Daycycle 101 [ July 31 - August 6 ]

[computerized]

daycycle 101

[July 31 - Aug 6]

Early Morning [0800 - 0900] — All Troubleshooters Report for Duty
Adam Parrish and Matt Murdock, have been selected for today’s mission. Details are below:

"We’ve repainted this antique autocar for its VIOLET owner, and we need someone to drive it back to its owner’s compound. Take one of these single-use brevet badges to demonstrate you’re authorized to use such high-clearance equipment. Whatever you do, don’t lose your badge! And whatever happens, don’t get into an accident! If you so much as scratch the paint job....

Maybe don't let the blind guy drive."

Please debrief the computer on the status of your mission by the end of the Daycycle here.

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

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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 1800 in Field A, Armed Forces Sector and will be hosted by the Extra Calisthenics Volunteer Group. Join ECV for a four hour boot camp designed to get you in peak physical shape or kill you trying!

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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

[runsonwater]

The honesty of her answer surprises him and he gives her a mirthless smile. He swallows it back and focuses in on her words. As much as he thinks it does matter quite a bit, she's also not wrong.

"I know." He hesitates before going further. He thinks it's his mounting frustration and anger that's telling him he doesn't owe her an answer at all, but he pushes on anyway. "I don't have a choice. I have to."

"I'll be fine." On the outside, at least. He might be a lousy liar, but this isn't just about him. This is about all of them. "Will you be?" He pauses. He doesn't doubt Root is able to pretend. "I mean, do you need to talk?"

[avemachina]

"I've survived worse." The words come out tinny to Root's ears, like her own voice is betraying her. Like if she says the rest of what she wants to say, she might actually break down. Even worse, something in her wants her to believe that it would be OK to do so. That moving on would be good for her.

Root clears her throat, smooths her features into the Root she shows all the Specials. Part of her hopes Barry thinks that letting him see it is part of the act. That the truth is a lie.

"I'll feel better when I figure out how to flip someone down in MemoMax or Cloning Services..." When she actually accomplishes some goal to the end of figuring out how the hell they all got here in the first place.

[runsonwater]

The answer isn't exactly convincing and Barry watches her for a moment before she clears her throat and seems to pull herself together. His gut is telling him he should take the subject change and run with it, but this is a side of Root he hasn't seen before.

"Is that why you're so good at pretending?" He's bowling over barriers he probably shouldn't, but she'd been honest with him for a second. He can't help but push for a little more.

[avemachina]

Barry's courage is something that so far Root has judged more foolish than anything. But now, she sees a sliver of tenacity that drops a mark into the Respect column of her mental Barry file. Even as she's attempting to rebuild her walls, he's peeking over them-- and Root slows the pace at which she's putting bricks up.

"Yes." There's a menagerie of people inside of Root, ready to float to the surface at a moment's need. She'd like to say that necessity drives her abilities, but Root knows that's not true. She's just good at it.

"I think everyone pretends, but some of us are just more aware of what we're doing." Root's eyes linger on Barry's face while she speaks, and he's surprising her again. She doesn't usually speak like this, with so little sarcasm and judgment.

[runsonwater]

He nods, understanding this more than he'd like. He's had to do his fair share of pretending, to his father, to Iris, to Linda, to Patty. He's done his fair share of lying to others and to himself when he needed to.

More than that, he's known his fair share of pretenders. People he had trusted when he shouldn't have. People who had caused him and those he cared about pain. Maybe, when he thinks about it, that's why he's so hesitant to fully trust Root.

But in this moment, he understands why some things might need to be hidden. Why some secrets were too big to tell everyone. "That can't be easy."

[avemachina]

"Don't pity me."

Root's voice wavers enough that if Barry's paying particular attention, flashes bright red as something not as light and humorous but dark and warning. The tone of the conversation had gotten too easy and light despite the content. Regarding trust, too, they're on the same page.

In response, she moves her attention back to Gucci, where she can realign via the routine of wires and switches. Where her hands are always steady and her thoughts can be binary. Here in the digital things are black and white. True or false. Boolean and absolute. Or that's what the old Root would've said.

"And you shouldn't trust me, either. Not ever."

[runsonwater]

Her response catches him by surprise and his eyes narrow slightly as he watches her go back to work. He wasn't pitying her, but trying to get to know her a little better. Something tells him saying so out loud won't sound very different to her.

He sits up, leaning forward. His voice is still conversational, but like Root, the lightness is gone. There's a point behind this, one that is obvious, but bears saying out loud. "We all have to trust each other a little here."

[avemachina]

"No. We have to trust each other's behavior. This isn't wherever you come from, Barry. Trust has no place in the world of this Computer." This one, she specifies. This Computer, that is a twisted shadow of even the more malicious of the two artificial superintelligences she'd lived under for a time.

Root keeps working as she talks, and now her tone has shifted from skeptical to disappointed. If she could find even a fragment of code from the Machine, maybe she could hope again. Maybe she could trust. God, she might even take Samaritan over Friend Computer...

[runsonwater]

"Our pretend behavior?" Trust wasn't exactly something that had a big place in the world he was from either. Or maybe it was more that he had misplaced his trust in the wrong people not once, but twice.

That mistake had lead to the deaths of people he cared about. People he'd loved. He wasn't going to make the same mistake here. Root had proven herself aligned with the others so far, but her warning wasn't entirely lost on him.

He pushes himself to his feet. "You can trust us, Root. You don't have to pretend all the time."

[avemachina]

Her eyebrows quirk in place of her fully rolling her eyes at his first comment. His movement does finally draw her gaze again, silent and curious. She likes Barry in his white knight predictability -- she just also thinks it's entirely foolish.

And maybe that's why she envies him a little.

"I'll keep it in mind."