when she runs her hands down her arms in a familiar gesture of comfort. There are so many questions she wants to ask, but she instinctively knows that she can't ask them here. That must be what Lydia was referring to when she said that she would send her a message later.

"We're here. Together." They were always stronger together and she has no reason to think that will be any different now.

[sanguinescry]

There's a sort of relief that Lydia can't even begin to understand, never mind explain, that comes with knowing she'll have Allison by her side again. She's grown so much during her friendship with Allison, and in the wake of Allison's death, that she's almost a completely different person. Her priorities are different, she doesn't hide the fact that she's smart, anymore, because she doesn't need to and why all of that came from Allison, she doesn't know, but it did.

Lydia takes Allison's hands in her own and squeezes them. "I love you," she says softly and genuinely but with a firmness that she needs more for herself. She didn't get to say it one last time before Allison died and she thinks, now, maybe she hadn't really said it enough when Allison was alive. Now she's getting a second chance and she wants Allison to know for sure that Lydia sees her as a best friend, sure — the best friend she's ever had and probably ever will have — but also as a sister.

A small smile tugs at the corners of her mouth then and she lets go of Allison's hands and gives her another hug because she can't not when she's finally standing right there in front of her again.

[jeprotege]

The confusion Allison felt earlier is melting away now that she's with Lydia. There are still a lot of things that don't make sense, but somehow, those things don't matter as much right now. She and Lydia have been through a lot together and they will get through this too. There's a resolve in Allison that is familiar and grows stronger at Lydia's words.

"I love you, too," she whispers back, hugging the other girl tight again. They are probably attracting unwanted attention with their emotional display and Allison knows she should pull back and go about her day.

[sanguinescry]

Lydia's loathe to let go a second time, but when it starts to sound like the morning briefing is about to begin, she finally does, but she sits back down and motions for Allison to take the chair next to her. She probably won't be able to see her at lunch, just because Lydia eats her lunch quickly and gets back to work so that she never has to stay after hours to finish, but she'll definitely see her for dinner; she'll make sure she mentions it when she sends Allison a message on the PDC. Lydia makes a mental note to do that as soon as they're let out of the briefing and while Lydia's on her way to the forensics lab to meet Barry and get to work.

One of Lydia's hands moves to take Allison's again and she gives it a squeeze, some part of her just needing to know that Allison's still there.