RPGWW

by **ChristianC** » Mon Apr 04, 2011 7:24 am

What... was going on?

Deciding being grumpy had its time and place, Alexis looked up at Max, Max? What are you seeing?

She was already ready to fight... whatever would come their way. Not that... anything was coming, but she eyed the dwarfs suspiciously. Were they involved in Thirteen's sudden disappearance?

by **BrainWalker** » Mon Apr 04, 2011 11:06 pm

Max stares at the strange symbol, trying to figure out what it might mean.

I'm... not really sure, he replied to Alexis.

A moment later, Max creates a video chat channel with his visual field as the video feed, and sends everyone a link.

Okay guys, are you getting this? I'm not sure if this works. I'm also not sure what I'm looking at, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't there before and if I had to guess, I'd say it's probably not a good thing.

by **Kelne** » Tue Apr 05, 2011 7:25 am

It looks like a snake eating its own tail, Emily sent, Which matches that last thing Thirteen said. Ouroboros is basically infinity, I think. Neverending stuff, anyway. She frowned, thinking. Really, the last thing they needed was people from the future trying to mess up history. Flea had been annoying, but it wasn't like she'd been all that bad. Tis lot, she was sure, was going to be bad.

by **NebulaQueen** » Tue Apr 05, 2011 10:40 pm

Eternity... Silvie bit her lip, and asked, You know how Thirteen does that thing where she jumps back and forth through time? Do you think it has something to do with that?

by **Idran1701** » Wed Apr 06, 2011 7:24 pm

I dunno...um...I dunno what's going on at all... Sam looks to Enzo and Janet. ...Can you guys check if...um...if the server's okay and everything? Maybe...maybe it's just bugs or something? D'you think maybe that's all it is, just...um...just glitches and stuff? Or...um...maybe...it's like a test from Thirteen, and...and we just needa figure it out? He's more than a little freaked out right now; what if Thirteen was messing up? What could that mean?

by **Besyanteo** » Wed Apr 06, 2011 10:59 pm

(I'm back!)

Enzo looked just as shocked as everyone else. He tried to play back what they'd seen happen to Thirteen, so he could try to pick out any details he might have missed the first time. Someone asked him a question...

"I have no idea what happened. None of my stuff should have anything to do with this. I'm trying to figure things out now."

He ran the video analysis next to another process to bring up a report from the server about it's current status and any data is had processed or commands it had parsed in the past ten minutes. He knew that with the whole crew on the server and his project running, that data log was going to be a mile long... luckily his digital brain was capable of handling the tedious task of reading and interpreting that sort of thing now. He still fully intended to ask Janet to run through it with him when the log was generated, though.

by **ChristianC** » Fri Apr 08, 2011 4:30 pm

Maybe it's another trick from Thirteen?

Alexis huffed and wrapped her scarf around her neck a bit more tightly, looking doubtful.

Who could get at us here? How could they even spot us? We're flecks of data in a sea of data. Unprocessed data. Spotting us would be... it would take a long time, and none of the alarms have gone off.

She walked up to the walls the dwarfs were building, noticing the unfinished cracks in the wall. Three stories high, easy.

Alexis was up at the top of the wall in seconds, peering towards the burn in the ground. Can anyone run a databank check to see if this matches up with another criminal organization? Or a [i]country? It wouldn't be the first time someone's shown up to mess with us for no real reason. No point in letting anyone at D52 know, they probably set this all up anyway.[/i]

by **Idran1701** » Sun Apr 10, 2011 6:13 pm

While the others consider what this could mean, Sam still seems focused on the idea of this being another sort of...challenge, or test or something, whether from D52 or from Thirteen or whoever. Breaking off from the group, he begins looking around, trying to spot that first hook or clue that would lead into the uncovering of the mystery behind this. Or maybe it's something spawned by Enzo even...maybe Enzo set this up as a riddle for them, and his confusion is just a trick! That might be it...if Enzo can do all this, of course he could make a fake Thirteen!

He can't help but give Enzo a weird smile briefly, before returning to his investigation, searching all about them for the answer to what's happened.

by **Shinigori V2** » Sun Apr 10, 2011 8:27 pm

The server, as far as Enzo can see, is completely fine.

"We should probably go over and check it out." Kid says. "This seems like the kind of thing we should stay on top of."

by **Kelne** » Mon Apr 11, 2011 5:44 pm

"Sounds like a plan," Emily said firmly, setting out to investigate the symbol. It might be sinister, but they weren't going to get anywhere by hiding from it.

by **Besyanteo** » Mon Apr 11, 2011 7:06 pm

Enzo ran a check on the Ouroborous symbol as Alexis suggested. It didn't seem like something that a nation would choose as their symbol, but she might be onto something with the idea. Terrorist groups, maybe? Cults, something. With most of the comm-web to search, however, he didn't expect this to be a quick process.

"I'm looking into it.... And D52 wouldn't set this up. They don't know about Thirteen in the first place, and we never told them what it's like in here because they wouldn't understand if we did. Remember?"

by **BrainWalker** » Mon Apr 11, 2011 8:28 pm

Max nods, not that anyone who isn't looking up would see it. I'm with Kid. We can talk forever and not get anywhere. Meanwhile, there's some crazy symbol burned into the grass right over thataway. I kinda feel like scouting ahead. Wanna come with, Emmy? Alexis could mark us so the rest of you can follow.

by **ChristianC** » Wed Apr 13, 2011 2:52 pm

Max and Emmy were green dots before Max had even finished that sentence, Alexis dropping down soundlessly on the grass next to them.

I'll cover the forests, see if whoever did this could be nearby... This is my job anyway.

With that she was gone, rushing towards the woodland areas, bouncing off the ground, grabbing a branch and disappearing into the forestry without another word.

by **Kelne** » Wed Apr 13, 2011 7:22 pm

Emily nodded, Sounds like a plan. Catch you all at the symbol. With that, she cut in her boosters and rocketed skywards, rendezvousing with Max before embarking on a quick circuit around to the far side of the symbol to see if there was anything unusual in the surrounding landscape.

by **Shinigori V2** » Wed Apr 13, 2011 7:33 pm

The pilots work their way over the terrain to the symbol, as the others walk there like chumps. The twins can see that the ground is still smoldering and that there's a heavy black smoke cloud drifting eastward, probably from the burning of the grass here. There are...A bunch of boxes littered around the site, looking like supply crates. They can probably open a couple before the others arrive, if they wanted to.

Alexis:

Spoiler:

by **Kelne** » Wed Apr 13, 2011 7:45 pm

Emily frowned a bit at the sight of the crates. That was just weird (as if there wasn't enogh weirdness to start with). If they were in the real world, she'd say they'd come upon a marker for an airdrop of supplies. Although the symbol used as the marker had a distinct cargo cultish feel to it. In here, well, there were hardly aircraft buzzing about, but the analogy might still be apt.

"Might as well check out the boxes," she remarked to Max before dropping down next to one of them and setting about opening it up. They were inevitably going to wind up opening them anyway, might as well start now.

by **Shinigori V2** » Wed Apr 13, 2011 7:59 pm

Emily opens a crate and finds...

...Pictures. Books. Notes. Letters. Documents of all kinds. All marked "Read only".

Looking at them...The letters are written by what seem to be Wunderkind, describing battles fought and some unknown enemy coming down unrelentingly. The pictures are of other Wunderkind, none of which Emily has seen before, but all look beat up and damaged. The books seem to be journals, although...These seem to be written by Wunderkind, as well as whoever was opposing them.

How odd.

by **Idran1701** » Thu Apr 14, 2011 8:48 am

Watching Enzo as he works, Sam starts to get more concerned...he seems really concerned, and...is Enzo that good of an actor? But someone else couldn't have gotten in here...

"...What if it was Thirteen then? Maybe she set this up, and...maybe it's just a riddle we have to figure out? She's just...she wanted to play along with the fortress..." He trails off, the theory sounding dumb to him too as he says it outloud. Frowning, he heads off after Max and Emily, if much more slowly.

by **ChristianC** » Thu Apr 14, 2011 8:50 am

Alexis sat hunched on a tree-branch, hidden behind a few more as she took a snap-photo of the... wunderkind... whoever it was, and sent it to Enzo for post-processing and databank-checking before he handled sharing it with their siblings.

She considered for a moment to just wait for a response from the others, but then she growled at herself and landed in the grass-patch with nary a thud, arms folded... in the drop she'd inserted the two chips that brought out the Ice-Alexis, and as she landed a tiny bit of frost spread out from her boots into the ground, her chilling glare piercing the girl-thing.

"Who are you? Identify yourself. If you're a program, state your purpose and why you have that symbol on your back." she narrowed her eyes and drew down the scarf that had been covering the lower parts of herself.

"You are in our territory, you have no right to be here."

by **Shinigori V2** » Thu Apr 14, 2011 9:48 am

Alexis:

The green haired, red eyed girl stopped pacing, and turned slowly to Alexis. She began to grin, slowly, showing a row of flawless, if not very sharp, pointy teeth. "You can call me Iris. This is a recording I threw in when the Ouroboros Society planted this file; I figured I may as well get some free advertising in.

She throws back her coat, pulling a highly advanced, customized pistol and spins it on her finger, before catching it, offering it's grip to Alexis. "I may not look like it, but I'm an arms dealer. Technically an illegal arms dealer, really. I specialize in custom weapons that fall outside the range of what most nations and people like to see, and because we're sort of cut from the same cloth, I'm offering all Wunderkind a 10% cut on all my merchandise in the real world...If you can find me."

by **Kelne** » Thu Apr 14, 2011 8:33 pm

Okay, definitely stuff from the future. Except that, judging by what had happened to Thirteen, the future had been changed somehow. The odds were good that this stuff represented a history of the new future (because it seemed a bit dire to be the future Thirteen was basically happy with). So what had changed things? This sudden information dump was a bit of a coincidence, and it had seemed to Emily that Thirteen was trying to warn them about Ouroboros.

With that in mind, she was going to take all these journals with a grain of salt. It was very possible this was one of those self-fulfilling prophecy things, where acting on information about the future brought it about. Nevertheless, Emily started going through the information, trying to put together a timeline for events.

by **NebulaQueen** » Fri Apr 15, 2011 7:25 pm

Silvie arrived behind the pilots and saw the load of crates, as well as Emily's open one.

"FInd anything good?" she asked.

by **Idran1701** » Fri Apr 15, 2011 7:49 pm

Sam's close behind, keeping quiet; the whole way up with Silvie, he was looking for any sign of Thirteen, with no luck, as well as thinking back to try and think if he'd ever seen this symbol before at all...there has to be some way to solve this, he's sure of it!

Once up with Emily, he looks over the crate, waiting for her to talk before he starts examining it himself. Clues, almost certainly!

by **Kelne** » Fri Apr 15, 2011 10:38 pm

"Questions, mostly," Emily answered, "It sounds like the future's pretty messed up. Whether the people who sent the crates are behind that or not, well, who knows? The other crates are probably more of the same, but does someone want to check?"

by **BrainWalker** » Sat Apr 16, 2011 12:12 am

"Or at least one possible future seems to be messed up," Max added. "Not really sure how time travel works. I wonder if it's the same kinda stuff in all these crates?"

Max opens up another crate nearby.

by **ChristianC** » Sun Apr 17, 2011 5:20 am

Alexis blinked and took the gun into her hands before she'd even thought not to. It felt nice in her hand, but...

"I can't use a weapon like this, it is too loud." she gave a little shrug and aimed it at one of the trees.

"Regardless, Iris, tell me about the Ouroboros society and I might tell my friends about this deal. Even if we're sort of cut from the same cloth, I could just decide not to tell anyone about what you told me, and wouldn't that be a waste of time for all of us?"

She then promptly fired the gun into a nearby tree to test it.

by **Shinigori V2** » Sun Apr 17, 2011 12:28 pm

Alexis:

"I'm sure you're probably asking a bunch of questions now, but this is just a recording. You'll have to find me in the real world to get any more information."

The gun fires into one of the trees with a very muffled "Pew"- The entry wound is small, but the back of the tree splinters as the round explodes through the other side.

Everyone Else:

Max opens another crate and finds...More of them same. Except this one also has some audio bytes and video files.

by **ChristianC** » Sun Apr 17, 2011 6:27 pm

Alexis barely registered what the girl had said, her processor-mind replaying it for her in a microsecond once she looked up from the pistol she'd just fired.

Speaking any more seemed irrelevant, if this was a recording. She spun the pistol around her index-finger, surprised by the weight of the weapon before she almost dropped it. The weight was hardly ideal, not like any of her toys...

Enzo, do you hear me? her ice-voice didn't come through over the intercom, it was her usual, rather emotionless tone, I've found a recording I think you guys might want to see. I've logged our conversation in my flash-memory, I will return to you at once.

She gave the message a last glance before she looked around for some place to put the pistol... finding none, she put the thing in her mouth, biting down and wincing as the artificial taste receptors registered the steel and oil taste of it. Bleh. Then she made her way back to the other across the trees.

by **Kelne** » Mon Apr 18, 2011 7:53 pm

"Yeah, that looks like more of the same, alright. You think we can get them all into some kind of order?" Emily asked, carrying on her efforts to impose order on her own crate.

by **Idran1701** » Mon Apr 18, 2011 8:04 pm

Sam starts looking through another crate, frowning at everything he's seeing and reading. "I...where d'you think all this came from? Is...um...can any of you find that out? Is there any way to figure out how it got here, or...or who put it here or stuff?" Squatting down, he starts looking at the crate itself, trying to "read" it, though it's not something he has a ton of experience doing.

by **Shinigori V2** » Tue Apr 19, 2011 7:50 pm

The crates all seem to contain the same thing- Journals (assuredly digital transcripts of them and obviously not the real article), letters to various individuals- Emails, more likely, Pictures of people, places, things they've never seen before...

But in Emmy's crate, there's one, single, special thing marked with the Ouroboros symbol-

A video file.

by **Kelne** » Tue Apr 19, 2011 7:52 pm

Well, this could be promising. Emily set the file to playing, intent upon discovering what message these Ouroboros people had left for them.

by **Besyanteo** » Tue Apr 19, 2011 10:12 pm

Enzo reaches the field last, having stopped occasionally when the data he processed required too much of his attention to focus on where he was going. He hadn't found anything on the Ouroborous that they didn't already know, and the image of the green haired girl... was interested, but he couldn't learn anything that Alexis hadn't learned from it already. The data came from her, after all. He replayed their conversation quickly as Alexis relayed it. An arms dealer? What? Planted file? That gave him a place to start, then. This should all be connected.

"Alexis has found something that looks important. I think it's related to what we're looking at right here, too. I'm going to deep dive real quick."

He sat down, trying to focus despite being somewhat nervous... The last time he'd been deep diving in a system that had been tampered with, things had deteriorated quickly. Still, it needed to be done. If there was a file in the system making all of these things manifest, then from what he knew the file itself should be in a single location... easy to access and read. Of course, wunderkind were involved with this thing. He hoped the rule would still apply. That would be really nice.

by **Shinigori V2** » Tue Apr 19, 2011 10:26 pm

Enzo finds a file, zipped up and compressed, like they can get since their first patch. It's tiny, but it's there- Represented by the crates. Within is all the stuff they're finding, including that single video file.

The video file boots up and shows, simply...A hologram of...Thirteen? But...Not quite. Her suit is blood red on black, and her eyes are glowing a bright red. She's as pale as ever. For now, she floats, staring into the distance beyond the other 'Kind.

by **Besyanteo** » Tue Apr 19, 2011 10:37 pm

Enzo will, very carefully, try checking the file to see if he can figure out where it came from, when exactly it arrived, how it came in, and when it was created. He will also check to make sure his actions aren't changing the file as he goes. If that happens, he will stop working immediately.

by **Shinigori V2** » Tue Apr 19, 2011 10:40 pm

Enzo looks! The file was planted....

....Fifty years ago.

by **ChristianC** » Thu Apr 21, 2011 3:46 pm

Alexis landed with a quiet thud next to the others, dropping the gun from her mouth and holding it in her left hand as she walked up to look at the hologram.

Is that Thirteen? Why... is... why does she look like that?

by **NebulaQueen** » Sat Apr 23, 2011 1:24 pm

"I dunno," she said. "But...is this, what, past Thirteen? A future Thirteen? Wait, how do we even know it's the same Thirteen? It could be like a parodox clone or evil mirrorverse Thirteen or something like that."

by **Idran1701** » Sat Apr 23, 2011 1:54 pm

"...Um...whoever she is, d'you...d'you think she's looking at something?" Sam turns around, trying to see if she's just staring off like Thirteen does or if she's staring at something in particular as some kind of hint for them or something. All the possibilities Silvie's running off are just making his head spin, so he tries not to think about those too much.

by **Shinigori V2** » Sat Apr 23, 2011 2:08 pm

Mission: 11- Legacy of the Infinite
Location: Unformatted Space.
January 12th, 3757
10:30 AM.

The red Thirteen spins, looking this way and that, her eyes focusing on things invisible to the children. She sneers, possibly the 'darkest' looking they've ever seen her in any capacity. She floats higher, her swords falling into place like wings on her back.

"Tell me, now." She begins, still looking wildly around at objects the children can't see. "Is there a man among you here- Is there no one who will stand up, and try to fight? Tell me, man! Is there not one among your ranks, someone who values courage over life?!"

She spins completely around to address those behind her. "They looked to me, once! Now they turn to you! Do you understand now? Do you see that the truth is that they don't want a hero, they just want a martyr? A statue to raise!"

She turns again, looking- presumably- over the heads of the collected humans. "And you will fight! But when you fight, you fight alone. And in the end you'll see there was no other way. I've been here before, I've stood where you stand. They called me a hero, the hero of man. But why should we save them when they stand for nothing? If they deserve life, let them stand for themselves!

"We've given everything we can." She says, turning back behind her, presumably to the 'Kind. "There are no heroes left in man." Her voice breaks a bit...Almost sobbing. She brings a hand to her eyepatch, touching it gently. "They'll watch you die to save their lives...They will not stand there by your side."

Her swords begin to spin up again...Aiming towards, again, what seem to be Wunderkind. Or whoever she's trying to convince here. "So let them watch as we decide...the very fate of all mankind."

The video blips, stopping there with a still frame of Thirteen brandishing her 8 Anti-Grav swords at...Something.

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