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ALL THE BRICKS - Prologue: What Rough Beast
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<blockquote data-quote="Shayuri" data-source="post: 6863978" data-attributes="member: 4936"><p>There were two Death Otters right now.</p><p></p><p>One Death Otter was a blurry, slightly shifting transparent-seeming blob sitting low to the floor with her legs folded. Not much to see there, with the ruenthium polymer covering of her suit activated. A quick glance could miss that something was there to begin with. This was not the important Otter. It was pretty much just there to carry all of Otter's stuff.</p><p></p><p>The important Otter was in the Matrix, deep in the host that controlled the train. This one seemed to earn her name far more than the physical body she had; appearing to be a cartoony-cute otter that stood like a human being on stumpy little legs. It was mostly covered in cybernetic implants and plates. One of its eyes was a big black adorable beady otter eye, the other one was a glowing red monstrosity of a cybereye. </p><p></p><p>Death Otter was at play. Glowing panes of information revolved around her persona's icon, telling her details like the train's speed and current location, and readouts on as many of the train's systems as she could find time to bring up. It was like a glorious puzzle game, really. One where, if you didn't solve the puzzle and take the correct sequence of steps, they'd all die in a speeding locomotive.</p><p></p><p>Which was pretty badass! She devoted a few clock cycles to wishing she could somehow set the train on fire, because that was seriously the ONLY WAY to make the situation more metal than it already was.</p><p></p><p>Alright, to business. Formulating a preliminary plan only took a second. Preliminary, because things WOULD happen to frak it up, so she couldn't get married to the damn thing.</p><p></p><p>First, the bullets. She couldn't see or hear the meatworld, but it didn't take a quantum brain to figure out they were prooooooooooooobably shooting at them. Bullets were bad, and even though she was invisible, a random shot could in theory hit her. That would make surviving more difficult. The train did have controls for car lighting though, and she quickly dialed the internal and external lights on Car 3 and 1 'off.' Internal lights in the other cars stayed on.</p><p></p><p>A quirk of vision...if you were surrounded by light, and everything outside was dark, you couldn't see JACK. Fancy-schmancy light-amplification wouldn't help either. Thermographics? Sure they'd work. Good luck telling their team apart from the giant mass of warm human bodies in the two cars between them. </p><p></p><p>Oh, and why Car 1? Well, she didn't know if the Transit goons had nightvision augs, but if not this would mess up whatever THEY were planning. And if so, well, now everything was green to them, and green was calming. Guys, just chill out and bask in the awesome, soka?</p><p></p><p>Now, to prep for phase two. No wait, phase three. Phase two would be to prepare for the host's and/or spider's notice. Order of operations, Otter!</p><p></p><p>A quick scan of the host's index revealed what she was looking for...the icon for the train's coupling mechanisms.</p><p></p><p>A slow and evil smile spread over the otter's digital face.</p><p></p><p><span style="color: #FF0000">"What happens if I push THIS button?"</span></p><p></p><p>[sblock=In mechanical terms]Okay! So it sounded from your intro that Otter has at least one mark on the Host (necessary for her to even be in it) and has acquired enough control over the train to determine it's speed and direction. If that level of control is insufficient to control its lighting as well, then she'll need to take an appropriate action to gain that control, and then change the train's lighting as described. Let me know if a roll is needed for that.</p><p></p><p>The second thing I describe is a Matrix Perception search for the coupling mechanism's icon...which is most likely automatically successful due to it (presumably) not running silent, and furthermore if she's marked the Host, that mark carries over to any devices that the Host controls, I believe.</p><p></p><p>If changing the lights is a Simple action, then finding the icon will be a second simple action in the first init pass. If it's not, then it will happen asap.</p><p></p><p>Oh, one other thing. You've mentioned that Otter can slow the train down, and change its direction. I'm assuming that this is done wirelessly. So even if a particular car of the train is no longer physically attached to the train, she can still use the Host to change its speed and direction. This will become very important, very soon, so do let me know if this assumption is inaccurate. <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /></p><p></p><p>And almost forgot inventory. She's got all her stuff on her at the moment except her armor vest which wouldn't stack with the chameleon suit anyway. <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" />[/sblock]</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Shayuri, post: 6863978, member: 4936"] There were two Death Otters right now. One Death Otter was a blurry, slightly shifting transparent-seeming blob sitting low to the floor with her legs folded. Not much to see there, with the ruenthium polymer covering of her suit activated. A quick glance could miss that something was there to begin with. This was not the important Otter. It was pretty much just there to carry all of Otter's stuff. The important Otter was in the Matrix, deep in the host that controlled the train. This one seemed to earn her name far more than the physical body she had; appearing to be a cartoony-cute otter that stood like a human being on stumpy little legs. It was mostly covered in cybernetic implants and plates. One of its eyes was a big black adorable beady otter eye, the other one was a glowing red monstrosity of a cybereye. Death Otter was at play. Glowing panes of information revolved around her persona's icon, telling her details like the train's speed and current location, and readouts on as many of the train's systems as she could find time to bring up. It was like a glorious puzzle game, really. One where, if you didn't solve the puzzle and take the correct sequence of steps, they'd all die in a speeding locomotive. Which was pretty badass! She devoted a few clock cycles to wishing she could somehow set the train on fire, because that was seriously the ONLY WAY to make the situation more metal than it already was. Alright, to business. Formulating a preliminary plan only took a second. Preliminary, because things WOULD happen to frak it up, so she couldn't get married to the damn thing. First, the bullets. She couldn't see or hear the meatworld, but it didn't take a quantum brain to figure out they were prooooooooooooobably shooting at them. Bullets were bad, and even though she was invisible, a random shot could in theory hit her. That would make surviving more difficult. The train did have controls for car lighting though, and she quickly dialed the internal and external lights on Car 3 and 1 'off.' Internal lights in the other cars stayed on. A quirk of vision...if you were surrounded by light, and everything outside was dark, you couldn't see JACK. Fancy-schmancy light-amplification wouldn't help either. Thermographics? Sure they'd work. Good luck telling their team apart from the giant mass of warm human bodies in the two cars between them. Oh, and why Car 1? Well, she didn't know if the Transit goons had nightvision augs, but if not this would mess up whatever THEY were planning. And if so, well, now everything was green to them, and green was calming. Guys, just chill out and bask in the awesome, soka? Now, to prep for phase two. No wait, phase three. Phase two would be to prepare for the host's and/or spider's notice. Order of operations, Otter! A quick scan of the host's index revealed what she was looking for...the icon for the train's coupling mechanisms. A slow and evil smile spread over the otter's digital face. [COLOR="#FF0000"]"What happens if I push THIS button?"[/COLOR] [sblock=In mechanical terms]Okay! So it sounded from your intro that Otter has at least one mark on the Host (necessary for her to even be in it) and has acquired enough control over the train to determine it's speed and direction. If that level of control is insufficient to control its lighting as well, then she'll need to take an appropriate action to gain that control, and then change the train's lighting as described. Let me know if a roll is needed for that. The second thing I describe is a Matrix Perception search for the coupling mechanism's icon...which is most likely automatically successful due to it (presumably) not running silent, and furthermore if she's marked the Host, that mark carries over to any devices that the Host controls, I believe. If changing the lights is a Simple action, then finding the icon will be a second simple action in the first init pass. If it's not, then it will happen asap. Oh, one other thing. You've mentioned that Otter can slow the train down, and change its direction. I'm assuming that this is done wirelessly. So even if a particular car of the train is no longer physically attached to the train, she can still use the Host to change its speed and direction. This will become very important, very soon, so do let me know if this assumption is inaccurate. :) And almost forgot inventory. She's got all her stuff on her at the moment except her armor vest which wouldn't stack with the chameleon suit anyway. :)[/sblock] [/QUOTE]
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