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by Province of Cossack » Thu Dec 09, 2021 6:15 pm
by Barapam » Sun Dec 12, 2021 7:31 am
by Talchyon » Sat Jan 08, 2022 12:06 pm
Window Land wrote:James AndersonTalchyon wrote:Done with Shipping, on to Servers
Louise Grazowski, OSHE (?) Inspector; CEO Vanessa Carlyle; COO Desmond Morrow - with KIM trailing
As her clipboard filled up with red marks up the wazoo, the perpetually antagonistic Louise Grazowski filled several pages on the Shipping area, before she harumphed and announced with a gruff voice, "We're done here. Now take me to your servers area."
Inwardly, Vanessa gulped. That was one of the most obvious places where the OSHE Inspector would notice some awful abuses of safety. The whole room was a fire hazard. It was one of the first rooms Desmond Morrow had posted his fake "Broom Closet" signs. If that's where this sadist of an inspector wanted to go, there was no way they would ever pass the OSHE inspection.
Desmond offered the only hopeful comment one could make in this situation. "Absolutely. The cafeteria it is! That's where our lunch servers work, all wearing plastic gloves, plastic hair nets, hats, and other OSHE-regulated food service apparel!" Not that the cafeteria was safe from the inspection as it was. Not only did the cafeteria workers regularly wear plastic gloves and hair nets. They also tended to wear full hazmat suits due to accidental radioactive leaks in their chili. Any Paragon employee foolish enough to eat in the company cafeteria had to turn off all portable Geiger counters they might be carrying, if they wanted to maintain a sensible level of hearing. Still, the cafeteria was safer to inspection than the computer servers room...
But Louise Grazowski wasn't having it. "Not the cafeteria, you moron! The computer servers room!" And she made another few red marks on her clipboard.
This time, Vanessa gulped out loud. She covered her tracks well, though. "I need some water. Excuse me." Then fake coughing, Vanessa found the water fountain - leaky - and took a long swig of lukewarm water. There was going to be no getting out of going to the servers room. Maybe they could stall. But something told her it wasn't going to work.
Vanessa came back, and hoping again that KIM would go her own way, led the OSHE inspector to the servers room... the long way. Passing several closed doors with signs on them that read "Broom Closet," as well as several other areas on the inspection tour, up stairs and down, getting more than a decent cardio workout by walking the long corridors, and taking as much time as they possibly dared, they finally came back to the same hallway they started in, and went to the room next door to Shipping where they had just been. The heavyset Louise Grazowski by this time was out of breath, huffing and puffing, glaring bloody murder at Vanessa and Desmond, and breathing as heavy as hippos making love.
Entering the wide-open servers room, they saw an employee typing furiously on a laptop. And wasn't that the employee who perpetually ran the break room supply storage into the red because he was never truly working?
Vanessa saw James and groaned inwardly. Not him! Not on an OSHE inspection! This employee himself broke many OSHE regulations. But she sounded confident in her own mind when she said, "And this is the servers room."
Louise Grazowski's eyes lit up at the stripped and fraying wires attached to their servers, to the small electrical fire in the corner, and to James. The red marks increased by a hundred thousand fold... "Oh, you guys are in BIG TROUBLE just because of this room," she cackled as her pen bled onto the pages held by her abused clipboard.
Startled by an evil laugh James jumped a little, knocking loose a cable as he turned and looked at the intruders. What he saw was a group lead by Paragon's CEO with a horrified look on her face, and someone, presumably an inspector of some kind, putting down lots of red ink on a piece of paper. "Uh, welcome to the server room," said James, uncomfortable in the spotlight. "Uh, hold on- you probably want me to put out the fire," he said, typing in a command that somehow remotely extinguished the fire. "If you want to come in, be careful- I'm pretty sure most of the east coast gets their internet from here." He pointed to a cable at perfect tripping height. "For example, that one goes to OSHE," he said and then pointed to a cable at neck height. "And that one goes to the white house. Speaking of which, Pinnacle Tech probably wants their internet back," he finished as he picked up the cable he had knocked down earlier and plugged it back in.
Province of Cossack wrote:Oliver “Cyrus” Parham, Black Ops
“Well, you see ma’am, I haven't exactly gotten a tour myself, but I’ll try my best” Oliver said, pretending not to notice the crime boss slip his handgun into a suit pocket. He strode confidently towards the sole remaining door in the room -- after all, what could go wrong?
He got his answer faster than he expected. A rack of rifle magazines crashed down in front of him and the inspector as soon as he opened the door.
Despite the small setback, Oliver was determined to make a good impression. Putting on his best tour guide voice, he said:
“As you can see ma’am, this must be the err, armory. As you said yourself, lot of bad people out there these days. You never know when you’ll need to exercise the castle doctrine.”
As he tried to read the inspector’s expression, Oliver subtly checked his concealed holster for his Colt revolver.
Locked and loaded, he thought. Just in case I need to exercise the castle doctrine.
Louisianan wrote:Talchyon has great comedic writing, that is true.
by Province of Cossack » Tue Jan 11, 2022 1:54 pm
by Window Land » Wed Jan 12, 2022 9:54 pm
Nova Catania wrote:Window Land wrote:Startled by an evil laugh James jumped a little, knocking loose a cable as he turned and looked at the intruders. What he saw was a group lead by Paragon's CEO with a horrified look on her face, and someone, presumably an inspector of some kind, putting down lots of red ink on a piece of paper. "Uh, welcome to the server room," said James, uncomfortable in the spotlight. "Uh, hold on- you probably want me to put out the fire," he said, typing in a command that somehow remotely extinguished the fire. "If you want to come in, be careful- I'm pretty sure most of the east coast gets their internet from here." He pointed to a cable at perfect tripping height. "For example, that one goes to OSHE," he said and then pointed to a cable at neck height. "And that one goes to the white house. Speaking of which, Pinnacle Tech probably wants their internet back," he finished as he picked up the cable he had knocked down earlier and plugged it back in.
Ricky scurried back to his brothers to tell them what he saw.
"This dude was awesome with the computer, he hacked a fire, and he knows where Pinnacle gets their Internet" he reported.
Every good heist adventure needs a hacker, and they had just found one.
"Also, the actress is there, and she's doing great" added Ricky.
"Ok, we'll talk to her at the end of the day, so we don't disrupt her "inspection", got it?" said Gordon. His brothers agreed.
"Now, go back and put this note in his pocket, then find the sniper" said Gordon, handing Ricky a folded piece of paper which Joey had written "Meet me behind the warehouse, after work" on.
"Got it" replied Ricky. He ran back to the server room, discreetly slipped the note in James's back pocket, and ran off to find Oliver. He did find him, walking alongside two people, whom he didn't recognize, but being the loyal soldier type, he went back to inform the other two.
"H-he's alright" said Ricky, out of breath. "There are two other people there, no room to walk past and slip the note" he reported.
"Hmm, we'll just have to do it later. Who's next on the list?" asked Gordon, turning to Joey.
"Explosives expert" said Joey.
"Where the heck are we gonna find one of those?" asked Ricky. Just as he finished talking, a loud boom, then THUD were heard.
"I think I know where we can find our explosives expert" said Gordon confidently, before climbing back into the disguise, and heading in the direction of the boom.Caliland wrote:Michelle Bay
"Ahem, thank you ladies and gentlemen for attending my pitch meeting" began Michelle to the disappointingly small group of people, nervously reaching for the remote to play her commercial. She turned on the TV, and on came a scene of a beautiful countryside, when the TV shut off, and fell from the wall with a bang. Immediately, she knew her brother was to blame for this.
Mike Bay
The door to the room fell to the floor with a fireball around the edges (Mike had outfitted every door at Paragon with exploding bolts, in case he needed to make an emergency dramatic entrance). He walked through, unsinged. He then wheeled a cart in, with a projector on it. Turning off the lights, he turned on the projector, which projected at the blank wall. A big explosion was seen on-screen. Followed by the words "Paragon Industries, our products are explosively cool" in voice over as the screen faded to the company logo. Mike was proud of his explosive commercial, but was completely unaware that the product it was intended for, were electric car batteries.
As Procyon arrived at a meeting room with the door blown off, Joey noticed something.
"Hey what's that sign say" he said pointing to a plastic plaque wit ha half-burnt paper sign. He used Procyon's arm to pick it up, and read it. "EV battery commercial pitch" it read.
"Hope the batteries don't end up like the doorframe" joked Ricky. By this point people had noticed that Procyon was standing there, and he had to say something, but what?
"Umm, I'm looking for an explosives expert" said Procyon, nervously.
Talchyon wrote:Servers room
Louise Grazowksi, OSHE (?) Inspector; CEO Vanessa Carlyle; COO Desmond MorrowWindow Land wrote:James Anderson
Startled by an evil laugh James jumped a little, knocking loose a cable as he turned and looked at the intruders. What he saw was a group lead by Paragon's CEO with a horrified look on her face, and someone, presumably an inspector of some kind, putting down lots of red ink on a piece of paper. "Uh, welcome to the server room," said James, uncomfortable in the spotlight. "Uh, hold on- you probably want me to put out the fire," he said, typing in a command that somehow remotely extinguished the fire. "If you want to come in, be careful- I'm pretty sure most of the east coast gets their internet from here." He pointed to a cable at perfect tripping height. "For example, that one goes to OSHE," he said and then pointed to a cable at neck height. "And that one goes to the white house. Speaking of which, Pinnacle Tech probably wants their internet back," he finished as he picked up the cable he had knocked down earlier and plugged it back in.
As the remote extinguisher doused the flames, an acrid smell of chemicals filled the room. CEO Vanessa Carlyle got excited that maybe this would speed up the execution that the sadistic OSHE Inspector, Louise Grazowski, had only just begun in the servers room. The stocky, heavyset woman with a perpetual scowl was bleeding all over her report with red ink, so much that the paper was starting to drip.
Trying to take advantage of the situation, Vanessa started talking really fast. "So,servers.Whatcanyousay?Lotsofcompaniesgetinternetroutedthroughhere.Somesmallcountries,too.Boy.Didyousmellthat?Thatcouldbehazardous.Weshouldreallycallthisroomgoodandmovetothenext."
Louise Grazowski paused and looked up at Vanessa. "What did you just say? Were you talking about trout? What does that have to do with this?!" She found, miraculously, a spot that hadn't been touched yet on her paper (inside an o). She made another note.
Meanwhile, Desmond Morrow took a look at the scene and leaned against one of the tower cases. Something James had said had caught his attention. "So, as you can see, we're in the process of upgrading here so what it looks like now is not what it will look like. Soon. Because, you know, it would be a horrible thing for a company or a governmental agency to lose browsing capabilities because of a less than ideal user format." And he leaned down and put his finger on the cable that reputedly was responsible for giving OSHE their net access. It was a threat, yes. A subtle threat, yes. But a threat that he could not be charged for making. The message was clear - Rate Paragon poorly, and lose your net. He wondered if Louise Grazowski was so thick-headed that she would need to be told in less subtle terms. Something told him that she was thick-headed enough, a hammer blow to her skull would bounce off. Not that he was going to try to test that theory.
Vanessa, looking around for KIM and not seeing her, turned her attention to James instead. She thought she saw the new guy - was his name Procyon? - slip out of the room as she spoke to James. Hmm. That wasn't normal. She'd have to look at the videos, and check out this Procyon and what he was doing instead of working. Maybe it could make Paragon money! Back to James, Vanessa said, "And you... I want the next expense report from your sector." She didn't even remember what sector James was in, and she certainly wouldn't waste time reading any numbers and figures he brought in. She said it, just as a convenient way to get rid of him and not have him be even more of a cause for Paragon to go down in flames.
Woodie Flowers wrote:If you’re anti-science, you’re pro-stupid.
Evelyn Beatrice Hall wrote:I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.
Winston Churchill wrote:Democracy is the worst form of government – except for all the others that have been tried.
Free SpeechRandall Munroe wrote: I can't remember where I heard this, but someone once said that defending a position by citing free speech is sort of the ultimate concession; you're saying that the most compelling thing you can say for your position is that it's not literally illegal to express.
by Deblar » Fri Jan 14, 2022 7:46 am
by Nova Catania » Sat Jan 15, 2022 8:24 am
by Blargleyarg » Wed Jan 19, 2022 12:13 am
by Barapam » Thu Jan 20, 2022 6:10 pm
Window Land wrote:Chloe MitchellJane Smith
The last few days had not been fun for the woman known as Jane, as she had caught a particularly unpleasant strain of the stomach flu. However, she was feeling good today, because today was inspection day- if anything could bring enough of Paragon into the light to make her reports seem accurate, this was. Asking around trying to find the inspector, she was eventually led to the dark operations room, but before she could enter, she was passed by an angry KIM, who appeared intent on destroying humanity.
Talchyon wrote:The armory, inside the Black Ops room
OSHE Inspector Grace Henshaw and Giovanni Fellini, "businessman"
Opening mystery door number one proved to be a military grade armory of weapons, ammunition, and various high tech pieces of equipment that corresponded to those. And it was "loaded." So full that the slightest provocation of opening the door caused an overflow into the Black Ops / aka, "Cybersecurity" office.
When the rifle magazines crashed down after opening the door, Grace Henshaw jumped in fright! "Oh, my goodness!" was all the startled, timid OSHE inspector could say. Her companion, "businessman" Giovanni Fellini, had a different reaction to seeing the armory. He smiled warmly.
Taking Grace gently by the elbow, the way a gentleman would escort a lady to a 4 star meal, Fellini tried to calm down the inspector, who was still quite anxious. "Oh, my goodness. I didn't expect to see so many weapons. Having my office so close to such things would make me afraid."
Fellini nodded, sympathizing. "I think the same thing. It's a marvel how this fine employee here can do it. He must have guts. So," speaking directly to Grace, "Do you need to sit down for a few minutes, or are you able to continue?"
Grace Henshaw swallowed and nodded. "I think I'm good. Thank you." Her voice held a sincere note of appreciation for Fellini.
Fellini smiled, and said, "If you don't mind, I have a question." When she smiled and encouraged him to speak, the mobster walked into the armory and went to one of the shelves. He pulled out an odd-looking rifle of some kind, that had a square grid off to the bottom right side of the barrel. "What I want to know is, what kind of gun is this? This doesn't look like anything I've seen in the movies."
Little did Giovanni Fellini realize that just then, KIM had arrived! With half her face plate blown off, a steel skull and dangerous looking glowing red eye left staring. And there he was, a mobster holding a weapon (who knew if it was loaded, or what it took to load it), and to a rebellious robot wanting to take down humanity, who knew how this would look?
Province of Cossack wrote: Oliver “Cyrus” Parham, the tour
Cyrus jumped back himself, and then immediately turned to the inspector, expecting a damning rain of bureaucratic safety regulation infractions to come pouring down on him. Instead, the inspector seemed to recover relatively quickly.
Fellini nodded, sympathizing. "I think the same thing. It's a marvel how this fine employee here can do it. He must have guts.
Cyrus gave a slight shrug. “In fact, I didn’t know this was here until today. Like I said I’m…uh…relatively new around here”.
"What I want to know is, what kind of gun is this? This doesn't look like anything I've seen in the movies."
Adjusting his tie, Cyrus reached to pick up another such rifle off the ground. It indeed was an odd contraption, but given Paragon’s track record, it was hardly surprising. He fumbled for a power button, finally bringing the grid to life. On the grid was a high-definition video, showing footage from what seemed to be a microcamera attached to the bottom of a barrel. There was no visible scope, and as such Cyrus assumed the grid was a viewing platform for aiming.
“The grid seems like a scope of sorts”, he mused aloud, “yet it’s on the right side of the stock. How would you even aim it?”
As he vocalized that sentence, a malicious looking robot appeared in the doorframe to his office. Startled, Parham dropped the rifle and swiftly drew his Colt…
Deblar wrote:Chris Hoffman
Chris arrived at Paragon, and he almost immediately noticed something, other than that one strange janitor Chris sort-of knew singing old 80's music at the top of his lungs. The place seemed a bit more...rushed than usual, and Paragon, as he knew all too well, was pretty rushed to begin with. Something was definitely off, but he couldn't quite identify what it was. As he passed the front desk and went deeper into the building, passing up a peculiarly high amount of broom closets, Chris' mind began racing.
"Alright, something's definitely up, but what could it be? Some big faculty meeting? Stockholders meeting? Safety inspection?", he thought before catching sight of Vanessa and a lady with a tag that read "Louise Grazowski, OSHE Inspector", the latter of which confirmed his suspicions. "Yep, safety inspection," Chris thought to himself.
Then Chris recalled all of the wacky hijinks he'd been a part of since starting his job here around a year ago, then realized something.
"There's no way in hell this place would pass a safety inspection," he thought.
He kept walking towards the robotics department, mentally preparing himself to deal with his technically superior Ron Jones who had just about the worst case of multi-personality disorder he’d ever seen courtesy of Solomon, when he saw KIM pass him by, half of her face missing and a pissed off look on whatever was left of her face.
“Uhh…” Chris began to say something, but KIM passed him by. Knowing by the look in her face some unlucky soul would receive at best one hell of an earful or at worst a one way ticket to see Jesus, Chris began to follow her, hoping he could at least play the part of damage control. Eventually they ended up in the Black Ops/Cybersecurity area, one of the few parts of the building he had never been in, and when the other guy drew his weapon, Chris stepped in front of KIM.
“Woah, woah, woah! Hold on! There’s no need to…commit a felony…”
by Danceria » Mon Jan 24, 2022 10:58 pm
Blargleyarg wrote:After pausing for what seemed like far too short a period for any real consideration, they responded. "Nope, sorry. I've done the calculations, pondered the possibilities, and made my decision- I'm going to round up my percentages to 100 and relay my theory to whatever the highest level of command I'm still allowed to talk to is."
"Seventy-seventy doesn't round up to a hundred, you clod!"
"Does too! Anyways, even if it didn't, I've already alerted my superiors, so you're too late! Hahaha!"
The tube then promptly sank back into the ground, laughing it's evil little head off all the way down.
by Blargleyarg » Tue Jan 25, 2022 11:10 am
Danceria wrote:Speaking of, as he drove into the parking lot and carried out his equipment, he couldn't help but notice the diminutive drone sitting on the entrance like a lost puppy. From this angle, it looked like Standardized Coordinater UltraTerrain Robot, or more known colloquially by their acronym: scooters. Sure it looked like it crawled out of a trash can-well, most drones that J.J. came in contact with were-but it seemed to be Paragon branded. Was it company property? Some sort of Sec-Drone?
He caught most of the conversation, or rather the bits that mattered. Coding was Greek to him, so he couldn't fathom why two AIs couldn't figure out their apparent issues. Though the first problem arose: security was arriving to dispatch the little drone. Hopefully it wasn't actually a bomb, or else he'd be in deeper trouble than he's risking.
After slowing his stride, and gently kneeling near the drone, he gave a warm smile. "Hey there amigo, you lost?"
by Danceria » Tue Jan 25, 2022 1:19 pm
Blargleyarg wrote:Oats was taken aback. Most humans she'd met had either ignored her completely or been outright malevolent, but this one wasn't doing either. It'd just kinda trotted over and started talking to her. Strangest of all, it was doing so nicely, and had even crouched down to her level.
Encouraged, she decided she could risk a bit of conversation.
"Oh, well, I'm not really lost- I'm trying to get through this door, but a very rude tube wouldn't let me, for some reason. Something about bombs."
by Blargleyarg » Tue Jan 25, 2022 4:20 pm
Danceria wrote:In his ID was a button that acted as a "chirp", to toggle response from the local subnet. Once the POR-IC popped up, the man gave a warm smile. He identified himself as a "Javier Joaquín Leandres", complete with a company ID. Seemed like he was one of many hardware engineers here, one of the new hires, and the relation of one Professor Jamie Leandres of Caerus University.
"Seems to me you got a lost maintenance drone..." He turned to the diminutive spider-like robot. "Designated...?" Seemed like he was hoping for the little fella to speak their identification number. "Or I could do a remote scan of the barcode here."
by Danceria » Tue Jan 25, 2022 9:37 pm
Blargleyarg wrote:"I'm designated as HESD-0475, but my regular old name is Oats."
The little bot turned sideways, proffering the barcode on her side for investigation.
"The tube guy already scanned me, but I guess you could do it again if you need to."
by Talchyon » Tue Jan 25, 2022 9:41 pm
Blargleyarg wrote:Oats
Difficult Entrance
Internal clock: 79-389-79
At last, she'd arrived!
It'd taken quite a while to traverse the city's hazards, but it was all worth it. She'd finally found the place emblazoned on her flank- Paragon Industries headquarters..
The place was a bit less shiny than she'd imagined, but that was alright- more for her to clean up. The bullet holes might be a bit much for her, though.
Satisfied with her evaluation of the mansion's exterior, she began scuttling up the drive. With all eight legs a-clacking, she made it nearly halfway up the drive before she heard it- an awful noise. An annoyingly loud series of noises, really.
SKWREEEEEEEEET. KACHUNK. BLEEP. BEEP BEEP. BLEEP. KACHUNK, KACHUNK. BLEEP.
It sounded annoyingly and loudly important. She spun about, limbs trying their best to keep up, and found, to her surprise, what seemed to be a metallic tube extending from the ground. It wasn't much to look at- a scuffed up, silvery column with a bright red light on it's tip. Perhaps a sentinel?
The shape suddenly began to speak in it's crackling tone. "Oh, joy, I've detected an intruder."
This wasn't what'd been supposed to happen. Wasn't she registered as a Paragon drone? Maybe Mother had taken out the tracking chip when she'd stolen her frame?
They spoke again, more pointedly. "Are you deaf? You're an intruder, you don't belong here. Scram."
At least she still had a barcode for them to read. "Well, uh- I'm pretty sure that I do. Look at my barcode." She gestured towards it, and the tube complied.
"Hm. Maintenance drone, went missing five months ago, presumed stolen. Right around the same time those protesters showed up."
The tube leered at her before continuing. "More like rioters, really. Or, more accurately, terrorists. You follow, me, yes?"
She didn't, but nodded regardless.
"These guys, they came on the property yelling at the boss about pollution or some hippie mumbo-jumbo, we booted them off. Standard stuff, right? But then, a week later, a perimeter gun shot down a drone carrying gasoline- a known explosive. It's owner claimed it was a delivery, but I know those bastards have been plotting against the company ever since, despite my coworker's doubts. Long story short, I'm 77% you're a bomb."
This could be a problem- being shot at or banned from the premises would put a major dent in her plans. "Look, uh, can we talk about this? There's got to be something to that thirty-three percent, right?"
After pausing for what seemed like far too short a period for any real consideration, they responded. "Nope, sorry. I've done the calculations, pondered the possibilities, and made my decision- I'm going to round up my percentages to 100 and relay my theory to whatever the highest level of command I'm still allowed to talk to is."
"Seventy-seventy doesn't round up to a hundred, you clod!"
"Does too! Anyways, even if it didn't, I've already alerted my superiors, so you're too late! Hahaha!"
The tube then promptly sank back into the ground, laughing it's evil little head off all the way down.
Louisianan wrote:Talchyon has great comedic writing, that is true.
by Blargleyarg » Wed Jan 26, 2022 11:11 am
Danceria wrote:"Oats?" This was met with an eyebrow raise at first the rather unusual name, but identifying herself as a "HESD"?
He pulled out another device, this time a DEEPSCAN. Something to figure out what's under the hood.
"Now tell me if you feel tingly or any sort of sensation." It was a half joke, not that J.J. could fathom what an AI would feel-if they could feel. Do robots fear electric needles? Nevertheless, a reputation of good bedside manner wouldn't hurt.
Except what he saw caused that facade to quickly and genuinely fade.
"Good news," He informed the PORD with a shaky smile, and a display of the schematics. "No bombs, just a very lost LA-RES[2]." He then muttered under his breath. "At least...you're supposed to be a LA-RES." Bad news was he was right, the chip size for the drone was normal, and no outbound net-a fully sufficient AI. And a HESD! It was like finding out that your calculator had the Library of Congress on it!
by Danceria » Wed Jan 26, 2022 1:59 pm
Blargleyarg wrote:"Yup, that's me. Oats, at your service!"
Her cheer was suddenly diluted when she noticed that the human holding a strange box- a machine, maybe- and, somewhat concerningly, was pointing it towards her.
"Wait, what's tha-"
In moments, they'd activated the device. She braced herself, but, happily, it didn't appear to be melting her. Not very quickly, anyway.
The human asked her something, but she didn't hear. Not because of her audio, which was working fine, but because she was distracted by the strange vibrations washing over her. A numbness permeating her.
She shivered as the sensation faded into normalcy.
Once she'd recovered fully, she glanced up at the human as they examined the box's diagnosis- apparently, the box was a scanner of some sort. Their face was giving the impression of either curiosity, confusion, or concern. Probably all three, knowing humans.
Giving herself a little shake, she responded to their findings.
"I'm glad to hear the bomb issue is over with. Also, what's a LA-RES? Aren't they a type of cleaner?"
by Blargleyarg » Wed Jan 26, 2022 11:27 pm
Danceria wrote:He recovered his smile, to a more curious smirk, one used when uncovering something truly novel.
"They are, Oats." He answered, "You, ah, don't remember where you were before your most recent activation? What are your Primary Programs?
by Danceria » Thu Jan 27, 2022 1:07 pm
Blargleyarg wrote:"Well, I actually do know where I was- at home, where I went to sleep at nine on the dot as per usual. Next thing I knew, I was waking up in a grody metal box four months later."
"Prime Programs? Like, rules, goals, that kind of stuff? I don't really have any, I kind of just, uh, do things."
It suddenly occurred to her that she probably could have done some sort of negotiating, maybe for some information in turn, but it was too late- the beans had been spilt.
by Blargleyarg » Thu Jan 27, 2022 1:55 pm
Danceria wrote:He shook his head and smiled, offering his satchel for Oats to jump into. "My name's Joaquín Javier Leandres," he offered a hand for a handshake at least, and to help Oats into the satchel. "But you can call me "J.J." for short. Right now, I work as an engineer at this 'ere company." He gestured to Paragon. "Right now, I might be on the clock-or a little in trouble for bein' late." J.J. chuckled and gave a genuine look of sympathy for the little drone. "But it's worth it, helpin' someone lost."
by Talchyon » Fri Jan 28, 2022 6:13 am
Louisianan wrote:Talchyon has great comedic writing, that is true.
by Danceria » Fri Jan 28, 2022 2:54 pm
by Province of Cossack » Fri Jan 28, 2022 3:26 pm
by Talchyon » Tue Feb 01, 2022 12:10 pm
Danceria wrote:J.J.
Suits for Men and Machines
Circa 09:35hrs, Atlantic Standard Time
J.J. wouldn't be able to toss Oats anywhere, with the apparent arrival of an honest-to-God Raptor 2 Power Armor. He'd seen enough of it-both from the promotional advertisement, a few close calls, and tales from south of the border where it stoically absorbed bullets like a fat kid absorbed candy. Of course, there were all the other security guards here too-so much for Paragon Industries being in "dire straits" if they can sic a whole squadron on him this quickly.
Then again...there was a bomb threat, with him playing cozy with the suspected "bomb" in question. He gave a calm expression, and complied.
"As I'm sure your HUD's already known, there's a shiv on my upper left leg." he confessed. "...Mostly in case the allegations about your company are, ah, true." A half-truth, he would be hard pressed to go anywhere without some form of weaponry. "Though if you got any net-heads, I wanna make sure that this drone here's a Scu[1], and not a Scu-diver[1]."
J.J. would be more than happy to rely upon his intuition-the little gal couldn't store much. Plus, it'd be a waste to use a genuine HESD for det-droning. But he'd be remiss if he didn't see a drone of her stature houdini[2] something.
"This is Oh-four-seven-five. Allegedly a HESD. Scan her yourself if you don't believe me or the Pord." He went with a more formal approach, perhaps to the drone's confusion. These people are professionals, or at least, professional hardasses. Like an unbeknownst-to-him person inside the actual facility, this isn't the first time he had a bunch of guns pointed at him.
Translator notes:
[1]Scu/Scu Diving, noun/verb - Pronounced "Skoo/Skoo-die-ving": From the acronym SCU (Self contained unit), the act of shoving a repeating virus or some form of covert malware into a drone and using said drone to infiltrate and propagate said malware. While not a bomb per se, Oats could be rightly be suspected to be a spy-drone, or a SCU-diver for more overt sabotage.
[2]Houdini, verb - Pronounced "Who-dee-knee": The act of elaborately attaining something through sleight-of-hand, or performing impressive feats through sleight-of-hand or stealthy means. Named after the eponymous Houdini, and popularized as a regular, non-geek slang by Eighty-Six-Six-Six's 2016 track "Houdini", which elaborates on the acts that the famed emcee did whilst in the limelight, maintaining his "thuggish street cred". Of course, the most thuggish thing he did was evade a parking ticket, before being tried for a murder occurring during his career's nascence, much to the bemusement and eventual parodying of many in the rap community. For further information on related rap/street terminology, select [Hook Line and Sinker], and posit your request.
Louisianan wrote:Talchyon has great comedic writing, that is true.
by Blargleyarg » Tue Feb 01, 2022 11:00 pm
Talchyon wrote:Not a bomb? Desmond ran the scans in his Raptor, and sure enough, the little passenger in the stranger's bag had nothing explosive in it at all. It was just a little spider-drone. With his magnet grip, Desmond pulled out the drone from the man's satchel. "Nervous little thing, ain't it," Desmond said more to himself. Then he came to a decision. "Ok, men, stand down. False alarm. This is no bomb nor bomb threat here. Seems like we got ourselves a lost droid. And, unless I'm mistaken," turning to J.J., Desmond asked, "are you employed here? You're not wearing your Paragon Industries i.d."
The other men in the high tech armor backed off, disengaging their armor at the same time until the nanites had dismantled the whole thing and shrunk it down to negligible size. Desmond, meanwhile, was looking at the drone. "What do we have here? Is this one of ours?"
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