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Post by notegg on Sept 25, 2018 17:03:04 GMT -8
{Continuing from The Coming Flood} Finale slept. Clutched tight to a warm blanket, the childlike virus napped in the centre of the bridge. The makeshift bed was polymer of midnight black, reclined to a comfortable degree, and melted softly under the child's delicate weight. To her left there was an empty bowl filled with candy wrappers, to her right was a dustbin that had been changed. Fresh sheets, fresh linen, freshly bathed, Finale was taking time to refresh after the 'battle' along the coast of Bayside. She was supposed to have filled out paperwork regarding the events below. The unexpected entrance of Embera, the unexpected extra time required to complete the objective, and take battle notes on the participants. Finale had finished the entry on Piano before growing bored and falling asleep. It was only supposed to be for a few minutes, but that was nearing an hour ago. Now, the airship was reaching the final point of ascent, reaching the highest point of Electopian network stratosphere. It would remain here for some time, awaiting further confirmations before disappearing into the stars.
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Post by "Bill" on Sept 25, 2018 18:35:42 GMT -8
*As Finale slept, the figure of Embera stayed in his head, causing him to revisit that moment on the ship. As it drifted away to more pleasant thoughts, he would fine Embera there too. Even his time in the Recycle Bin, there too, was Embera. Each scene of each dream, she was there, waving, making herself more visible with each image in his mind. Before long the dreams were about her, about things that never even happened. Paling around, having laughs, yet things became distorted. The skyline got fuzzy, Embera would seemingly glitch in and out, as if a video tape were scuffed in a VCR. She got fuzzier, until the entire landscape fizzled out, revealing a dark factory room with just Embera there.*
Embera: Crap! No no no! Uhhh....hi! This wasn't supposed to happen! Hold on!
*As if putting the whole crazy thing on hold, Embera pulled out a mobile phone before dialing a number. Rolling her eyes and tapping her foot impatiently, she seemed to be on call-waiting. After what felt like minutes, she finally gets to the other side.*
Embera: Hey E! It's Embera! So I was doing the whole "inception" thing we were chatting about, but everything sort of shorted. I think because he's part virus, things tend to fragment too quickly. What do you got for me? Uh-huh.....uh-huh..."Wizard of Oz?"...uh-huh....gotcha....Okay thanks!
*As soon as she got through, her call was over, and Embera put the phone away before going over to the machine playing the dreams and removing what appeared to be a flash cartridge and blew into the receptor and cartridge before turning the machine back on. Heading back to the control board, she began waving her arms in an almost hypnotizing motion.*
Embera: Pay no attention to the woman behind the control panel~~!
*Eventually the dreams were reinstated and Finale would be comforted by a warm hug from Embera. Things were peaceful. Finale could almost feel the warmth in his very core. If he were to look up, he would not see Embera's face....but that of a large grizzly!!!!*
Embera (Ethereal voice): OH GOD SOMEBODY HELP ME! GET IT OFF!
*It turns out even in the dreams of another, there was no place Embera would be safe from getting mauled by a bear.*
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Post by Raven8 on Sept 25, 2018 18:37:49 GMT -8
Also finished with his own mission and report, MagicMan appears in the bridge of the Death Rogumer, walking through the main doors and surveying the situation.
Naturally, Finale was asleep; a fact that makes MagicMan sigh silently and shake his head. The mystic Navi had held reservations from the beginning, but this...
MagicMan: Wake up.
MagicMan stands over Finale with a stern expression, holding his scepter-like arms at his sides as his dead, golden eyes gaze out from the shadows of his face.
MagicMan: You know as well as I do that the Galaxy Network is unfriendly territory at the time being. We cannot afford to lose what we have thus far.
MagicMan raises one of his arms, causing a small cube of data to float in place in front of Finale, beckoning him to take it.
MagicMan: Here. This is the reference data that you needed in order to proceed.
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Post by notegg on Sept 25, 2018 19:08:29 GMT -8
Finale opened her eyes, doing his best to wave off thoughts of Embera doing her best wacky wonderful inflatable tube man impression, before being mauled by a bear. It was both comforting and disturbing. Memories, intruded upon by things he knew were false. It was a nightmarish concept, one so alien to the virus. Yet, seeing Embera happy for once...
She smiled outside the dream, her hand holding her chest. There was a warmth there that he could remember clearly. Embedded deep into Finale's core data was a small sun, a piece of Embera she had gifted the virus in a time of need. Now it was glowing with a comfortable warmth in her bosom. Where there would normally be annoyance with MagicMan interrupting Finale's rest, instead there was a hazy smile of someone who had had a pleasant dream.
"Good morning, MagicMan." Finale said in a slightly too-friendly tone. Adjusting the recline of the chair, Finale sat up, smiling at her stern ally. With her mask off, it was eerie. Even her hat was off, revealing more of her face and the length of her hair. There were little cracks along her pale countenance. Some of which would fill with data dripped from her linen eye-patch if it was left unchanged for too long. For now, the fresh eye-patch was doing fine keeping the crimson orange-red substance in. Her smile was too wide, and without the brim of her admiral's cap, her eyes seemed disproportionately large. It was as if she was not a navi, but a crude children's drawing painted onto a doll.
"You should know I'm still recovering." Finale quipped back at her 'keeper'. Perhaps 'partner', although the dynamic was much more like that of a day-care centre, with Finale more or less doing as she pleased. However, the monochromatic virus' demeanor would shift as MagicMan gave her the mystery data. Her face would grow somewhere between serious interest and a silly drool, hungry for mystery data. "A moment of privacy, please."
Finale would hide under their covers, forming a makeshift tent. Stealing the data and coveting it under the cover, Finale disappeared for a moment.
There was an [smear:E77A22]orange, yellow glow, emanating from under the covers.[/smear:#ebd159] When Finale emerged once more, her face was covered in orange-red data. Like a child having eaten an overstuffed jelly sandwich. The liquid dripped from her now sullen eyepatch. The mystery data was gone.
Finale looked at MagicMan with a satisfied expression. In the back of her mind, she couldn't stop thinking about Embera however...
The visit would soon be arranged. It was only a matter of time.
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Post by Raven8 on Sept 25, 2018 19:24:06 GMT -8
MagicMan rolls his golden eyes at Finale's childish antics, holding himself back from the annoyance that it brings. By this point none of the viral being's traits, be it the child-like nature or the grotesque cracking of its persona had any real effect on MagicMan. The lone thing that bothered him was the semi-partner position that they had for now; for years, MagicMan had manipulated and controlled situations from the center of the chaos, never tipping his hand or revealing the truth. But all that it took was NapalmMan's escape, and suddenly he had to leave his post as the spy and rejoin the WWW's prime forces. The entire situation was annoying to say the least.
MagicMan: You need to take this seriously. Come out of there, now.
MagicMan raises his arms and points them towards Finale, allowing the gems on his scepter-arms to light up while a similar light overtakes the blanket, causing it to rip away from Finale and fling itself to the other side of the room.
MagicMan: We were successful on both fronts today. I gathered the data, and you field-tested the Third System. The core reported no ill effects or issues with keeping the situation stable, but we expanded it farther than had ever been done. Gate needs to know how the inductions went, and if you encountered any compatibility errors, as he's apparently run into a number of errors with it on his end.
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Post by notegg on Sept 27, 2018 8:02:16 GMT -8
Finale grimaced. This world was cold and hateful. There was no enjoyment to her being revived, and the little comforts made things bearable. MagicMan tearing one of them away made her the slightest angry, and then dejectedly, she simply sighed.
"This body is a perfect candidate." She said lowly, seriously. Sticking out her hand and staring at it. It was unfamiliar, new to her. "Error rate was negligible. Besides the known corruption of my system." Finale turned from Magic for a moment, her black plush chair swiveling away. A nurse prog tended to her, cleaning her face and fixing her bloodied eye-patch. "Besides that," Finale swung back around to meet MagicMan's face, grinning monstrously. "Master's System was a complete success on my end."
Her grin was overbearing, as if her wide smile had unhinged her jaw. Finale's yellow eye seemed to pop out from her face, and there was a distinct orange glow from under her eyepatch. The virus' seeming excitability was beyond human or navi limits.
She sat up straight in her chair. The dim lights of a half-dozen progs and their consoles lit up like stars among the night sky, reflected on the dark main screen as her airship grew to the highest limits of Electopian networks. It wouldn't be long now.
"Let's be serious then, MagicMan."
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Post by Raven8 on Sept 27, 2018 9:23:35 GMT -8
MagicMan lights up one of the gem at the end of his right arm while lifting it up slightly, causing the book affixed to his back to lazily float off of his armor and present itself to him; "The Tome of Cheating".
MagicMan: Truthfully, that is not good. Despite your own systems being relatively broken, you should have been without error under the Third System. It shows that, despite our best efforts, the system still doesn't display 100% compatibility. Apparently Gate received more than simple errors; the "Navi" group assaulting the Electopian Lab caused catastrophic issues. However, he managed to collect just enough data that he's confident that he can rectify the problem moving forward.
MagicMan sighs as he causes a quill to appear in front of the book and levitates it in order to begin writing.
MagicMan: This was rather an odd mission, though. The order to keep deletions to zero is of no concern to me as I'm used to blending into the crowd more or less. Though that skill will likely become useless soon as more and more hear of my deeds.
MagicMan scowls as he continues to write in his tome.
MagicMan: I do, however, wonder about your take on the situation. Volt Kurageil seemed a bit apprehensive at the order to only act if necessary. But what of you? I am aware of the fact that you met an old friend before disembarking to face down the rest of the would-be attackers.
MagicMan's golden dead eyes look out past his book and to Finale, examining the viral being as he continues to write in his tome.
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Post by notegg on Sept 30, 2018 18:56:39 GMT -8
"You really should take more pride in your work," Finale says. She rubs at her eyes, still waking up slightly, but also subtly motioning at her critical error.
There was a memory then.
Blood, muscle, being stitched together fibre by fibre. The burning smell of chlorine. Her body being torn to the bone and snapped back into place, broken bit by broken bit. Her new body was pure, perfect in every way. It was the purest reconstruction of what the virus' form was meant to be. Perfect face, perfect hair, perfect body, perfect code. Finale's decaying form was stitched back together, and now she was alive.
She hated it.
Finale shuddered, slightly uncomfortable remembering the pain. For a moment, she tensed up, feeling it all over again. It haunted her. Weakly, she leaned back into the chair. Comfort was all that was left for her any more. The only thing worth caring enough to strive for.
"You and Master made me as I am. As for my will- Master's will is my own." Despite her best trying, Finale sighed at that fact. Purpose. That's what Gate had called it. Although to Finale, she felt as purposeless as ever. She was merely a pawn. Nothing more, nothing less.
The monochrome virus supposed that was fine.
"It's his orders, I simply act..." sinking lower still into her chair, there was a shame on Finale's face. She reached for her blanket to hide her face, only to find that it wasn't there. A deep breath, a sigh, and then nothing. Finale's eyes stared forever into the darkness of the stars and space. She found the moon staring back. Idly, she reached out a hand at the moon, knowing she'd never feel its glow again.
Not in the way she felt it before. There was the sound of a whimper, then a shudder. The room shook for a moment as the low hum of the space-faring engine was activated. They were reaching higher altitudes now.
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Post by Raven8 on Sept 30, 2018 19:16:56 GMT -8
MagicMan scoffs at Finale's defeated attitude, looking out the shielding of the Death Rogumer as he does so. The levitating book that MagicMan had been writing in hovers around to his back once again and affixes itself while the quill simply disappears.
MagicMan: And that's why you're already doomed to fail in your mission.
MagicMan takes a deep breath, his golden eyes disappearing from beneath the shadow of the brim of his hat as he thinks back to the moment that he had signed up with Gate himself.
MagicMan: You haven't learned what the endgame is, and with good reason. Gate has worked on his plans for longer than most Navis can imagine. He's planned to the very smallest detail, preparing for every eventuality that he could before the current situation, and he's even adapting to that now. He needs to know beyond any doubt that he can trust you with this information. But at the end of the day, his work isn't to make us his puppets....
MagicMan opens his eyes, turning to Finale as he does so.
MagicMan: ....it's to free us from the strings that we seem to have all but forgotten about.
MagicMan takes a step back and walks over to Finale.
MagicMan: But for now, you have a new assignment. You are capable of changing appearances, correct? Your assignment is to take to a network and begin searching. Blend in with the Navis below and find out what you can about the new forces that are seeking to take control, the goal that Gate has given to you, and any potential threats that we haven't found yet. You have been approved for induction into the 3rd system, so the threat that you will encounter is minimal.
MagicMan pauses, raising the jewel on his right arm to the brim of his hat and lowering it slightly as he looks on to Finale.
MagicMan: Can you perform this deed?
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Post by notegg on Sept 30, 2018 20:00:14 GMT -8
"Hmph... I was already doomed... before all of this, anyway..."Finale scoffs at Magic's rebuttal. He didn't understand, to be without purpose. In life, Finale had thought it was his erroneous code, slowly eating at him from the inside. The instabilities and bugs that fueled his search for his brother of the covenant. But truly, what ate at him was the emptiness, the lack of purpose. That was why she threw herself into the abyss. For months, her only friend was the moon, until she slowly frosted over and closed her eyes for the final time. It was supposed to be final. Her expression changed to one of distaste. Her perfect, beautiful body? Why would she ever want to change it? It was within her capabilities - or more accurately, was an accessory capability that her recombinant form had absorbed. Master had codified it, made it a part of her. Her body was perfect, and Finale loved her doll-like figure, perhaps a little too much. Gracefully, she stood up. Over-enthusiastically, she would clutch to the magical navi, looking up at him, staring him in the eyes. She had a dreamy, serene expression. Then, her face began to melt, data tearing from data, muscle turning to meat, blood turning to fire. Her hair scattered, as ash into the wind. When MagicMan looked down to find Finale, he would find someone else standing in her place. A little taller. Short hair, chestnut brown. Dressed in a black jacket, wrapped in gold chains. A fair, moderately tanned complexion, with the weathered face of someone who had seen too much combat. A dark visor covered his eyes, perhaps for the best, as there was still the matter of that one bug... Warrior F: I already know my target.Then, there was a blur of monochrome light. Then, MagicMan would find only the cold embrace of wind. {Continued in Starry Skies...} [R002]-[5-10-2018]-[After Action Report: The Coming Flood]: +25exp, +250z
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