Entry tags:

Daycycle 104 [ August 21-27 ]

daycycle 104

[Aug 21 - Aug 27]

Early Morning [0800 - 0900] — All Troubleshooters Report for Duty
There is no Mission assigned to any Specials today.

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.

At approximately 1400 today all power within the Wagon Wheel will shut down as part of a Nameless Secret Society Demonstration. The backup generators will be disabled. All citizens within the Wagon Wheel at that time will be stuck. Locked doors will remain locked. Elevators will stop. Lights will go out. Many opportunists will use this to create pure chaos. This demonstration will go on for the next five hours.

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 2000 in Meeting Room B, Wagon Wheel Floor 25 and will be hosted by the Spontaneous Loyaly Demonstration Organizers. Learn how to put on a spontaneous demonstration in order to show your loyalty to the computer and Alpha Complex in an effective and memorable way.

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

Buffy reports to her troubleshooting duty and carries on about her day in a pretty much normal manner. She really hasn't gotten the lay of this place yet, but she's starting to. When the power goes out, she takes advantage of the chaos to do some extra exploring. She won't hurt anyone though and she'll break up any fighting she sees in progress. It's a lot more difficult these days without her strength, but she's learned throughout her time as the slayer to be her own weapon and even without her strength, reflexes and healing, she's still got her training, her knowledge and her experience.

After the lights come back on, Buffy actually does head to the citizen improvement. She wants to know what the computer considers a spontaneous demonstration. She's not a front row kind of girl though so she'll hover around the back, listening and giving the attendees as much attention as the program.

Once that's over, she makes her way back to her room, unaware that she's got a new room mate. She's met Holtz before, but they haven't really had a chance to talk. She doesn't know that Derek is staying there at all.

Derek admittedly spends most of the day in a haze. It doesn't help that he feels like he should be able to see just fine in the dark when the power goes out, but he can't and he can't figure out why it feels so wrong. Why everything feels wrong. He stays behind at his troubleshooting station for a long while after the shift is over before going to get something to eat and finally decides to make it up to his room.

The whole way, he's half there and half not; lost in his own head trying to decipher where the glitches would've come from and why the hell he was a monster in them. It doesn't make sense to have such specific memories, he thinks, but he tries not to question it for now. It's something to think about later. When he's alone. Which, he assumes he will be, at least for a little bit, when he gets to his room. 1104.

Derek passes several rooms numbered in ascending order before he reaches his and with a heavy sigh, pushes the door open and steps inside, grateful to be able to lay down and sort through his head to figure out what's real and what isn't and why his whole...being feels...well. Weak.

He stops short, blinking, when he sees the woman already in there and he turns his head to look at the door he's just opened as if to make sure he's got the right room. "Uh..."

Derek knows he'll have roommates, but he assumes they'll be, you know, other men.

This place, it'll do that to you: the hazy thing and while Buffy may not have night vision, she understands should be able to do something versus can in this place. She's spent the last couple of days trying not to quietly freak out about the fact that she doesn't have her strength, her speed, her reflexes, her agility or, she presumes, her accelerated healing. She still feels wrong and she's had a couple of days to get used to it so she doesn't fault Derek for having a hard time.

She'd made that same faulty assumption. Sorry? After everything that had happened that day, Buffy needed the rest. She's bruised and scraped over what feels like every single inch of her body. She's got a black eye, bruised knuckles and she's trying to remember if this is what a broken rib feels like or if she's just human.

For her part, Buffy is convinced the glitches are real. This place...for all she knows it's the work of a demon. Yes, she's been here a couple of days, but she hasn't ruled that out.

She pushes herself up from a prone position on the bed, wincing as she does. She has loads of newfound respect for Xander, Giles and their fighting abilities. "Hey," she greets him. "I'm guessing you're a new room mate? I'm Buffy and I'd get up, but I think I've been hit by a train."

It's when the woman starts to sit up, Derek notices the state she's in and his eyebrows lift. "What the hell happened to you?" he asks, surprised. It occurs to him that she's asked him a question and introduced herself and that he should respond to that, but his focus is on the black eye and the way she's wincing. She must've gotten caught up in whatever chaos had been unfolding this afternoon. He'd stayed out of it.

"...yeah, I guess so," he answers her question belatedly. "I'm Derek. Don't get up, it's fine. Are you okay…?"

Darkness filling his veins, pain flooding in with it. Derek moves into the room and sinks onto another bed, shaking his head and pushing the glitch away. He would think about it when he was alone, he reminded himself.

"So, you weren't buying the part about the train?" She's joking. Really, though she's accustomed to coming up with (very bad) lies when she is injured, which isn't often. "Riot. I'm part of the special forces. I don't usually look like this." After a fight, she means, but again there's that whole no powers thing that she really doesn't like.

She waves in response to his introduction, taking his advice and not getting up. She gets comfortable on the bed, though this time she's at least sitting up. "Yeah, I'm fine. I've been to medical and everything." She really hasn't, but it's easier to say she has. Really, she's fine.

Buffy tilts her head a little at Derek. "How are you doing? It's been a crazy day and I know first days make it even crazier."

With a cluck of his tongue, Derek shakes his head. "Not so much, no, sorry," he replies. Although, he figures that was probably rhetorical, anyway. Something about the way she tacks on that she doesn't usually look like this makes Derek think of his glitches. Having a metal pipe shoved all the way through his torso and not actually dying comes to mind and he shakes his head a little to push away the thought. His glitches are graphic and specific and if they're not real then he doesn't want them. ...hell, if they are real memories, he doesn't want them...

"Does it hurt?" he asks and that sounds so stupid out loud once he says it, but in the back of his mind he's thinking about the glitch where he's sapping pain — near-death, really — out of his baby sister and it's reflexive. The words come out before he can stop them and he rolls his eyes at himself. "Of course it hurts. Never mind, sorry. Long day, yeah, let's blame it on that," he sighs, reaching up to scrub his face with both hands before letting them drop to his sides again.

First day on top of a riot. It doesn't get much better than that, does it? "I feel like someone put my brain in a blender, I don't even know what the hell is going on in there, anymore," he admits to answer her question even though, again, it was probably mostly rhetorical.

She shrugs a little at that. It was mostly rhetorical. HIs glitches aren't that much different in essence than hers are. They both used to be more, stronger, faster. Hers aren't graphic though and she wants them. She's convinced they're real memories. She wants to be the person she is in those memories, those glitches.

"So much," she responds. "I don't know how people do this all the time." She remembers when Giles had drugged her, when she'd punched someone and how it had hurt so much she thought she'd broken her arm. She hadn't, of course, she'd just been unaccustomed to human pain. She smiles a little at his 'never mind'. "Long day for $400, Alex," she murmurs, amusement in her voice.

They really brought out the big guns for his first day. Maybe he should be flattered? "it gets better. I mean...I've only been here a few days, but I think I've gotten past the brain in a blender stage. I've graduated to brain in a salad spinner? Maybe."

He smiles a little, although it's a tired one, when she murmurs her little joke. The fact that he understands the reference is confusing, because he's pretty sure that they don't have Jeopardy here. His brow creases a little and the smile fades with it at the thought. "At least with a salad spinner, it'd just be shaking off excess and it wouldn't all be a mush," he mutters, frowning.

Derek turns on his side and looks back at her. "I feel like...wrong. And I got that joke, just now, but that's not a thing here. It's little shit like that. Little things I feel and I remember that don't...mesh. Does that feeling ever go away? Because I gotta tell you, I could really do without it."

He's testing the waters here without divulging details because, at best, she'll probably think he's crazy and, at worst, she'll turn him in for treason and he'll have to watch that stupid orientation over and over all over again. He'd really, really like to avoid that.

Yeah. She'd had a little confusion about that as well. She thought it was a point in the favor of not glitches. "See, it's progress, though I think your brain would be a little scattered if you put it in the Salad Spinner. Pretty accurate petafore if you ask me." She means analogy and is going for metaphor which obviously comes out petafore.

She gives him a sympathetic look. She tucks her arm under her head. "Yeah. They keep telling us that they're glitches but..." she shakes her head. "I remember things that can't be glitches. They're too...real." She sighs a little. "I think it just gets less confusing." She presses her lips together a moment. "I'm guessing they gave the the suck expansion in the glitch program?"

His eyebrows lift a little at the word petafore because he's pretty sure the word she wants is actually metaphor, but he's kind of too exhausted and spent from a long day to be bothered correcting her. He knows what she means. That's good enough.

Though, when she says she doesn't buy the "glitches" thing, that's when Buffy's got Derek's full and undivided attention. He shifts a little, his body language clearly showing that he's interested in what she's saying, because he is.

"Yeah, but the stuff in mine was like...not possible," he says awkwardly. "I mean, I...I don't know. Mutant stuff. But yeah, I get that, that they felt real. Mine did, too. And weirdly specific," he replies.

At least he understands her. That's important. Besides, it's best to just go with it. He'll learn.

His interest doesn't go unnoticed. It's a good thing too because it's not really something she should say without knowing for sure whether someone is anti-computer or not.

She tilts her head to one side. "Not possible how? Be specific." Her voice is demanding, at attention and intense. "Trust me. You are not going to freak me out. In my glitches, I slay vampires and they turn to dust when I stake them. Sometimes, I kiss them too."

Buffy's confession hits Derek a little closer to home than he expects it to and he tries not to let it show on his face. It smacks so much of Kate Argent that Derek stiffens a little, taking in a sharp breath through his nostrils that he attempts to cover with a sniff before reaching a hand up to scratch at his stubble.

She believes her glitches to be memories...and she's a hunter in the glitches. Derek hesitates. Flashes of the glitches form in his mind: being chained to a wall and electrocuted before Kate's taunting him, licking his stomach when he can't stop her, just to get a rise out of him. Being shot with a wolfsbane bullet and nearly dying. Coming home from school with his older sister only to find their home surrounded by firetrucks that got there a little too late. The funerals they skipped out on holding because they were too scared to stay in California.

"I'm faster; stronger," he says. He's being specific while also being intentionally vague. "I have better senses. I heal; someone shoved a metal pipe through my back and out my stomach and I didn't die. I bled for a long time even after she took it out...but I didn't die." Like hell he's telling a hunter that he's a werewolf. Not here, not ever again. Even if she is cute. That lesson was learned the hard way.

Edited 2016-09-02 22:41 (UTC)

There's a big difference between Kate and Buffy. Buffy doesn't kill those that aren't doing any harm. Hell, sometimes she doesn't kill those that do harm, not if she thinks there's a chance for redemption. However, Derek can't possibly know this given what they've said to each other and Buffy doesn't know that she needs to make any distinction.

A slayer. She'd insist there's a difference. Riley and Sam are hunters. She's got a bigger responsibility all around. Not that she's belittling what Riley and Sam do. They're amazing and they don't have to do what they do. That makes them amazing. Buffy, in so many ways, never had a choice.

She listens intently as he describes his glitches to her, describes the person that he is in them. Her brow furrows a little. "Okay, don't freak out on me, but are you drinking blood in any of the glitches? I'm not going to go all terminator on you. Swear. My last two boyfriends have been vampires."

Yup. This is what you get when you're vague.

Derek's reaction to her question is visceral. His expression scrunches with disgust and he shakes his head. "No," he spits out like it's a dirty word that tastes awful on his tongue. Drinking blood? That's disgusting and no, he isn't a vampire; the idea is so unsettling and repulsive to him that he can't help the grimace on his face.

After a moment, his expression softens into something more drawn again. "No. No drinking blood, I'm not a vampire."

Kate's last boyfriend had been a werewolf, Derek thinks, and she trapped his whole family in their home and set it on fire. Years later, she would regress his age so that he would trust her enough to let her into his family vault. In the in between times, she hunted him and even captured and tortured him once before Scott had found him.

Clearly, Buffy's confession that her last two boyfriends were vampires isn't comforting at all for Derek in his current position, vampire or not.

Okay, so definitely not a vampire, at least not unless he's got some serious self-loathing going on.

"Okay. We'll rule that out. You're definitely something though." She shrugs a little and half smiles at him. "Maybe you're just really lucky." It could happen.

Well, she'd been going for comfort but had struck out. Hopefully, they'll find some sort of footing and make friends eventually. After all, they are stuck sharing a room.

"I can try to answer questions about this place if you want since I seem to be striking out on the whole glitches thing."

Yeah, he thinks, I'm something, all right... He still isn't going to tell Buffy that, though. So instead, Derek shrugs. "Maybe," he replies. "Or maybe they really are glitches and I did die, I just don't remember it because I respawned with a new clone body." Which, as much as he hates to admit it, is also entirely a possibility in that scenario.

Derek shakes his head and lays back down again. "It's not your fault. What do you know about this place? I mean, beyond the...orientation. I have that pretty much memorized," he says with a frown, staring up at the underside of the bunk bed above his.

"And besides the fact that the food can barely be called that, because I learned that lesson the hard way this afternoon." By having to choke down SoylentRED in the absence of anything at all visibly recognizable. So disgusting.

Buffy seems to consider that a moment. It's not something she's completely ruled out. She constantly doubts herself and her 'glitches'. However, she's convinced that some things she remembers are far too real to be anything but memories. "Maybe," she finally says, obviously not convinced.

"Not a lot," she answers honestly. "I've only been here a few days, but I know Alphas and Specials are at civil war. We're specials. I know that everything is all Benedict Arnold and the coffee is awful."

She grins a little at that. "Yeah, that's kind of symbolic for the whole place." Disgusting and absence of anything visibly recognizable.

(no subject)

duelo - 2016-09-09 02:46 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

whattingawhat - 2016-09-10 02:31 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

duelo - 2016-09-10 21:24 (UTC) - Expand

When the Armed Services sector receives word that the Wagon Wheel has lost power, the Crowd Control and Threat Assessor's units are immediately deployed. They operate as the front lines in situations like this.

The Very Special Forces however, were not called upon until intel came down that something illegal might be happening on the 17th Floor. Internal Security. Steve was the first lieutenant to request to lead the mission and his request was immediately granted.

Lydia, Barry and Felicity worked on that floor and he'd already seen two of them reaching out on the network. There was no time to waste.

He'd selected ten Troubleshooters of RED and ORANGE rank to join him in this mission, one of whom was Buffy, and they geared up: shields, flashlights, bullet-proof vests, night-vision goggles, the whole nine yards. Two members of the team were specifically tasked with guarding two portable generators and their light towers. Once their mission was over, he had no intentions of leaving the citizens there in the dark.

He's also specifically picked Buffy to come along. She was assigned to this unit, so Steve knows she handle herself, but given the power outage, he'd really rather not risk it.

"Let's roll out." Armed Services was northwest of the Wagon Wheel. Time to make their way over.

Buffy really has no idea what very special forces do. She can make several guesses, but since she's seen no evidence of vampires, demons or other monsters, she's wrong about most of those guesses. When the wagon wheel lost power, Buffy had gone out into the complex to check on people, to find out what's going on and maybe to find out something she didn't know before.

However, when Steve calls her back, she goes without any idea of what to expect. It turns out not all of this stuff is foreign. Buffy turns all the equipment over, giving it a confused look. "Are you sure this isn't The Initiative?" she asks at one point as she plays with the night vision goggles. "Do these make me look fat?" Yeah, she's got the goggles on and is looking at Steve. Honestly, she really does know her stuff, though he probably doesn't believe it right now.

She slides the vest over her head, gets it tangled up in her hair (velcro plus long hair=head-cro....or something like that). "Seriously," she says from the depths of the vest, "I usually just wear a cute top and heels to fight evil."

She also chimes 'rolling' in response to 'let's roll out'.

The series of comments he hears from Buffy keeps raising his amateur flag. He doesn't answer her first two questions — partially because he's putting on his own gear, partially because he needs to monitor everyone on the team, and partially because he has no idea what the Initiative is and he's convinced the body image question was rhetorical.

Who asks that kind of question in the middle of a mission?

But she's complying, even if she has her own commentary along the way. That means something, but Steve also means to keep an extra lookout for her while they're out.

Between Armed Services and the Wagon Wheel are a few subsectors, but because of how frequently Armed Forces are deployed, a few streets are kept mostly empty just so the soldiers can move out quickly. It doesn't take them long before they're right outside the Wagon Wheel.

Steve motions for the two Troubleshooters with generators to stay near the back before ordering two more to go check the doors. Buffy, you're staying right here, next to him as they wait to see if the doors are blocked.

And unfortunately, she's not likely to impress Steve much until she gets her powers back. Sure, she's still got all the knowledge and experience and that helps. That insures that she can actually kick some ass, but it's not impressive, or maybe that's just her pining for her powers.

Gallows humor! It's a coping mechanism, Steve! She's relieving stress and providing comic relief!

Welcome to Giles' world. She always has her own commentary for just about everything. So sorry, Steve. That won't get any better no matter what. When Buffy stops commenting the world is in danger of ending. Literally.

"Assure them you're bringing a casserole or a pie! Everyone likes pie," she comments as the two troubleshooters move forward to check the doors. She's also going to give her nails a look while the door guys are doing their duty. She frowns at her hands. "Couldn't they have woken me up with a manicure?" That's more to herself than anything.

It’s almost funny how not funny Steve finds her comments. How did this woman even get assigned to Very Special Forces? Is she telling them to offer pie? Did she just check her … nails?

It was a good thing they all had night-vision goggles on, otherwise the half-astonished half-angry glare he was giving her might hurt someone.

The doors open without any resistance however, and the rest of the team heads in immediately afterwards.

“17th floor,” he says. “Stairs.”

Now let’s see what Buffy can do.

Someone misunderstood the meaning of Very Special? Yes, she's telling them to offer pie, you know, to get someone to open the door. It's a sound idea! Maybe and she's not doing anything except waiting, why shouldn't she check her nails?

That glare would probably make her wince. She doesn't know Steve well enough to be pleased with herself the way she would if he were Giles.

Once the door opens, Buffy hops to attention and heads up the stairs. She's got a billy club in one hand, her gun still on her hip (she can't even express how much she didn't want to take the gun).

The first person falls to a well aimed billy club at the back of the head. Buffy actually yells out 'Sorry!' when the person falls (she still doesn't like this hurting humans thing despite the fact that she's very human right now). After that, things get a little more hairy. The first time Buffy gets hit, she goes to the ground, her face feeling like it's exploding and taking her brain with it. She pushes herself up, getting to her feet and swinging the billy club up as she does, taking down the guy that hit her. She's not the strongest soldier Steve has and she's not the most disciplined, but she gets up every single time she gets knocked down and she knows her stuff. Her punches are dead on and text book perfect, but it's clear she's used to having to pull them and it takes her a few times to remember to punch with every bit of her strength. She can't jump kick the way she's used to, but she still knows how to do an impressive number of kicks and where to land things for maximum pain.

When the confrontation begins, Steve only shouts orders if someone in their squad starts falling behind or needs backup. For the most part, everyone seems capable of handling themselves. He stays closer to the back, and to their portable generators, to help the two Troubleshooters assigned to protecting them.

A certain voice yelling “Sorry” as she billy-clubs people in the head however, does manage to catch his attention. That’s when he sees Buffy get hit and her body hits the ground. “Get up,” he whispers under his breath as he flips an incoming attacker over his shoulder, before turning to look back in her direction.

There she was again. And again. And again. Steve can’t help but shake his head and smile. Perhaps he’s misjudged her.

Getting up to the 17th floor is a mixture of complicated and agonizing, however. It doesn’t help that they’re carrying two large machines with them, and given Steve’s lack of super-serum strength, he certainly can’t do it alone. Eventually however, they do get there.

“Summers and Smith,” he starts, motioning for Buffy and one other Troubleshooter to go first. “When we pull open the door, I want you to cover as much ground as possible on this floor. Find out exactly where the riot is happening. Count the number of civilians involved. Return immediately. Do not engage. Understood?”

There were over a dozen different departments that belong to Internal Security on this floor. The last Steve heard, Forensics was hearing the most in their hallways, but that intel was old.

Buffy doesn't really hear those orders. She's wrapped up in the battle, wrapped up in the heat of it and she remembers that part of her that loved this, even if she hasn't got that part anymore (and is that how it works? or is it still suppressed? She's not even sure and wouldn't know who to ask).
ciou
It's only polite to apologize when you're billy-clubbing someone in the head! She thought about lying down. She thought about pretending that she was unconscious or just admitting defeat. After all, who could blame her? She's five foot four and weighs all of 115 pounds wet. She just couldn't do it. Even without super strength and speed, grace and agility, she still can't quit. She's never been good at it.

So she gets up. Again and again. She's aching and hurting and she'd like a hot bath, but instead she gets up and she does it all over again.

Really, Buffy would appreciate it if they could all have their strength back. That'd be super. Steve probably would too.

She's surprised when Steve gives her the order, trusts her enough to get away from him. She's also very pleased by that. She feels that wiggly, proud thing in the pit of her stomach that she used to feel when Giles got proud of her. She nods a little to let him know she hears him and she takes off, trying to avoid any sort of combat. It's harder than she imagined and once she literally has to put her hands in the air and play the tiny blonde card.

She returns with information: over a dozen citizens involved, still outside Forensics, but they've moved to security and some of the improvement wards, maybe trying to break someone out?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Daycycle 104 [ August 21-27 ]

daycycle 104

[Aug 21 - Aug 27]

Open ] Throughout the day

Roommate Thread

Roommate Thread

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

WELCOME TO THE NAVY SEALS BUFFY

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

IDK I made stuff up.