It's not like I'm walking alone into the valley of the shadow of death--

[sageprincess]

Characters: Enoch, Zelda, and their ragtag bunch of immortals (Lucifel, Naoya, Solas, Saber Lily, and Ruler)
Setting: Admin levels; night of April 9th
Format: Any, though action might be faster?
Summary: With Jason apparently busy examining the "malfunctioning" worker units, it's the perfect time to strike and retrieve the information Dax left behind.
Warnings: It's a break in. These do not have a history of going well. Character injury and death is possible.

It is a dark and stormy night, as cliche as it sounds. Most of the Tower residents should be asleep by now, or wandering the more interesting floors in search of monsters to fight.

Not these ones, though. A small group quietly begins to gather around the administrator elevator after the sun is well and truly down, several of them armed. Jason's announcement over the intercom yesterday had been just the tell they were looking for - one that informed them he was distracted - and despite some of the distressing disappearances that followed, they had to jump on this rare opportunity while it was within their grasp.

Dax trusted them with the information he had collected, and one way or another, they were going to find it.

Comments

[animusnpcs]

It'll let you see through the maze. You'd just walk around forever otherwise. [She grins.] So, who should I refine it for? It takes a lot of energy to get it to work for even one of you. It'll work best with someone who has--mm, magic or psychic powers. Something like that!

[crouching_sin]

[... Well, he could take it. But that's dangerous. Instead he looks over at Lucifel.]

Sounds like something for you or Enoch, eh?

[sageprincess]

[Magic and psychic powers, hm. Zelda instinctively covers the back of her right hand.]

I fulfill those qualifications as well.

[animusnpcs]

I can only match it to one of you for now. [She fiddles with her glasses again.] If I were you, I'd pick the one least likely to get into a situation where they're--uh, put out of service down here.

[sageprincess]

What kind of things might we encounter down here, do you know?

[They'll be able to make a more educated decision if they know what they're up against, right?]

[animusnpcs]

I'm not sure. We weren't allowed to really know about the security measures in place--if the other administrators captured one of us and read our memories, they'd be able to get in, too. It should be built to stop retrieval units and worker units, though.

[sageprincess]

So power nullification is likely not to be an issue, if I am not mistaken.

[Hm. She turns to look at Lucifel and Enoch.]

What say you, then?

[repeatingsun]

[Solas waves her arm, trying to volunteer - maybe a bit late, but...!]

Um, technically I'm a nightmare creature that can conjure stuff up and use illusions. Does that count as magic?

[SOLAS

PLS

STAHP]

[animusnpcs]

That would count. [R-037 seems pretty okay with that description, really.]

[repeatingsun]

Then, if it's okay with everyone else [- though she looks mainly at Zelda because she seems to be the de facto leader? -] I'd like to volunteer.

[warriorscribe]

I was...going to suggest either you or Lucifel. It's all right with me.

*Enoch had been silently following along, taking it all in. An underground force of workers and retrieval units...coordinated by Dax and not obeying Jason's orders.*

...I knew there was still reason to hope. How long has this 're-processing' been happening?

[animusnpcs]

Alright, just hold on a moment! [R-037 puts the glowing thing into a machine and presses a few buttons on it.] Mm, January. Early in January--that was when I was re-processed, and I was the first.

[brbtalkingtogod]

[Looks like it had decided on someone already. Well, it couldn't be helped. It would probably be better if Lucifel isn't doing this.]

Since January you say?

[sageprincess]

He must have been planning to take control, or at least have a back up plan for a while...

[Though there's still something nagging her about this unit's 'designation'.]

Is there some significance to your name, since you were the first?

[warriorscribe]

January was...the month before last. Riki's...it was when we first saw him speak out...

*It was when he had offered to help in whatever way he could, not realizing he'd gotten the months wrong. And Zelda and Tohko too, since they'd had letters.*

...Was everyone turning to larger plans at once?

[animusnpcs]

The R stands for retrieval-- [The machine hums and something inside it slows to a stop. R-037 reaches out and pulls out what now looks like a coiling, flowering vine of some sort.] There, it's done! You wear it around your head, so your eyes come through here and here--[she points to two of the holes in the vines]--and it will let you see through some of the mechanisms here. Make sure you keep it safe. It won't work upstairs yet, but eventually I think it might do something interesting!

[There's a pause, and then she seems to remember she was discussing something else, too.] The R stands for retrieval, and I was the thirty-seventh unit made.

[warriorscribe]

*This seems to pull Enoch's attention from his musing about the way everything seemed to be inadvertently coming together in January.*

Are all the earlier units different from the others? I've noticed you seem more...ah... *at the other units nearby* no offense meant - *at R-037* human.

[repeatingsun]

Oh, thank you! [Glee, flowers and vines! YOU *GET* HER, R, AND SHE IS THANKFUL FOR THAT. On goes the pretty vine thingy!]

[animusnpcs]

[R-037 smiles.] You're welcome. Usually you can't tell earlier numbers apart from all the others. I think it's a side-effect of what we do here. Since I'm the oldest of all of them, I show the most signs of it.

[warriorscribe]

*Wait...so if she's showing a broader range of emotion and seems more human because she's been like this the longest...oh, no. He'd been right to try to talk Mondo and everyone out of that slaughter...*

...So there is a normal mind in every one of them...

[animusnpcs]

A normal mind? [R-037 considers.] Well, I suppose that depends on what you mean. We don't have souls like all of you do. We're more like... I don't know if you'd know what an android is. Artificial people?

[sageprincess]

[Zelda isn't all that satisfied with that explanation of this unit's name, but... if she truly has been waiting for them, what reason does she have to lie?]

I see. So, the more time passes after a unit's conversion, the more... empathy they begin to show. If I am understanding correctly.

[But then why--]

You must grow tired of all these questions, but... do you know if that was the only intention Dax had when he began this operation? To have a more sympathetic environment for us? Or was there something more?

[animusnpcs]

Oh, I don't mind questions! I don't really talk to anyone who's willing to hold much of a conversation. [She smiles.] The goal of--well, all of this--is to let you decide what you want. Not you specifically, but the Tower's residents. If you want to stay here you can, or if you want to go home, you can do that, or if you want to use the Tower's resources to try and fix your worlds so they're not ruined anymore, you can do that, too! That's the goal. It involves removing obstructions, which in this case are most of the current administrators, so here we are.

[warriorscribe]

*Enoch seems to immediately brighten a little.* So his work to find a way to restore our worlds did yield something? That was...something I hoped we would find here.

[animusnpcs]

If he'd found something that would restore your worlds, I'm sure he would have said something. I don't know how things are getting destroyed, or if it's even possible to fix them, but--the Tower can do a lot of things, you know? [She fiddles with her glasses again, collecting her thoughts.] It'll be up to all of you to decide how things happen.