you're pulling strings and pushing buttons;

[egotrigger]

Characters: H/Allelujah Haptism and open.
Setting: Dorm floors, stairs (any floor), and floor 3 (non-research library).
Format: Either.
Summary: Allelujah and Hallelujah have come back from surgery. They're monitoring the residents to make sure they're not acting up. However, misbehaving is a very broad category…
Warnings: Possible death for your characters (or mine). Possible/probable blood and gore. The Haptisms have been trained in the art of killing quickly and efficiently. They'll do okay against people with near the limit of human capacity or below, but anyone legitimately superhuman will probably end badly for them.


[Dorm Floors]

[Residents gather here. It makes sense, because this is where they rest. One foot in front of the other, he - they - walk down the hall, one leg lagging slightly behind the other. Still, they don't look bothered. This is how it has always been. Eve r yth ing i sf ine.]

[However, if someone catches them in an ill mood, they might have one of their guns out, ready to shoot someone. After all, they're all misbehaving. They're disrupting the system, and the system takes priority over all over obligations. Death will teach them to step back in line.]



[Stairs]

[Every floor. They need to check all of the floors, especially those that residents gather on. Insolence will n o t b e t o l e r a t e d . A single wrong move, a single wrong step, a single wrong word, and they will be eliminated. Variables outside of the normal range will be deleted from the system.]

[Then again, most of them are not the way they are. They cannot see their mistakes. They are there to correct them. They have always been there to correct them. This is their purpose. Errors in the system will not be tolerated.]



[Floor 3 - Library]

Previous logs have indicated a large number of residents frequent this area. They walk through the library, posture stiff. They check down the aisles, keeping watch for any unruly residents or any malfunctioning worker units.]

[Unruly, in this case, meaning if someone so much as puts a book is out of place or is using the library for something other than reading or studying, they will be eliminated. This is how it always has been. Thi si s how it w i l l a l w a y s b e .]

Comments

Floor 3 [night]

[destructiveprinciples]

[Avenger wasn't stupid unlike his thick-headed self. When all the disappearees started reappearing with some nasty modifications to them and all the drones following their orders, bodies all messed up and a strange fascination with carrying around wet organs still glistening with blood, it wasn't hard to understand what the Tower's administration had done to 'em.

Poor souls.

Plus, one resident putting a toe over the imaginary dotted line seemed to result in the resident losing that toe. What a pain.

In the invisibility of spirit form, he silently observed the person he had deemed one of those unlucky drones stalk robotically up and down the aisles of the darkened library. The man's form wasn't as hideously warped or bloodied as most of them, but it was indicator of little.]

[egotrigger]

[They kept walking, not caring about the monsters he can hear in the distance. They were part of the system. They were all part of the system. The system was not to be feared. Lacking any sort of spiritual senses, they didn't notice Avenger. Instead, they stopped in front of one of the bookcases, scowling at a book left on the shelf on its side instead of being put away properly.]

[They stalked down the row, with their odd, slightly awkward gait, and looked around to find the culprit. ... No one.]

[The incorrect variable must be eliminated. They would find the person who did this. And they would destroy them.]

[destructiveprinciple]

[He seemed to be weirdly and overly irritated over just one book being left out of place. Avenger frowned. The Servant would bet on the body count of dead residents raising drastically over the next week if such tiny details warranted punishment in the drones' deformed eyes.

While Allelujah is busy looking around and walking down the row, Avenger passes through one of the bookshelves and settles himself down on the dusty top of it. Nobody ever thinks to look up at first. Being a spiritual existence came in handy.

Avenger gave serious thought to dropping a book onto the man's head and seeing what happened.]

[egotrigger]

[Something feels off. They stop for a moment, reaching out with their quantum brain waves to try to see if they can sense anyone, feel any movement.]

[There's something. There's the distinct feeling of being watched, at least. They look around, using their height to peek over the tops of the shelves.]

[... Nothing. All systems normal. They lower themselves a bit and continue walking down the rows, checking for residents.]

[destructiveprinciples]

[...

Alright, all aboard bad decision central.

Once a minute or two has passed and several more steps are taken down the row, a hard-cover book comes flying down out of seemingly nowhere and cracks the man squarely on the back of the head.]

welp

[egotrigger]

[They turn, staring at the location the book came from, and pull out their pistol, firing where they calculate the origin of the trajectory the book took is.]

Stand still and be removed.

yep

[destructiveprinciple]

[Avenger was rather disappointed by the lack of reaction to the book-throwing, aside from the gunshot aimed in his direction. C'mon.

Luckily he had ditched his perch atop one dusty bookshelf and hurriedly jumped over the aisle to another bookshelf on the opposite side of the row. This was the only reason the shot fired hadn't passed through the space he'd been occupying seconds before. And he sure as hell wasn't risking getting a bullet into his skull by materializing.]

No, I'd rather not, thanks all the same.

[egotrigger]

Remain still, error!

[They headed towards where the voice had come from, expression still ceaselessly blank.]

[destructiveprinciple]

Mmm. Okay, lemme think 'bout this for a sec'... alright, here's my answer. No.

[Book number two, a slimmer paperback volume, sails through the air and smacks into the man's shoulder this time.]

Stairs

[swordofzero]

It was happening again and once again there was nothing anyone could do but endure.

Suzaku was looking for those he knew, working out who had been turned and who wasn't. When he first saw Allelujah he seemed normal, if a bit shaky walking, he hadn't seen the collar yet.

"Hello there."

Let me know if you want him to malfunction?

[egotrigger]

This variable seems normal. Monitoring will be continued in case this changes. They nod, expression unmoving.

"Greetings. Is everything proceeding as normal?"

Hallelujah's voice cuts in at the middle of the sentence, but they don't seem to notice anything strange.

[swordofzero]

Suzaku blinked, startled by the change in voice, and the tone, and the words. Then he saw the collar...

"Yes, everything is alright."

At least he could speak, unlike Shinji.

[egotrigger]

"Are you sure, variable?"

That's all he was. That's all he could be. A variable in the system, the greater system. The system would take care of them. Everything would be fine.

malfunctioning is fine. forgot to say before

[swordofzero]

Suzaku blinked and nodded, not actually offended in the slightest, Lloyd had treated him like another part of Lancelot for the entire time they had known each other and the count didn't even have been experimented on as an excuse, and Suzaku didn't mind.

"Though I was wondering if you could give me some information."

It was a gamble, but he could talk... and therefore if phrased correctly Suzaku might be able to work out what had happened.

[egotrigger]

"That depends on the information desired."

Certain things were not for the residents to know. They did not need to be given information that they were not ready for. That was fine, though. Everything was fine.

[swordofzero]

"Can you tell me what happened, why you are like this?" Suzaku began wondering how much was Allelujah in there...

[egotrigger]

"We have always been like this. The query is not understood."

Their face remained blank, even if the intention they were trying to get across was somewhat puzzled.

Floor 3

[lightofhumanity]

[chaos sometimes wandered into the library when he felt nostalgic or just wanted something good to read..but when he saw and sensed his friend and what they had done to him, any grin that was left on his face was gone.]

HAllelujah..I am sorry. This must be horrible, especially for you.

[egotrigger]

[They looked at chaos, expression blank. Why was he sorry? They did not understand. Nothing had happened.]

We do not understand.

[Their speech was clunky, disjointed, as they both tried to speak at the same time.]

This is how we are and always have been. Everything is fine.

[lightofhumanity]

This is not how you have always been. You have not always tried to speak at the same time. The Administrators have altered your mind as well as your body.

omg html fail I am sorry.

[egotrigger]

Incorrect.

[He was wrong he was wrong and any attempt to convince them otherwise was likewise wrong. They needed to correct this variable, eliminate it remove it from the system for maximum operating capabilities.]

[They moved to grab their pistol and aim it at chaos.]

It's alright! Don't worry about it! I'm not the best with it either.

[lightofhumanity]

[Inwardly, chaos sighed as Hallelujah pointed the gun at him.]

I can move far faster than you can shoot. I am hard to kill, even if you did hit me. What do you have to gain by killing me?

[egotrigger]

Our role is to correct variables with errors. You will not resist correction.

[They pulled the trigger, watching this variable. They would see him corrected. He had to be corrected.]

[lightofhumanity]

[Quickly, chaos teleported behind Hallelujah as he pulled the trigger. He didn't like to fight his friends..but if he did that again, he would have no choice.]

Correcting things with errors seems to be a bad way to go about things.

[egotrigger]

[They whirled around, doing their best to remain steady.]

This is our role as well as our task. We will not deviate from it.