never let me sleep

[animusmods]

Characters: characters participating or open
Setting: throughout the Tower on the 26th-28th while characters are frozen
Format: party style; please specify the date and time in your subject header
Summary: A mingle log for the Cognizance event.
Warnings: PG-13; please note in subject lines any more specific warnings
Note: Remember, only characters who missed their collar checks can be awake on the first night!

Comments

[ghostytrainer]

Yup. I mean... I knew that sort of thing happened because I saw some people down there all zombied and organizing books and stuff but... I thought my job was safe. Like what could a grave keeper possibly do down there?

I was wrong, apparently. So it happened to you too? Did you get decapitation duty too or was I the only one lucky enough to get saddled with that?

[keybearer]

Decapitation?

[Uh, whoa there. Give him a second while he wraps his head around that...]

No, I didn't have to do anything that intense. I mostly just scanned some retrieval unit pods.

[A beat.]

Oh yeah, and one of them was empty. Number 37... and apparently this 37 hasn't had their collar checked in over six months.

[ghostytrainer]

[HAHAH HEAD JOKES.]

Wait, hold on. They have to get collar checks too? Why would they... I mean. Err...

[This seems strange to him, for reasons he doesn't entirely understand.]

Well alright then. That's... something.

[keybearer]

Well, the display said...

[Give him a second.]

It listed charge level, soul status, and some stuff about collars and pods. Then the list for 37 just listed unknown and 6+ months since the last check in.

[He strokes his chin.]

Makes me wonder if there's more to the collars than we thought.

[ghostytrainer]

Probably. I mean... look what happened because of the boycott. It sure threw the units for a loop. And a few of my close friends skipped it but nothing bad happened to them. Plus there was that message that Jason accidentally broadcast and Dax's letter...

[John sighs.]

I honestly don't know what to think about the collars anymore. But... [John hesitates, glancing around as if to make sure there is absolutely nobody else in the vicinity. Fortunately, he seems to have lost his unit stalker at some point in the caverns, something he hadn't even intended to do. He lowers his voice anyway though, just to be safe.] I DO know how to get them off.

[keybearer]

Wait, what?

[Riku's jaw drops. Did he seriously just say...?]

But I thought those collars were built into us. You're seriously saying that we can ditch them?

[ghostytrainer]

[John nods, giving another little forced laugh.]

Remember how I said they had me on decapitation duty? Well it's kind of hard to take heads off with these things in the way. There's this little panel on the back of them, you see. [He starts spinning his own collar around on his neck to show the back of it.] And when you open it there's some buttons and... err. [He's been feeling around for the panel, which, of course he can't access with his hands. He goes cross-eyed for a minute, trying to look down at his own collar and obviously failing.] Okay, well I can't find it now but I swear there's a little panel back here... I swear to god I am not making this up. There's a code you put in and the thing will pop right off!

[So help him if the whole thing was a dream...]

[keybearer]

[As John explains, Riku places one hand to his neck-- or rather, his collar. So there's really some kind of panel that can just... remove them?

Hmm.]

You know, that wouldn't surprise me after everything else that's happened lately. Question is, how do you access that panel? If we could find a way to do so, maybe we could start getting rid of these collars for good.

[ghostytrainer]

It just popped open when I... [John goes silent, eyes widening as he realizes exactly what the problem is.] The stylus. Down in the processing room I had this little... stylus thing. [He makes a vague sort of gesture approximating the size and shape of the thing.]

I guess... maybe that's the only way to do it? I thought maybe I could get it open with my fingers but... [But that is clearly not working.]

[keybearer]

Then I guess we'd better find a way to get that stylus, huh?

[He smirks, placing a hand on his hip.]

I'd love to see the look on Jason's face if you could pull that off.

[ghostytrainer]

Yeah... [John furrows his brow, raising his hand to his chin.] I suppose I could always try writing him another letter to ask for it...

[Yes, because that has worked so well so far.]

[keybearer]

[He shakes his head.]

Too risky. If you let him know what you saw, he might take preventative action.

[ghostytrainer]

Oh... right. Yeah, there's that.

[Tap tap.]

I guess... I need to find away to get down there? That or throw off the whole... zombie thing. Which somehow I doubt is possible, given how hard I tried to stop... [He trails off, shaking his head. Nope nope nope. Not thinking about the heads.] That's out.