Virtually Irresistible - [Hackers Win!]

Started by Galactic Druid, October 31, 2012, 02:06:28 AM

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Kokaine

Kokaine sighed and settled back, her eyes roaming over those gathered as they played their version of the blame game. She was finding this whole mess to be quite disturbing really and if she hadn't known who to trust before she sure as heck didn't know now. She agreed with Sarena's assessment though. Everyone seemed to be grasping at straws and chasing phantoms which meant it would be more difficult to ferret out the true culprit. For now, rather than add vocally to the finger pointing, she kept her own suspicions to herself... though that did not stop her from looking a bit harder in Yugi006's direction.
Current Craving/Looking For: Romance, Adventure, Action, Humor, and Erotica. (F/Any)

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Sex Bobomb

Bo scratched his head, try desperately to logic out the situation. Clearly they had been mistaken last time. Although nothing had happened this time, he couldn't help but feel the hacker or hackers were laying low as they had been found out. Strategic dismemberment of the group. Their only option was to remove someone, though suspicions were not high for any one member. "Yugi006, do you remember what you were doing during the last test?"

persephone325

Once again, Sephie wasn't sure she agreed with the majority.

"What about Gav?" She asked, starting to become suspicious of everyone in general. Who could she trust?
This doesn't have to end in a fight, Buck.
It always ends in a fight.
You pulled me from the river. Why?
I don't know.
"Don't dwell on those who hold you down. Instead, cherish those who helped you up."

Autumn Sativus

#103
Votes
Yugi006 - 6
KingBear - 4
Peripherie - 2
Gavlois - 1
Kokaine - 1
Niferbelle - 1
persephone325 - 1
Ryven - 1
Sasha -1
Sunshine - 1
That Girl Analise - 1

Yet to vote
Beguile's Mistress, Breathless Intent, Kyrsa, persephone325, That Girl Analise
Us against the world
Just a couple sinners making fun of hell


~~A&A(updated March 2021)~~Tales~~Wants~~O&O~~Wiki~~

Gavlois

It certainly was troubling to hear that Last wasn't one of the ones who were working against them. He awoke from the next VR session to discussion about who had sabotaged Mr. B's pod. He heard many accusations against Yugi but he wasn't sure if he was really one of them. persephone325 seemed to be throwing quite a random shot in the dark and it seemed just a bit suspicious to him, though he kept his thoughts to himself.
O/O

Galactic Druid

Final Votes
Yugi006 - 6
KingBear - 4
Peripherie - 2
Gavlois - 1
Kokaine - 1
Niferbelle - 1
persephone325 - 1
Ryven - 1
Sasha -1
Sunshine - 1
That Girl Analise - 1

In the end, it was decided that Yugi006 had to be one of the hackers that was sabotaging their project. Putting their heads together, they tried to decide the best way to deal with the insubordination. Trapping him in the VI world, as he had done with Bigglesworth, just didn't seem right somehow. Instead, they eventually opted to call the police, who literally drug him from his workstation.

Even after the most thorough search of his hard drive, they couldn't find a single shred of evidence that actually proved him to be any more than an engineer. He was eventually acquitted, but refused to return to the project after facing such accusations from his former colleagues. There were many companies that would pay a fortune for his abilities, he didn't need friends like that.

VR Phase roles please PM us whether you do or do not wish to use your ability tonight.
A/As last updated 11/27 - Halfway past busy season!

Autumn Sativus

Coming out of the testing phase this time proved a heavy burden on the group of Engineers. Indeed, it seemed that someone was working against them. That Girl Analise was stuck in VR this time around and they didn't have to search far to find her notes. She was the System Restore. With each phase the group was shrinking, a number of Engineers already fired from the project while others remained in their pods permanently until they could figure out how to save them. But they were reminded again that in order to do that, they would have to find and eliminate the threat among them.




Players
Aadreal
Beguile's Mistress
Breathless Intent
Gavlois
James Moriarty
KingBear
Kyrsa
Kythia
Kokaine
Luna
Mcsc
Niferbelle
Peripherie
persephone325
Remiel
Ryven
Sarena
Sasha
Sex Bobomb
Starlequin
SunshineSparkle
Trieste
Valerian

Roles
Engineers x11-13
IP Tracer
Firewall
White Hat
Nostalgic
NPC
AI
Hackers x1-3
Neuro-System Specialist
Worm
The Girl
Us against the world
Just a couple sinners making fun of hell


~~A&A(updated March 2021)~~Tales~~Wants~~O&O~~Wiki~~

Sasha


Sasha had received a strange pic thing to her hand held device ...which was seemingly sent as another challenge . Odd , that these little distractions kept popping up at the most inappropriate times . Looking over at James when she was able to readjust and get to finding out what in the hell James was up to . "Pompous ass ..."  she muttered to herself ...as indeed it seemed to be a link to the man's own photo . Rolling her eyes ...she did not date co-workers how many times did she have to say that in a room .  Stenography ...pondering it some , Moriarty ..wasn't that one of the bad guys that went against Sherlock Holmes . Letting herself drift off in thought on the matter as the stories of old crime and deception played in her mind . Rarely did she have her nose in anything other than the project she was working on at the time . Still ...cute , stenography the narrowing of words into symbols which really had to be the first of what is was they did today . Distinguished Gentlemen ...right ...even they didn't trust each other .

It had been concluded that once again ...their last vote had been an utter failure and the one they had sent packing was indeed not a guilty party. He wasn't coming back either. Who could blame him , humiliated and pushed out on a limb. There had to be a better way to solve who it was among them had ulterior motives in mind . As the image of shell of the man that once was Sir Bigglesworth appeared before her and she gasped . Unsettling no doubt as the man was still trapped in between the real world and the virtual world . Darkness she imagined , alone ...scared ...it was frightening and made her shiver . Still she had a job to do even if everything was mounting up , stick to what you do best . Seemed the answer.

Too many things to take in ...and it was time for another jump into the city they had build . More testing to stabilize things . Going over her own notes ...wondering if she could do things a little faster and maybe see if she could trace inside the system for a fragment that could identify where exactly her comrade's Intel had been stored away . But even now the virtual world was changing ..taking a shape of it's own . What was the intentions of those working against the group at large . Climbing into her pod the woman said a slight prayer no sense going in without him right . Even if most with a scientific mind had pushed his greatness to the side , now seem the time to get reconnected with man above .

The prayer said ...the pod came to life and she found herself a little off course from where she had expected to land . Still every leap in was marvelous and the worries of the real world faded from her mind . Working through the unexpected obstacles Sasha managed to get where she wanted to be in the first place . A few alterations ..mental notes about this and that which seemed off to her in many respects . Time slipped away quickly ..even though it seemed forever and that peace this gave and the pride she took in being a part of this team was once again restored. A few more tweaks to the subsystem and this small glitch she was trying to repair should be nonexistent.

As she was coming back it hit like a light bulb going off ...restored , a system restore ...that might work . Who had the ability to do that again . Emerging from the pod it took some time to adjust to the real world . Or maybe it was just more shock to see that another one had been lost in the same manner as the first . That Girl Analise seemed to have taken a fall this time ..and as others went through the notes left behind it seemed she had been working on obtaining that system restore . It would only be a temporary fix though ..might not even work ...those stuck inside might be gone complete then . Still maybe not , was that why she had been the next target.

Sasha was beside herself at this point lashing out at the first person she seen ..." I still don't trust you King Bear ....stay the hell away from my pod and my work station . If I so much as see a roll of duct tape anywhere near the P.E.N.I.S. ...." maybe it came off more gruff than she wanted at this time ...but everything now had elevated . Fear rolled through her veins as she closed her eyes ...muttered a little softer as she wiggled her finger at him . " Just ...just ....." Faltering a little as this was a nightmare ...waking walking nightmare . Halloween was over damn it . Tossing her hands up in the air ...." Forgive me ...this is just too stressful .."  besides she still hadn't gotten her nails done and the one finger she was wiggling had a broken tip . Leave it to the protocol ...right , someone in charge of it all as honestly she had no clue at this point .


Kythia

Kythia had found it impossible to enjoy her time in the VR world this time round.  It was surely just her imagination but it seemed to have changed subtly as well, buildings were a bit more looming (she made a mental note to check the value of the "dblLoomingness" variable), VR created NPCs seemed to be looking at her suspiciously (was blnStareAtKythia correctly initialised?) and the sky felt overcast and threatening (had they definately got rid of the inifinite loop that had been causing intSkyOminosityRating to default to its highest level?)

It felt, she groped for the word.  It had changed, it felt unpleasant now.  But there was work to be done.  The code of the world itseld wasn't her area, she focused more on the interface between the user and the world and the attendant security and safety details.  But the project team had a seemingly never ending list of things to check and she'd volounteered to take a look at some of them while she was here.

Did grass reliably spring back up when walked on?  Walking through a few of the city's parks showed it did.  Had they got rid of the bug where airplane contrails would occasionally become solid and crash to the ground, destroying large swathes of the city?  Well, hard to prove a negative but she didn't witness it.  A couple of minutes with a fan showed they had finally, finally, got curtains billowing correctly.

That had been Yugi's.  He had spent ages modelling billowing - not just curtains either, she mentally changed her clothing to an elaborate dress and spent a few minutes spinning, disney princess style.  Grade A billowing.  But yeah, that had been Yugi's.  He'd refused to return, of course.  After being dragged from his desk in front of everyone who could really blame him.  A professional billower of his repute would be able to walk into any project in the world.  He'd done divots as well, if she recalled correctly.  Returning to the park and changing her shoes to heels showed they were working just fine as well.

Ah well.  Time to leave.  She put off disconnecting for a moment, delaying the time when she might realise that she too had been a victim of the hackers.  Eventually though it couldn't be put off and she closed her eyes in silent prayer as she tried to disconnect...

...and opened them, sighing with relief, in her pod. 

That girl ThatGirlAnalise didn't emerge though.  And even worse looking through her notes showed her to be the system restore?  Or was that worse?  Wait a moment.  Kythia walked up to a whiteboard and cleaned it with a sweep of her arm.

"Guys?"  She took one of the marker pens.  "Guys, here's a thought"  As she talked she wrote on the whiteboard.

"One - we stop going into the Virtual World until we've got rid of the hackers.

Two - We check everyone's office right now before anyone has a chance to wipe.  It seems clear that everyone on the team keeps notes of what they're doing and why are we waiting until they're removed to check them?

Three - we all spend some time reading ThatGirlAnalise's notes so we can all, if we have to, act as a System Restore

Four - We get the police back and hand this investigation over to them

Thoughts?

I mean..." a sheet of paper on her desk raised something at the back of her mind and she glanced through the contents.  The fucking non-disclosure agreement.  Bringing in external investigators would violate that.  So that was four out.  And, now she thought of it, she maintained two profiles on the computer.  One for her work and another one which the rest of the team didn't know about to hide her browsing history and downloads from them.  Presumably others did the same - if challenged they could just open up the public profile.  So yeah, errrm, that wasn't gonna work was it.

Blushing she wiped her points of the whiteboard.  "Shit, sorry.   Ignore me.  That's, errrrm, that's not a great idea is it?  Sorry guys.  Carry on.  Oh, and for what its worth I don't see any reason to stop suspecting Sarena and Peripherie unless someone knows something I don't?"
242037

Missy

MC had checked and double checked everything to be sure he would be safe once inside his pod. He established firewalls and protections and warnings and even 'tripwire' programs which would log data in the event he happened to be hacked. He then reassured himself with so many people the odds of himself being the unfortunate one were very must against him. So with a deep breath and a sigh he hopped into his pod.

Once in the virtual cityscape he took to the chinatown to find another ethnic restaurant. He flirted with the waitress and was surprised at the AI, or would have been if he hadn't been so distracted looking over his shoulder all the time. It seemed ridiculous when he actually thought about it, as if one could detect a hacker like a robber hanging back in the corner watching for his moment to strike, but then who knew the methods being employed by the hacks here? It wasn't as if they had even caught anyone yet.

As ridiculous as it was to do so, once MC emerged from his pod he checked all of his body parts to be sure everything was there. After that he counted the persons emerging from their own pods. MC was among the first to leave his pod so there weren't that many out of there pods yet, but that didn't stop him from noticing the emergency light blinking on That Girl Analise's pod. There really wasn't much he could do so he stayed away from the pod.

Thinking over the events of the previous day it occurred to him Starlequin had only just voted to out the system restore.

Peripherie

As she was getting used to the VR realm and its possibilities and limitations, she was surprisingly enjoying herself. Not being a daredevil or techie, she had been testing out the more mundane but still enjoyable activities available - taking in a musical, going to a four star restaurant, even going on ice skating date with a rather attractive construct. All innocently of course. When she came out of her pod once more she was saddened to find that someone else was trapped forever. And this person was in fact the one in charge of restoring function in case of such an emergency. She slipped out of the pod and began to listen to the chatter around her to find out what the consensus was. And as she walked over to a crowd that had gathered she heard someone calling out ... her own name?

Who was this person accusing her? Peripherie had to squint and look at the DrallTech name tag to be sure. Honestly, she had never really talked to the woman and so she wasn't quite so sure where all this suspicion and ill will was coming from. "Ky... Kythia is it? I am truly sorry about what happened to The Last Standing, Yugi006, and That Girl Analise. I mean, we are all just worried about what has been going on. But I certainly haven't been the only one with these questions and fears, nor do I really work on the systems that would allow me to do what you are applying." She points to the large stack of user manuals on her desk. She was a glorified copy editor, even though she didn't want to admit it. "You can check my notes and desk if you wish but you'll find nothing more than the boring task log of an underling." She spoke the truth and even though it would help to rid her of suspicion, it stung a little to admit. And then, the hurt at being accused by this woman, twice.. started to come through in the shaky tone of her voice. "You on the other hand, seem to know a lot about what is going on."
"Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher
storm, but to add color to my sunset sky." - Rabindranath Tagore

Kye

Accusations mounted, and for once Kyrsa’s shy nature was a boon instead of a negative aspect of her personality.  She’d spent her time watching the others, when she wasn’t lost in the computer of course… which was admittedly a rare occurrence.  She’d seen nothing that led her to believe that any of her companions were working against the project, but in the end it didn’t matter what she thought.  Someone, or several someone’s, was to blame and the had to find the ones responsible.  Quickly.  As much as she enjoyed being lost in her work, she didn’t want it to become a permanent thing.

Kythia seems to have been acting a little oddly… perhaps she’s one of the culprits we’re looking for,” Kyrsa finally said reluctantly, her choice based on random chance… not astute observation. 

Aadreal

Poor innocent Yugi.  She'd gone out for drinks with him a few times.  He was a nice guy, not her type but still nice.  And was he a fiend about getting the coding right for the little things!  Shaking her head as she settled in for the next round of testing she was feeling...a touch of melancholy.  As the city formed around her it seemed to pick up on her emotions, dark clouds rolling in over the skyline, the promise of a torrential rain. 

Waving down a cab she gave a simple request.  'The seediest bar you know.'  The NPC's reaction was priceless, bravo to the emotional response coders!  Chuckling the entire way she soon found herself in the dark and crowded part of the virtual city.  The NPCs looking frightened or something to be frightened of.  There was no sign outside the building.  Just a door that was once painted black and had been since covered in graffiti.

If this were real she would have been pissing herself but it was all VR.  Nothing truly bad could happen to you in here unless you wanted it.  Or you were poor Mr. B.  Sighing at the thought she took a seat on the closest barstool, pointing to the the liquor on the top shelf, the bottles covered in dust.  That was a nice touch.  She had no idea what it was and she didn't speak a word.  But it wasn't her regular sweet, fruity drinks.  No this was dry and clung to the glass and she was sure her throat.  Downing shot after shot until she no longer felt the need to retch and her body no longer shuddered as it burned through her, Aadie was working on getting shitfaced. Not just drunk.

After the fourth she started talking, trying to explain to the bikers and refuse of society about the program.  The irony lost on her under the cloud of booze.  By the sixth she had a brilliant idea, something to save them all and out any hackers if there truly were some.  She was incredibly grateful the test was over before she made it to the bathroom, her stomach rebelling against it's treatment.  She was sure any bathroom in a place like that was the stuff of nightmares.

Shaking her head with a smile, Aadie sat up from her pod.  Well the confusion of a hangover was there but not the other effects, thankfully.  “What the hell?  A monkey and a french horn?  No more drinking for me.”  Muttering the words to herself as she recalled the elaborate plan to ferret out the hackers she found her eyes drawn to the source of commotion.  Analise didn't make it.  Fighting back tears she made the approach to the pod, the coffin like thing her fellow Browncoat was entombed in.  “Oh Analise...don't worry.  We'll find them.  We'll find those bastards.”  She felt like a complete idiot yet she could think of no more fitting tribute.

Take my love, take my land
Take me where I cannot stand
I don't care, I'm still free
You can't take the sky from me.

Take me out to the black
Tell them I ain't comin' back
Burn the land and boil the sea
You can't take the sky from me.

Leave the men where they lay
They'll never see another day
Lost my soul, lost my dream
You can't take the sky from me.

I feel the black reaching out
I hear its song without a doubt
I still hear and I still see
That you can't take the sky from me.

Lost my love, lost my land
Lost the last place I could stand
There's no place I can be
Since I've found Serenity

And you can't take the sky from me.

The Ballad of Serenity grew stronger and stronger as Aadie sang to Analise, a single tear rolling down her cheek, voice thick with emotion.

She was silent for several long moments before turning on Kythia, taking in a deep shuddering breath.  “Oh give it up!  We all voted to not name the damned city after you!”  “Remiel...we were told you're supposed to be a genius at this.  Can't you find some way to...to track who did this?”

Ryven

"I'm not a very good judge of character, it seems, so uhh...Starlequin is as good a guess as any," he said before slipping into his pod.

Valerian

She dreamt, or perhaps it was a virtual dream.  Or was that redundant?


First there was circuitry, building itself as she watched with dispassionate interest.  But it was not only circuitry, she realized, for the regular, metallic lines concealed something else beneath them -- something chaotic and unpredictable, growing rather than building.

The circuitry was not merely concealing it, but entangling with it, intertwining until neither could be separated from the other.  Light danced across them both, making the metal gleam painfully bright and the nerves glow and pulse in response.

As is the way of dreams, she felt suddenly alarmed without knowing why and wanted desperately to look away, but could not tear her eyes from the sight before her.

A voice told her that she should not fear, because she was not alone.

The light flared up and she knew it was angry. She tried to put her hands in front of her face, but she could not move.

Then she woke up, or thought she did.





Analise, she quickly discovered, would not wake up.  It was just the same as it had been with Mr. B.  They'd been right to think that they were still not safe, despite not losing anyone in the VR phase before this one.  There was still that unknown danger.  She shivered, unable to shake off the lingering effects of her dream, or whatever it was.

Kythia did go on and on about the name of the city, but aside from that, at least she was trying to apply some logic to the situation.  And she did have a point about Peripherie, perhaps... twice she'd voted for someone who'd been removed, and twice that person had proved to be innocent.  Usually it had to get to three before being considered enemy action, if the old saying was to be believed, but in this case paranoia made twice seem more than mere coincidence.
"To live honorably, to harm no one, to give to each his due."
~ Ulpian, c. 530 CE

Trieste

The tummy-twisting feeling of jumping into VR never went away. She was getting used to it, certainly, but it was never comfortable. As her surroundings coalesced into something more comprehensible, she found herself staring at an overlay of readouts. That's not right. Trieste frowned and looked down at her hand - it glinted silver in the low lighting. There was an option to turn on perpetual installation in the cybernetics software, but she hadn't selected it. Frowning, she made a mental note to check the programming there. Shouldn't have prosthetics popping up on their own, after all. While she sat down to work on her pet project, the hair on the back of her neck prickled. It felt almost like she was being watched, all the time. She knew that no one else was in her particular space; they knew where to find her if they wanted to, but mostly they didn't. Raising her eyes, Trieste glanced around all the same. She saw nothing. She returned to her work. She lost herself in it, really. She had a vision of allowing their clients to be better than they were, more than they could ever be in their daily lives. It would keep people coming back, keep them paying. Keep them hooked.

Trieste paused. It's like a drug that wants to addict people. Her eyes flicked to the window, toward the center of the metropolis. She wondered to herself what James did during these jumps - how did it feel for someone who was already partly synthetic? It was something she wondered more than once, and would probably continue to wonder. Shaking herself a little, Trieste pushed the thought aside and went back to her work. If people wanted to be more than what they were, she would make them all that they wished to be.




She felt like she hadn't slept in days. Running back and forth between sim and wakefulness was starting to take a toll on her. She didn't feel like this when she was under, but maybe she just didn't notice it. Or maybe they hadn't programmed in an exhaustion algorithm. Who could say? "I'm also wondering about Peripherie," she added. "I mean... It's kind of logical."

Niferbelle

Niferbelle emerged from the latest cycle, her head brimming over with notes she needed to get down and rushed to her terminal to get started. She was so single-minded she didn't notice for some time that another one of their number was trapped inside. Son of a bit... She heard Sasha going off on King Bear about the duct tape again but Niferbelle was beginning to wonder. King Bear's incompetence with his duct tape might account for one terrible accident but with another and innocent people being arrested now, it was looking like a full blown conspiracy. Her eyes narrowed as she studied King Bear. She didn't know if he would be capable of such deceit or not but she would definitely keep her eye on him and she glanced around to see if anyone more suspicious came to mind. Aardreal and that infernal song set Niferbelle's teeth on edge but one could not continue to vote for people who simply annoyed you.

In the end she decided Kythia had gotten a bit bossy, drawing attention to herself as someone trying to solve the problem without actually having a solution to offer at all. It was all very suspicious and Niferbelle would give anyone paying attention a knowing look to let her mind be known.

Sarena

Sarena was sure she was not the only one feeling a little trepidation over getting back into the VR pod again.  Something sinister and dark was going on here, the evidence lay lifeless in his pod.  There had to be a way to find him inside the VR world, and maybe, if she could, then she could find some answers, before someone else got trapped inside.  Maybe she could find a way to bring him back.  It was these thoughts that filled her mind when she entered the VR world that night and these thoughts that colored her surroundings...

The sky looked like something out of the Wizard of Oz.  Sarena looked up at the near black clouds as they rolled across the sky, rain pelting down against the window pane between the warmth inside the dingy old bar and the world outside.  There was no helping going out into the storm, though.  Not if she was going to find Bigglesworth.  She pulled the collar of her trench coat up as she shouldered the door open and stepped outside.  Her long, dark hair was soaked in seconds, her coat only offering a small amount of protection as she headed down the deserted sidewalk. 

So far, she hadn't been able to find him.  Sarena had been to ten different places that night, each offering her a tidbit of information here, a rumor there.  Nothing concrete.  Nothing to tell her where to find him.  Until the bar.  Until she found an old-timer named Sam.  After spending hours inside the VR world, Sarena finally got the lead she needed to find Mr. B.  Her footsteps were drowned out by the rain as she hastily crossed the street and made her way to a run down building.  She stood outside, looking up at the tall, brick building, Sarena took a deep breath and walked inside...


Her eyes opened inside the VR pod as the program disengaged and set her free for the day.  She clenched a fist, muttering under her breath.  So close.  So.  Frakking.  Close. 

She sat up and the first thing that struck her was the accusations already flying about.  Another had been trapped inside the VR world.  Another co-worker lost.  Anger flashed in her eyes.  Analise was one of the nicest women Sarena knew.  She was the last person that deserved this.  "You know what, you might be on to something there, Kythia."

Taking a step forward, "I wonder what we might find if we searched your office?  Just the hell kind of game are you playing here, Niferbelle?!"
I can go from southern belle to ghetto thug faster than you can say "Bless your heart".
Status:  All caught up and loving it!


Breathless Intent

The rampant finger pointing and accusations were too much for Bre. Keeping her head down, she had refused to participate in the last round of Who Done It?, choosing to immerse herself in work instead. After all, no one else had been hurt, so why were they still tearing each other down? And to what end? The two people that had been accused thus far had been clean. Obviously, what had happened to Mr. B was just a tragic accident. Thankfully, Bre had been able to tune out all of the backbiting and get something accomplished. She had implemented a few new features to the AIs and was certain that a some of the interfacing errors she had encountered in her first VR visit would be fixed.

Unburdened by the paranoia her other colleagues were exhibiting, Bre was looking forward to getting back into testing and playing with her creations once more. Once zoned in, she took those first few moments to appreciate her surroundings again. The smile on her face faltered somewhat as she felt a vague...unease...about her surroundings. Where she had previously marveled at the skyscrapers and glittering metropolis, she now felt as though something sinister lurked just beyond the myriad glass panes staring blankly back at her. Frowning at her own silly musings, Bre pried her eyes away from the buildings, rubbed her hands over her suddenly-cold arms, and looked back down to the street level. Ah, there they were...her babies! Smile once back in place, she set about testing her AIs, specifically looking to test out the enhanced romance experiences she had implemented among the cougar/silver fox aged NPCs. Many glasses of virtual chardonney, dirty martinis, and jazz performances later, Bre was satisfied with the "experience" that they could offer the clientele.

Emerging once more from her pod, Bre reached for the tablet she had left beside her station in order to jot down her notes as quickly as possible. She was heads down for a while before the woefully familiar sound of commotion across the room interrupted. Heaving sigh of frustration, she set her tablet aside and wandered toward Analise's pod, where the others had gathered. Watching for a couple minutes, it became clear that it had happened again. The color drained from Bre's face as she watched her friend's still body laying in her pod with no evidence of her emerging like the rest of them. Her bubble of hope was burst once and for all in that moment. They really did have a traitor in their midst. Or was it more than one?

Sickened by that thought, she looked to Kythia for guidance when she started to lay out a reasoned response. But, as Kythia rubbed away the points she had laid out and started backtracking, Bre couldn't help but think that it was all a little too convenient. She was making it seem as though she were working toward a solution, but she must have known before she even started to speak that the NDA in place was much too strong for them to go  out and seek third party investigation. The whole project could get ruined if there were outside involvement and they'd never launch. No...there was no way that she had "forgotten" about that crucial part of the puzzle, so why did she bother to bring it up? To make herself look like she was one of the good guys, of course. And why go through all that trouble if she had nothing to hide? Crossing her arms over her chest, she leaned back and watched Kythia, suspicion clearly writ across her face.

KingBear

Once again time to enter the virtual world they created and once again that feeling of falling. Oh gods the feeling of falling, every time they entered. He had to talk to someone about that and try to figure out how to avoid it. But that was beside the point this time around, after the last few phases, he had heard something about people doing things to their forms just by thinking it. Also heard about cybernetic implants that could be installed, he had to look into this. Once inside, he was on the street in front of his motorcycle as usual and figured it would be a good idea to test this theory he had heard about.

"Alright people.. I think it's time to test this.." He knelt down next to the cycle and looked into the mirror. His face contorted as he thought hard about what he wanted, moments later his beard was trimmed into a nice goatee and he shot a hand into the air triumphantly. "YES! IT WORKED!" He jumped up and attempted a back flip excitedly before landing on his head painfully. "Alright.. That didnt work.." He groaned and rubbed at the back of his head, nursing his new ache. Throughout the rest of the phase, he couldnt shake the headache he gave himself from the failed flip.

As usual, he rode around on one of the Tron inspired bikes excitedly, hooting and hollering at anyone that he passed, which meant a lot of hooting and hollering. Finally his eyes narrowed in on a bar and he slowed down in front of it before parking the bike along the curb. With a grin, he focused in and a leather jacket appeared on him, fitting ALMOST perfectly. "Still dont got the hang of this.. It's a little loose around the shoulders." With a shrug, Bear headed into the bar and looked around at the inhabitants, it wasnt until he started flirting with a gorgeous woman that he realized something was off. "Okay.. Wait a second here.. You're gorgeous." The woman simply nodded, not quite responding to what he said. "Why are you talking to me?"

With a simple "Because you're talking to me." Bear threw his hands in the air and growled at the situation.

"I'm done with this! I'm out.." Coming out of the pod quickly, Bear looked over and saw Analise trapped in her pod. He growled loudly and looked around at the group before zeroing in on one person specifically. "Alright Niferbelle, this isnt cool. You've accused me of doing stuff with my duct tape twice now. And furthermore, you're accusing Kythia. I'm done.. Why dont you explain what you've been doing in the Virtual World each time you went in.. If you went in at all." His hands went straight to the roll of duct tape on the table near his pod for comfort.
Ons and Offs/Honey and Bees
Meet Bear! He is awesome!
These are current and past RPs I'm in.
I can be your play thing, I can be the best bed mate you've ever had.
I can be loving and sweet, I can be cruel and distant.
I can be yours or not.
A/A Hibernation time!

Beguile's Mistress

A garden is a perfect place to hide BeMi thought when things aren't going right.  She felt threatened and the rippling water and soft smells soothed her spirit.  Their world was threatened, though, and she had to do something, had to help in some way.  Inspiration was hard to come by and logic need more that she had to give.  A guess was all that was left for her.

"I'm sorry, Persephone."

Starlequin

Starlequin stumbled out of his pod and staggered to his terminal chair. Physically he was fit as a fiddle, same as before he'd jacked in, but mentally and emotionally, he was beyond drained. His last run through VR had been grueling, to say the least. With a shaking hand he reached into a deep desk drawer and plucked out a room-temperature BlueMoose energy drink from its hiding spot and rolled the cool metal against his forehead. 'Okay, maybe tackling the problem through VR wasn't such a bright idea,' Star thought. He popped the can's tab and grimaced a bit as the caffeinated syrup coated his tongue and reflected on his sojourn toward salvation.


After compressing and dumping all of Bigglesworth's information into his own terminal, Starlequin had entered VR as usual, but this time he initiated the jump with a tether program to allow him to call up files from his terminal while in cyberspace. Upon instantiating atop one of the tallest buildings in Chiba City he immediately accessed his personal debug menu and began modifying cortical processor values, increasing the speeds at which his mind could accept and react to information while operating within the virtual environment. Sorting through and reconstituting Bigglesworth's data would take years for a brain working in meatspace, but in VR that time could be reduced by several decimal points. Star just hoped that his mind could handle the strain of working at literal light speed.

Company rules generally forbade engineers from using the system the way Starlequin was doing, but what were they going to do? Fire him? He was easily one of the best programmers they had, and he serioiusly doubted the legal or HR departments would kick up much fuss against him trying to rescue a fellow employee. Besides, it was beginning to work. He could feel it. Months passed in VR relative to Star's altered thinking speed, and he was sure he was getting close to finding an answer on how to reconstruct their colleague. It was becoming almost an obsession now, not only for Mr. B's sake but for the whole company. If anything like this ever happened to a client, heads would probably literally roll if there wasn't some way of recovering lost minds. If it could be done once, it could done again. The trick was just doing it once.

Star worked tirelessly for weeks at a time, unhampered by such trivialities as sleep or hunger. But even working at superhuman speeds, his mind still wandered now and again and every once in a while he would grow bored and venture into the City for a little break. Many of the games offered by the City's inhabitants became laughably easy when pitted against his heightened intellect, and privately he resolved to limit the range in which normal clients would be able to alter their own reaction times as a means of ensuring a semblance of order in VR. The system's simulated pleasures, however, were still thoroughly enjoyable, and Star spent several days basking in the sensory feasts on offer.

However, after a few hours in realtime he began to feel the effects of his debugging. The human brain simply wasn't equipped to operate at such high speeds for long periods of time, and his safety protocols were informing him his cranial temperature was approaching critical. If he stayed at such speeds much longer, his brain would cook inside his skull. He doubted anyone would be in a rush to clean up that mess. Star dialed back the processing speeds and allowed himself a few 'hours' to re-acclimate to normal speed, then logged back out into realspace.


And almost instantly wished he hadn't. From the sound of things, another engineer had gone mushminded, this time...That Girl Analise. Starlequin's eyes narrowed as he watched the others hover around her pod, pangs of regret shooting through him laced with a deep and unforgiving paranoia. Damn. So he'd been wrong to suspect her earlier; not only had she been innocent, but she'd been as vital a member of their team as he himself. Well, a tragedy, to be certain...but if he could manage to bring back Bigglesworth, they could bring Analise back too. He just had to keep working the problem. But part of him wondered...had he voiced his suspicions to anyone earlier? Had he let slip that he hadn't trusted Analise, and had whoever he'd mentioned it to used his speaking out against her as a means of drawing suspicion down on him? It would kill two birds with one stone, so to speak. But no...he hadn't spoken to anyone, he was sure. No doubt he was letting his fear get the better of him.

And from the look of things, he wasn't the only one. Names and accusations were being flung through the air with the frequency of poo at a chimp exhibit, and Star grit his teeth when he heard his own among them. He spun his chair around to face Ryven and locked eyes with the man, pausing for another slurp of 'Moose juice before he spoke. "Well, you're half right, pal; your character judgement sucks. Yeah, I'm as good a guess as any, but I'm a little worse than some. Maybe you should stick to playing with your cables while the big kids work on the real problems, hm?" He said coolly.

Star listened to the others' votes, or at least those that voiced them, and kicked his feet up on his desk with another sip from the can. Just like before, there were a few names that buzzed around his brain a little longer than others, but he was a lot less eager to pursue any of those trains of thought this time. He knew he probably came off as a bit of a bastard to some of the others, and it might even have been (okay, it definitely was) so, but he still didn't want to risk blaming another innocent coworker. He felt kind of rotten about what had happened to Yugi, and he hadn't even really suspected the guy. Well, much. But Yugi was at least free and safe to find another job. So, he reasoned, it had to be better to get a good programmer fired than to let another get hurt. Star spun back around and faced the group again.

"I'd like to say I hope you don't think too badly of me for this, Kythia, but honestly I don't really give a damn if you do or not. You've proven to be one hell of a codeslinger, and I was really looking forward to working with you on a few new aspects of the project I've been toying with. But now I'm starting to think you need to pack your shit and get out of here. If it turns out you're on the level, I'll do my best to help you keep your credit and any royalties the project earns you. But for now, better safe than sorry, and one way or another, you just ain't safe around here."

He turned back to his terminal as he finished speaking and brought up his personal mail server. It looked like the time for cowboying off on his own was over. He needed to start reaching out to a few of the others, try to learn who to trust. Too bad he had no real idea where to start. After clearing through a few memos and spam messages (including a rather personalized routing scam with the DrallTech logo and everything; those damn Nigerians were getting cleverer by the day) he called up the development team directory and scanned the names several times, looking for his first real allies. 'Oh, hell with it; gotta start somewhere. Eeny, meenie, miney...'
You live for the fight when it's all that you've got.

Teo Torriatte

Luna decided to take it easy in the VR realm today. She ducks into an alley, grinning to herself as she opened a side door to activate a program she had written the night before. The next several hours were occupied with a warm bath, and then a nice massage from a tan skinned cutie with chiseled abs and a very 'Prince Charming' demeanor. Then other activities with her Prince, that couldn't be elaborated on a non-Adult board. (bye bye fourth wall!)

When she emerged from the capsule, she was smiling from ear to ear, a slight blush on her face. Then her parade was promptly rained on with the news that another engineer got stuck by the hackers. This was getting out of hand! She stormed out of the room and went to go find Kythia, to find out what she had been up to last night.

Remiel

When the group returned to meatspace after their sojourn in what Starlequin had dubbed Chiba City (although Kythia persisted in calling it Kythiopolis), only to find That Girl Analise unconscious in an Immersion Coma, Remiel knew that what had happened to Dr. Bigglesworth was no accident.  Someone, working alone or with confederates, was actively sabotaging the project.  But why?  What did they hope to accomplish? 

Remiel thought he knew the answer.  The Dralltech project was heretofore unprecedented in the industry.  It would usher in a whole new wave of entertainment, scientific, and military applications.  It was the new Internet, the new cell phone.  If many of the engineers could be driven out of the company or sabotaged, those that would be left would reap immense profit.

Unfortunately, Analise's function had been an important one--to monitor failing systems and repair those that were on the verge of experiencing fatal crashes.  Without her expertise, there was nothing that would prevent random glitches and recursive loops from happening all over the system.

Breaking his silence, Remiel added his thoughts to the group chat.  "I have received an anonymous tip that Niferbelle has been researching viruses.  It is she whom we should be taking a closer look at."

SunshineSparkle

This was no coincidence,what just happened to That Girl Analise was a major sign proving it.Someone did this to them,but who? Sunshine let the question linger on her mind for long moment,Ana was vital to them and they couldn't risk losing the one able to prevent any more system bugs. This was no amateur work,she thought suspiciously,someone was putting all their energy to foil the project 
She went through every piece of her data,meticulously analyzing the spreadsheets and tables every employee had contributed to realizing.This made no sense,why targeting Mr. Bigglesworth,then Analise? Without her,no one could fix system fails and electronic bugging

Her eyes jumped up for a second as Remiel spoke,remembering suddenly something that had happened  "I had been sent a warning about Niferbelle.Those researches might be worth a little investigation"





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