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Daycycle 103 [ August 14 - August 20 ]

daycycle 103

[Aug 14 - Aug 20]

Early Morning [0800 - 0900] — All Troubleshooters Report for Duty
Samantha "Root" Groves and Cisco Ramon, have been selected for today’s mission. Details are below:

"Confirm circuit breakers are functioning properly by creating short circuits to test them."

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

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.

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 hosted by the Amateaur Dramatics Group. You're invited to come see the one woman show that Mind Control called too "boring" to put on early morning television.

Specials Event - All Specials with knowledge of Specials HQ have been invited to a surprise party to celebrate wanted fugitive, Dick Grayson's, seventeenth birthday.

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Babysitting?" The large cover pops open with some effort on her part, and clangs against the wall on its hinges. Root's fingers run lightly across the mass of switches and haphazard wires along each module before she starts flipping the switches in the OFF position to the ON position with a huff.

"Here, hold this." She pulls the homemade multimeter from her pocket as if it's contraband, and shoves it into Cisco's chest.

Lifting both hands to scrub his face as if the friction against his skin might wake him up a little bit, Cisco nods. "Something like that, yeah," he agrees. He supposes the bodyguard mission with Stiles counts as babysitting. There's little else to call it, really, so she's hit it pretty well on the nose. "Are there always back to back missions like this or am I just really lucky?" he asks.

Cisco takes the multimeter from her and blinks a little. The hell...? Who carries those? "How many of these things are there? Would it be faster if we just split up or...is that also treason? Since, you know, everything else appears to be."

"It's called a multimeter." Not only has Cisco managed to not do anything so far, Root is more than happy to jump to the conclusion that his confusion is similar to Morgana's. So, while her voice doesn't come out entirely insulting, it's short and to the point.

"And I wouldn't recommend splitting up around here. Pretty much every mission I'm assigned to results in the near-death of either me or my partner. I'm pretty sure someone's trying to kill us." Conversational again, Root's attention is still mostly on the series of breakers inside the larger unit. She starts to flip them all to ON-- a tedious process given there are just so damn many of them. Also it's kinda weird so many have already been tripped...

"I know what it is," he replies flatly, a long suffering look on his face that almost definitely wouldn't be there if he'd had more than twenty minutes of sleep under his belt. "Why the hell do you just carry one around, though? That's so random..."

He looks back at her with a frown when she points out that she thinks someone is trying to kill them, giving a little nod. "So basically same shit, different day. Awesome," he says and it's a little lighter and more amused than tired. Back home, it's usually pretty much the same spiel.

"Uh, time out," Cisco interrupts her, touching her arm to get her attention. "Not for nothing, but...it doesn't seem weird to you to see that many breakers tripped...? Because that seems weird to me." It's something he'd leave alone except that she's zipping through the job and he wonders if she just hasn't noticed. It at least merits mentioning...doesn't it?

Root's about to cut Cisco off because why so many questions all the time don't you ever breathe but she can appreciate a sharp eye. She hums, pausing to step back and look it over.

"Looks like a ... power surge?" Her hand extends again, tracing the erratic path of tripped switches. Her voice turns suspicious, low with doubt: "Could be why we're testing everything."

She motions to the multimeter even as she grabs at the grounding wire to clip it to the metal of the case.

"Huh..." he says thoughtfully, handing get the multimeter and moving up to get a better look at the box. He's trying to read labels to see if there's any rhyme or reason to the flipped breakers. It could be a power surge, but even then, there should be some sort of pattern to suggest where it originated, maybe, based on the tripped breakers.

"You know where any of these things are? Like...I don't really know this place very well or its layout yet. I've been here three days including today and the second day was completely shot because I was in BLUE all day playing bodyguard. But if we can figure a pattern, then we can find the source of the surge," he says.

Then, Cisco steps back to give her some space when she starts preparing to clip wires. "We find the source, we finish this mission early because then we can isolate the problem and solve it instead of dicking around in all the breakers. Just saying."

That gets a low but excited chuckle (chuckle! not a giggle, swear!) out of Root as she starts inserting the other pin from the multimeter.

"Sorry. It's just that I love how newbies always expect everything to be rational and easy around here. Trusting those labels is probably not a great idea." She really doesn't mean to shoot all of Cisco's ideas down. It's just ... well, fun.

"Got any other genius ideas in that zombie brain, newbie?"

Cisco's eyebrows raise in spite of the crease between them at her response and his voice is low and flat. "...for real?" She's going to make this mission a pain in the ass, isn't she? He gets a vibe — not Vibe — off of her that screams troll and he takes a deep breath, sighing it out in a huff.

"No. No I don't. Not if everything is terrible and nothing makes sense, Samantha, no. You're the ORANGE, so why don't you tell me? What would make this mission successful and more time efficient?"

There's no jewel in her belly but Cisco might just be onto something, here.

Root's voice stays light, amused: "Not asking the wrong question, first of all. Because I'm in it to survive and not give the Computer more reasons to watch us more closely."

She stands back, holding the multimeter for Cisco to see the blinking tilde.

"Thirdly? There's no power going to this one at all."

"What does the Computer have against time efficiency, exactly...?" Cisco can't help himself from asking, because honestly, all he wants is to crank out this mission and see if he can't steal another half an hour of sleep before going to his troubleshooting station. Maybe if they finish early enough, he can tack on a little more, and then no one will ask questions; they'll assume his mission just ran a little longer. Not to mention, well. He's damn near dead tired. It's been a long time since he's stayed up for this many consecutive hours and he's decided it was way cooler when he was in high school. This is ass.

But then she's showing him the multimeter and Cisco's eyes narrow in thought. Normally, he knows what that would mean, but...she's the one that pointed out that rationality and logic apparently have no place here.

"...okay, so...since everything is terrible and nothing makes sense, what does that mean in Alpha Complex? Or is this an exception to the nothing makes sense rule?"

Let's take some pity on poor Cisco-- Root does at least have the decency to look ... well, minimally chastened. Possibly pitious, even. Her mouth quirks to the side in a commiserating half-smile as she reaches forward and pats his shoulder. All of the sympathy, bud.

"...Technically our directive said nothing about fixing anything. I say we just mark this one as defective and move on."

Cisco's eyebrows lift a little with interest at that. That's...actually a really good point. Now that he thinks about it, the directive didn't specify that they needed to fix anything, just that they need to test and confirm. He's just pre-programmed to fix things when they're broken; that's on him. Okay. He likes her a little more.

A sly grin slides over his lips and he nods. "I am so down with that plan, now you're speaking my language."

Now they're cooking with gas!

The thing is, there are still an ungodly amount of breakers to go through. Cisco's suggestion of splitting up wasn't one Root felt entirely comfortable with given the troll nature of the Complex, but it's not long before she finally acquiesces. He gets a map transferred to his device to follow, and Root continues working on her own. It's after the fifth fully non-functioning breaker that she rings him up, concern lacing her voice.

"Have you found any functioning ones yet?" Please say yes. Please don't let this whole mission be some kind of ridiculous set up. Root cannot imagine the Computer won't shoot the messenger for reporting zero working breakers...

Even though she'd been opposed to splitting up when they first started the mission, Cisco's kind of relieved that she's willing to do so a short while later. The sooner that they can get through these damn things, the better. He's exhausted and has been ready for bed for like twelve hours, now.

When her voice comes over the radio, the question makes Cisco frown, because he's give in and... "Not a single damn one...I'm guessing you either?" he asks, brow creasing as he runs a hand though his hair. This is such a waste of time and on top of it, why does he feel like this is going to end up reflecting really terribly on them even though it isn't their fault?

"Zero for twelve." She sighs to fill the space to think about this. Either it's yet another inconsistency in a backwards system or it's a purposeful event. It it's the former, they could lie and no one would think to look twice. If it's the latter and they lie and they're checked they get found out as traitors. If they don't lie they're traitors.

Then there's the question of whether it was just a particularly unlucky day or if they're being targeted. If Root is being targeted -- paired up with a sleep-deprived Red Special and given an impossible task.

Root blows out a breath. "We can't report that none are working."

Cisco considers her response for a moment. He's new here, so he isn't really sure how all of this treason nonsense works or just how deeply it runs. Knowing the rules, after all, is treason and maybe he's been too busy to really think through the potential impact of following that rule for the moment.

"I'm almost afraid to ask this," he prefaces with a tired sigh as he scrubs his face with both hands before dropping them to his sides again as he moves on in search of the next breaker to check. There aren't a whole lot more left on his half of the mission. Two, maybe three. It isn't looking good. "But...why can't we report that none are working if none are working...?"

"Whether they're legitimately down or we've been set up, they're going to treat it like it's our fault." She says it without trying to mince words, or dance around the truth. Cisco won't benefit from it, and the situation they're in is dire in Root's opinion.

Her voice stays neutral as she makes her suggestion:

"We've got two options. Either I turn you in for tampering with the breakers or we both get turned in and I potentially get demoted. Which helps neither of us, or any of the other Specials."

His eyes narrow as he listens to her voice over the radio and he's waiting, just waiting for the other shoe to drop, because he's ninety nine percent certain it's about to.

And then it does. In spite of himself, Cisco huffs a laugh. "Are you fucking kidding me?" he asks. Another huff. "You want to turn me in for something I didn't do to save yourself from a demotion? Are you high?!" he balks back over the radio.

Well hey there he is, beneath all the exhaustion and confusion. A real boy with real opinions and a pretty hefty backbone. Nice.

"I'm not kidding, no. But since you're having such a visceral reaction..." She had been hoping for a dumb willing patsy. Someone more self sacrificing-- maybe a Barry Allen? Stuffed and cuddly Beary Allen.

"So we lie, then. Report 60% functionality and hope we're not being set up. Or fix as many as we can before we're due back."

Cisco looks incredulously at the breaker he's fiddling with in an attempt to repair, because screw that suggestion. "What kind of idiots are you used to working with who wouldn't have a visceral reaction to that? I'm tired, Samantha, but I'm not stupid." Seriously, what the hell?!

"Already a step ahead of you, Judas. I'm working on this breaker right now," he replies. "It looks like this one actually might've been tampered with, but not by somebody who knows what they're doing. If I was going to sabotage a circuit breaker, I'd make it impossible to fix. A few wires cut, some water damage...this just looks like someone opened it up and disconnected wires. ...like we're being tested, not set up to fail, necessarily. Open up your box, I bet you'll find the same thing. Like somebody's asking are we really doing our mission as loyal citizens or are we just checking the box and moving along, so to speak...you know what I mean?"

"I hate buzzkills. But at least you're a buzzkill with a plan, Cisco." While Root's taunting doesn't totally negate the fact that she probably-totally-definitely-maybe-very-likely would've tossed Cisco to the wolves, she sounds ... impressed.

"And call me Root." She starts to dig into her own unit, pulling out and separating wires into groups for re-connection.

"Sorry I'm not sorry," Cisco says grumpily back as he's reconnecting wires. He doesn't miss the tone in her voice and he figures that means she appreciates that he's got balls instead of rolling over and letting her win, so he's going to roll with that.

He nods a little at the name and briefly considers continuing to call her variations of Samantha just to annoy her but he's too tired to be a troll. "Root then. Was I right about the box?"

"Looks like someone yanked everything in one fell swoop." She's still not 100% convinced that fixing it and reporting functionality won't still land marks against them, but maybe she can check cameras and PDC logs later to find out who did said tampering.

"You do a lot of work like this? I mean, there are Specials who have never seen a keyboard before waking up here."

"Super," he groans. This is some serious dookie, if you ask him. First, they put him on a mission two days in a row when the first mission was nineteen hours long and made it physically impossible for him to get more than half an hour of sleep — he hasn't even gotten that much — but then on top of it, it's a set up? Talk about some hot garbage.

He seems a little surprised at the fact that there are people who wouldn't even be at least a little familiar with general technology this day in age, even if it's just in passing, but then he considers the fact that there's time travel potentially involved here and shakes off the thought. It makes sense if those people came from times where tech was less prominent or wholly non-existent. "I'm a mechanical engineer. I used to build specialized weapons for a living, so yeah. You could say that, I guess." He pauses as he finishes rewiring the box, tests it, and finds it to be in perfect working order. "Yahtzee. This one's good to go."

Cisco moves on to get to his next box to repeat the process, because he's about ninety-nine percent sure, he's going to have to. "What about you? What'd you do before here?"

Nobody asks Root questions like that.

She's usually better about not initiating small talk-- and she'd assumed that Cisco's ire with her might keep him from engaging in anything beyond superficial conversation. Now, she thinks of her glitches: of her team, and of her Machine. Lost to her-- no, the Machine wasn't the one who left her behind. She'd made herself a pawn, sacrificed in not a Queen's Gambit but in...

Well, chess was always Harry's game.

"Package delivery." She starts, and then supplies another in a light voice. "Nanny. Colonial reenacter. Spent a little time as an entertainer for children's parties, too."

Daycycle 103 [ August 14 - August 20 ]

daycycle 103

[Aug 14 - Aug 20]

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this timeskip OK? i figure we should push to complete but holler if you wanna rewind anything! <3

Works for me!

\o/

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<3 wrap soon???

One more from you should do it! :D

o7 <333 you're too good to me