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Post by "Bill" on Sept 16, 2018 17:42:08 GMT -8
*As Embera left Bayside, her breathing finally calmed down, and her nerves settled as she left her feelings and conflict back at the warzone. This was one of the only places she never visited, remembering Genesis telling her to never trust them. He never talked much about it, aside from saying "experiments" with a grimace of anger and pain on his face when he referenced them. Elec-Geo was still closed off, and she had nothing better to do, so she might as well gather some knowledge of this place. Coming through the front door, Embera felt rather professionally invited to be in this facility, the hospitality was very much in contrast to what she was told, but still she kept her guard up. Making her way to the front counter, Embera prepared to show her ID-Card from Electopia Geothermal to validate her identity and made her presence known to the counter-navi.*
Embera: Hello, my name is Embera, and I came here because I heard this place was on the cutting edge of navi development, and I was hoping there would be someone to speak to, regarding navi information I found out recently?
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Post by Raven8 on Sept 16, 2018 17:56:41 GMT -8
The receptionist is about to answer Embera, when a man in a lab coat with messy hair and thick glasses steps out behind the counter, motioning away the pink Navi girl as if to say "I've got this". Taking her place behind the desk, he looks to the tall Navi form before him and says...
Everett: Ms. Embera, right? It's a real pleasure to have someone of your notoriety in our labs! What can we do for you today?
Everett holds his natural smile and stands in a casual, leaning stance as he speaks to Embera, wrapping his hands around a clip-board that he lifts from the desk all the while.
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Post by "Bill" on Sept 16, 2018 18:06:58 GMT -8
*Embera was surprised to see a lab tech so eager to jump to her case. She raised an eyebrow when Everett expressed notoriety, but decided to play the humor card, letting out a friendly chuckle.*
Embera: Haha! I don't know if the reputation that precedes me is good news or bad news! I just had a few questions and I can't for the life of me find answers.
*Not really in the mood for small talk, Embera decided to cut to the chase. Speaking with Lex really helped her understand the importance of breadcrumbs and keeping one's hand guarded at all times.* Embera: My first question is: Can navis sleep? I don't mean a non-vital shut down or a standby mode, I mean actual sleep, complete with dreams and nightmares that they cannot explain when they return to their ready state?
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Post by Raven8 on Sept 16, 2018 18:18:45 GMT -8
Everett laughs at Embera's comment, waving it of casually as he continues.
Everett: No, no; nothing like that. We're a net-development firm, so we always do our best to keep up with Navis that have noteriety; it's sort of our hobby here, because it helps us understand your complexities just a little better!
Everett then places his clip-board back on the desk and takes off his glasses, wiping them on his lab-coat as he continues.
Everett: That is an interesting question, though. In the biological sense, I suppose it's somewhat possible. While we still don't fully understand human sleep, one of the leading theories is that it's a time for our bodies to undergo repair and our minds to sort of encode all of our memories for the day, with dreams and possibly nightmares being a side-effect. It's possible to program a Navi to do the same thing; go through a "sleep mode" and shift to a less advanced processing system as your mind is scanned and re-encrypted. But given the genuinely superior processing power of Navis, especially considering how much the net has been throttled just so that we humans can keep up, that sort of a job should be able to be completed in a window of time so swift that it would be completely unnoticeable to anyone but the one undergoing it.
That said, if you're having issues along those lines, we'd be more than happy to run a few diagnostics just to make sure nothing is glitching with your data.
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Post by "Bill" on Sept 16, 2018 18:47:26 GMT -8
*Embera again listened intently as Everett told her about dreaming. It seemed rather normal then, and it was just the content of the dreams that made her uneasy. Feeling the spines gently on her skin, she shook her head at the offer, politely rejecting it.*
Embera: Oh, no thank you! Hearing you tell me it was normal already assured me that it's no glitch. I'm not a very old navi, so there is a lot of real-world information I have yet to access when I'm not executing a directive. I just have two more broad questions and I'll be heading out, if you don't mind. What do you know about those jeweled accessories that expand navi parameters, and if you have them, do you have an archive I could access on their effects on navis?
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Post by Raven8 on Sept 16, 2018 18:57:35 GMT -8
Everett stops cleaning his glasses for a moment and nods to Embera, pausing before picking his clip-board up again.
Everett: Of course. The "jeweled" crosses and stars are actually quite interesting; they're representations of digital cores that can be added to a Navi's data in order to enhance their capabilities in very specific ways. While their exact origin is something that no one knows for sure, rumor has it they were actually invented by a member of the Hikari family and spread around the net anonymously. They're actually very interesting little items; they enhance a Navi's powers, but they themselves, being data cores unto themselves, are capable of holding the entire memory of a Navi in themselves. In fact, the reason that a Navi is only able to hold so many is that they have the potential to lag entire servers if too many are active at one time. As for a list....
Everett picks up his clip-board again and causes a screen to open, revealing a list of all known cores that had been discovered to this point. He then hands the clip-board to Embera.
Everett: ...and don't worry, the board has special receptors in it. You actually can lift and move it despite being here as a hologram.
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Post by "Bill" on Sept 16, 2018 19:05:37 GMT -8
*Embera peers through the list, scrolling down, taking careful note of every cross and star on the list, from Alexandrite, all the way to Zircon. Surprised, she scrolled back up and tried again more slowly, and then a third time. No matter how hard she looked, there was nothing that matched her Somnium Cross. Shaking her head she returned the clipboard.
Embera: No...this isn't in the catalog at all...
*There seemed to be no other option. Embera moved the collar of her clothing and produced the Cross, taking care not to prick her fingers on the barbs. She only knew what little information Resonance commented on it, and this talk of cores slowly turned the gears in Embera's head. She became visibly nervous as she finally showed Everett the cross in all of its ominous splendor*
Embera: This cross came into my possession some time ago, but it's unlike any jewel accessory I've ever seen or used. This is actually the source of my sleep question. It's left me so puzzled, and no one else has ever been able to give me a real answer about it.
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Post by Raven8 on Sept 16, 2018 19:19:48 GMT -8
Everett takes visible interest as he looks on, adjusting his glasses as he looks on.
Everett: ....oh, my, that is an intere
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Post by Raven8 on Sept 16, 2018 19:19:55 GMT -8
…..sleep. No, sleep denotes rest. Within sleep is safety, if even within one’s own mind. In sleep, nothing can truly hurt you. Nothing can bring harm.
Then what was this?
A mist-engulfed land lay out before Embera, lost in the shadows of a sunset that never came, and a sunrise that would never bring the day. Embera now stands in a place that is neither awake nor asleep, neither alive nor dead. It exists in the deafening shrieks of pure silence.
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Post by "Bill" on Sept 16, 2018 19:43:10 GMT -8
*As Embera stretched out her hand, it seemed as if Everett was sliding away from her, as if the whole room stretched out of her vision until she was surrounded by the mist. A chill went up her back, this was unlike the visions she experienced before, she was on edge, but could not even hear her breaths in this brutal silence. Her eyes darted trying to survey this misty terrain. She felt completely powerless as she clenched her fist around the black-chain holding the Somnium Cross.*
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Post by Raven8 on Sept 16, 2018 19:56:17 GMT -8
The black chain holding the gray and white cross breaks the silence for only a moment as the links silently ring against each-other with an other-worldly echo, as if the exclamation to invite Embera back into the nightmareish world of the past and future. A world in which she had walked before... a world the same, yet unrecognizable in its unreal composition.
The horizon, close enough to touch, yet beyond what light itself could reach in a billion years, rises and falls with the almost solid mist that hides all beneath Embera from sight; yet how much does it truly hide?
In the vision of the haunted girl, the figure once again stands. Had he been there the whole time? Or was he truly there at all? The truth is lost, but the moment stands all the same. Hooded in gray and hovering just above the ground, the faceless spectre of Embera's plague and fear invites her closer and warns her to stay away with neither a move nor a word, simply waiting in the indeterminate distance to eternity ahead.
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Post by "Bill" on Sept 16, 2018 20:02:44 GMT -8
*Embera felt the breath almost leave her lungs as the silence felt oppressive and the horizon shifted as it did. It was nauseating to her feeling the shifting of the world. She almost dropped to her knees, until she remembered this sensation....yes...Back in Element City, she felt this sensation before. It was back when she first met Resonance squaring off against Rosso. Seeing the figure, Embera held onto the Cross and with unwavering determination, yet at the same time uncertain if she will be harmed by this figure she began moving towards. She didn't know what was going to happen, and at this point, she felt her greatest fear would be dying whilst never finding out.*
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Post by Raven8 on Sept 16, 2018 20:11:46 GMT -8
Embera's reaching towards the future and the past at the same time, holding onto the memories while searching for what is to come... it all fades together into one strained, exhausting motion. Memories of Resonance and Rosso fighting bleed into the memory of the first time that she'd been here. It bleeds into the moment that she met Resonance. Into the moment of her creation. Into the moment that she felt all hope leave as she destroyed countless innocent lives. The moment when she tried her best to hide from the world to delay the inevitable. The moment when she nearly destroyed an entire world just to see the sun... and the fear of what would come next.
...the memories disappear, and the moment becomes now once again. Embera now stands with her hand gripping the train of the entity's cloak, holding him to reality for the moment that she exists.
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Post by "Bill" on Sept 16, 2018 20:30:06 GMT -8
*Embera continued her march towards the figure, seeing so many futures as the images of the past echoed into her head. She shut her eyes trying to block them out, but it seemed only to make them more vivid. As she walked down a literal memory lane, she saw things sticking out, a past not all her own. As she grabbed the cloak of the strange entity, she saw Resonance, and Iscon--no...it was Turbine he was called, with a mighty sword that illuminated even the darkest shadows, shifting the black in her eyes to a bright white before fading away. In spite of all of these events, the only constant was this cloaked figure hovering, beckoning her, yet almost afraid for her own well-being. A living paradox, if this...being...could even be called alive. Embera tried desperately to speak words, hoping they would be heard.*
Embera: Who are you, and why do you bring me here?
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Post by Raven8 on Sept 16, 2018 20:42:03 GMT -8
...the cloak was cold, frigid. Despite its flexibility, it feels as hard as metal in her hand, a paradox to her senses as she yells out to the void for answers....
....yet the void yields no answer.
In her hand is not the cloak of the figure. In place of what she'd just seen with her own eyes, the Somnium Cross's chain is now held in Embera's hand instead of around her neck. The haunting pendant now hangs dead in her hand before the infinite horizon, swinging like a pendulum above a cliff that the mists of this unnatural world pour off of like waterfalls into oblivion below; a void from which return is impossible. Had it been there from the beginning, or had it appeared in this dream of its own listless accord?
And from beyond the great fissure, the entity remains watching, waiting in its typical silence for her choice.
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