Daycycle 103 [ August 14 - August 20 ]

[computerized]

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.

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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 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.

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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

[a_man_out_of_time]

There's tension there that wasn't there before the last time he'd seen Tony in the Alpha Complex. If he'd gotten an influx of memories, Steve was willing to bet that Tony had too. But he does his best to push those to the side. He needs to focus on the mission at hand.

"One hundred and three days." To everyone else, when they ask, Steve has always said something like, a couple of months. But not to Tony. He's been counting the days and he doesn't want to keep that kind of guard up here.

"But." It was exactly what they didn't want to talk about. His palms come down on the table in front of him as Steve leans forward. "Three days ago, I woke up with memories that I'd never had before. Memories of Siberia."

[im_ironman]

One hundred and three days. That actually makes Tony stop, because what he had been so sure of - that this somehow couldn't be real, that this was the glitch rather than the memories that were scorched in his mind - seemed questionable now and it takes a moment for him to be able to wrap his head around the whole thing.

Until Steve mentions Siberia, and the tension on Tony's shoulders only seems to double. There's something that flashes through his eyes, a mix of emotions that he can't quite control just yet, but as he clenches his jaw shut for a moment he just tries to keep that at bay.

"...so that's actually a thing, huh?" His tone is quiet, rubbing the back of his neck for a moment almost anxiously. "Apparently I was already here before, even if Siberia literally just happened a few days ago? And you've been here for over a hundred days?"

[a_man_out_of_time]

"Yeah," the word drops, heavy like a sandbag. The silence feels heavy too, as it fills the room.

"You really don't remember then." There isn't any judgment in his voice, just a tiny bit of disappointment. Whatever else happened in their memories, he and Tony had needed each other here. They were on good terms, here.

But he takes a breath and straightens his back, gesturing towards the room, his voice much lighter now: "You built all of this, for us. The Avengers basement, you'd named it." He smiles briefly and shakes his head at the thought.

"It's taken me a long time to sort out what I believe and don't believe, especially after they took you. The best I could come up with is that our bodies are most likely, manufactured somehow." He doesn't want to say clones, because he doesn't quite believe that's what's happening. "I've seen a man blow himself and come back the next day completely unscathed."

A beat.

"But these memories we have. The ones that the Computer calls glitches? I believe they're real." Another beat. "I think they happened sometime before we woke up here — days, weeks, maybe even years in the past. But I believe they happened."

[im_ironman]

The disappointment doesn't go unnoticed, but Tony just bristles past it as he glances away. There's something in his heart that feels as if it twists painfully at what Steve is explaining, about his time here and his theory about the glitches, and Tony just stays silent at first as he tries to absorb it all.

Manufactured bodies. Memories that were real, but Steve - this Steve - hadn't quite lived through it. It was a lot to take in, but Tony tried to keep his tone as clinically analytical as possible. As if somehow that'd make it easier.

"So, what, we're back home and this is just... Like AI versions of ourselves with awful fashion sense, in some weird way?"

[a_man_out_of_time]

"That I don't know. Maybe we aren't back home. Maybe we were kidnapped here and our original bodies are lying in a room somewhere as the Computer is digging through our memories. I mean-"

This isn't his area of expertise, Tony. It's yours. So Steve just straight up asks.

"With all the work I've seen you do with Jarvis ... is this even possible? Extracting people's memories and putting them in a new body?"

[im_ironman]

Well that was a little disconcerting. Tony's eyes trail along the room until they reach the door; not because he wants to leave, necessarily, but his mind is already speeding with theories. Not only that, but there's enough curiosity and temptation in him to make him wonder if he can try to find the answer to this puzzle. Tony loves puzzles, after all.

Maybe, he thinks dryly, that's exactly why his memory got wiped the last time he was here. Maybe it hadn't been just because of what Lydia mentioned. Had he found something he shouldn't have, so his memory was wiped clean all over?

The paranoia theories his mind keeps coming up with almost make him miss what Steve had said, but he blinks over to him when the words click. "Sure, why not? I mean, you get the right resources, and anything is possible. Isn't that why Ultron got pissed at us, because we took 'his body' and used it for something else? Maybe this - whatever this is - figured out a way to do something similar." Ultron hadn't been a person, so maybe it's just a stretch, but considering the circumstances... Well. Why not let his mind make the leap?

"Have you found any leads that can guide us in the right direction?"

[a_man_out_of_time]

It was almost like Steve could see Tony's mind at work. It made things feel a little more normal, at least.

"One." A beat. "No, two, actually." He actually looks surprised that there was two, like he'd just realized it himself.

"First, before you were ... ever here, there was a problem with Alpha Complex's MemoMax facility. It's the word they use I think for memory storage. For a day or so, I had parts of someone else's memories in my head, and someone else had mine. We need to know exactly what MemoMax does, and how it works. How they even got our memories in the first place. I don't believe for a second that they reconstructed our minds from history."

And then of course the second. Steve slips his thumbs into the pockets of his jumpsuit, letting them be a place for him to hook his arms.

"But also. I'm getting close to where they keep our clones." His head shakes a little when he says that word. "This morning I put in a request to the Computer that I be allowed to welcome new Specials when they wake up here. It was granted. Now I have a sanctioned reason to be inside of the Technical Services sector on a regular basis."

It hadn't been why he'd asked to do that job, but realizing now the potential it had — that was something too.

[im_ironman]

Two things. That's definitely something, and the tension that had settled in Tony's shoulders seems to ease away. For now, anyway. Because there are bigger things at play here than any feelings he could have about what happened in Siberia (glitches, memories, whatever they were), and he lets out a quiet hum under his breath as he took in those new pieces of information.

"So you're working with the enemy, trying to find a way in, huh?" Oh the irony isn't lost on him that now it's Steve playing Devil's Advocate here, and there's a hint of wryness in the way that his lips twitch into a small smirk.

"So is that how you got so popular to be part of the whole most eligible bachelor thing?" It's said half teasingly before he sighs under his breath and strolls slightly closer towards Steve. "What can I do? I mean, I know I just got here - or remember getting here - but is there anything I can start doing, from what you've learned so far?"

[a_man_out_of_time]

The irony isn't lost on him either. "Hey now." He laughs once, because Tony being less tense made Steve more at ease. "It's funny how things shake out sometimes. Two months ago, I had no idea I'd be doing ... this."

He's palm is gesturing to the color of his jumpsuit. GREEN. It had all been one promotion after another, for things that Steve would have done anyways and would continue to do. It was unsettling, given that the Computer was crazy.

"I'm sure that I became a most eligible bachelor because I didn't have you as my competition." Steve had on a smirk of his own and a single eyebrow raised.

As for the other question. "The last thing we did together was build this place, so you and I could have a base of operations. Before we talk about what you can do, there's a few other things you should know. First, the Specials here, as we're now called, have set up an entirely separate meeting place that goes unmonitored by the Computer. It was a place setup simultaneously to this one, and most of us know about it. This place, however, I've only shared with one other person — other than you."

He points to what is now a noticeable cot and sleeping area in the corner. "Dick Grayson. He's just a kid, but he's extremely capable. He went off the grid from the Computer over a month ago, and I've showed him this place so he could lay low here."

[im_ironman]

"What, you had no idea you'd be announced as a most eligible bachelor when you're wearing a jumpsuit? Please, I think even back home that would have been a strong possibility. You didn't give the gossip magazines enough time to add you to the mix yet."

It's said as if Steve isn't talking about the jumpsuit, or what he has probably been doing to get promoted to the status he's in now. Even when he mentions tat he only got it because he didn't have him as competition, Tony lets out a scoff under his breath as he playfully rolls his eyes. "Yeah, sure." Considering everything that had happened back home, the teasing feels so normal and familiar, and something that he had felt like he had lost, that it makes his stomach tighten even if he pushes the thought aside.

The jokes were forgotten, though, when Steve explained what was going on. Specials. Meetings. Okay, he thinks, so there's ways to be unmonitored by the computer. That piece of information is good to know, but he tucks that thought aside as well once Steve mentions Dick.

"...alright, good to know. I'll keep that in mind. What about the others, anything I should know? I've met Lydia, and Morgana, but I haven't really...branched out yet, I guess."

[a_man_out_of_time]

The teasing did feel normal — which makes Steve feel relieved and guilty at the same time. Sure, all he wants are for things to go back to normal with Tony and for them to keep going right where they left off, but Steve knows he doesn’t deserve it. Just like how he doesn’t deserve the shield Howard made him.

“There’s a boy here. Barry Allen. He’s got a good heart, and he reminds me of that kid you found in Queens.” Steve wraps his arms around each other. “I think you’d like him.” He pauses a little longer than normal after that and Steve's eyes follow Tony’s. Whatever it is he’s preparing to say next, Cap isn’t comfortable with it.

“Tony, you should know that- however we ended up here, I can feel that my body is different.” It’s part of the reason why he thinks they might actually be clones. “I can’t do everything I used to.”

He knows he’s just given Tony exactly the right opening to interrupt him with a joke about of how old he is, or performance issues, but Steve just pushes forward. 

"But Barry and I might’ve accidentally stumbled onto something the other night. We’d both been assigned as security detail. Guarding people that the Computer refers to as ‘mutants.’"

Once he starts, Steve has no issues telling Tony the rest. The guy Steve was guarding was a man named Xeno Fane, and anything he came into close enough proximity, Steve had felt stronger — just as strong as he remembers feeling in his memories.

[im_ironman]

A part of Tony actually does want for things to go back to normal, he hates that feeling of distrust towards Steve, but...it's there, and he doesn't know how to ignore it. Maybe one day they'll fix it, he isn't sure, but at least right now they have a common problem to deal with. Which would make it hard to...well, avoid Steve completely, so there was that.

He gives a faint nod when Steve mentions Barry, mentally making note of the guy. He was like Peter? Huh. He'd probably like him, he guesses, even if he hadn't really interacted much with the kid after Germany. His thoughts freeze, though, when Steve mentions the fact that he can't do what he used to. Which...

What?

"You think there's a way to get you back to how you were?" That's how serious Tony is taking this; he's not making jokes about it at all. If anything, Tony's brow furrows slightly because shit, that's not good. Again, some bitter side of him reminds him that this isn't his problem, Steve can figure things out on his own, but if they're going to work together to somehow make sense of this damn place then they were going to need Steve back to normal. "It's all the Computer, messing with you?"