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Breakout and Beyond: September Plot Log

Who: Everyone
When: September 9th-23rd
Where: Kauto
What: Escape from Dino Jail and taking the fight to the Savrii
Warnings: Probable violence and mental manipulation. Label your content.

the escape

Over the last few days—or weeks, for many—a number of preparations have been made. Some gathered resources. Others fashioned weapons or small bombs. A few pored over the schematics Mother provided, looking for a weakness in the field generator, while others took her offer of assistance more directly. Whether with information or training, tools or trades or promises, everyone has had a part to play. And on September 9, all of that comes to fruition.

It starts at the gate. Through careful observation of the supply groups, one team of insurgents has correctly identified when the gate will open: and prepared their very own dinosaur-mounted EMP. With the controls damaged and the gate locked open, the Savrii guards are met with a host of individuals armed with shock-sticks, home-made bombs, and one improvised laser—many of whom appear oddly immune to the pacifying effect of the intermediary present.

As terrifying as this proves to their morale, it seems possible the Savrii could turn the battle their way. They have superior weaponry. They have a single chokepoint to defend. They can and will call for backup as soon as the danger becomes clear. Still, there's one factor they couldn't have anticipated. One vulnerability of the dome field, pulled from the schematics by the more technically minded captives who spent time on the endeavor. This place wasn't a punishment, after all. The Savrii didn't want to inflict harm. Merely contain these dangerous people, for their own good. And so, the force field has a safety feature built in.

It decreases power, just slightly, in proportion with the biomass that comes in contact.

While the guards at the gate are busy with their fight, a brilliantly colored array of hazards break free from the forest grounds. Perhaps you're riding one of your new friends. Perhaps you're dangling dino-catnip just in front. It's possible, of course, that your dinosaur is motivated without help—possibly by the array of prey animals running in front of it. Regardless of the motives and the methods, when several hundred tons of dinosaur make contact with that wall?

The force field shatters.

Charge.

A World of Peace

The fact (and methods) of the "newcomers'" escape puts an end to any pleas for peaceful resolution. Within the hour, Thisavrou is placed under a state of emergency: transport locked down, all responders called in, and every combat force their peaceful worlds can gather called to defend against this menace. The Ingress Complex itself is sealed off entirely: a full-strength Artifixx force field raised to deflect (or destroy) incoming ships. Not that the storms outside the Ingress—or the cracks they've begun carving in the sky—look easy to navigate for even the best trained of pilots.

While those looking to fulfill their promise to Mother will need to find a way offworld eventually, events on Kauto are likely to keep Thisavrou’s Most Wanted busy for some time. The Savrii are in self-defense mode, ready to protect their world against those who refuse their gift of peace. Whether looking for a fight or trying to find shelter, travelers are most likely to encounter these groups as their hunters:

Security. These Savrii have been taken from their usual work in Ingress Security or similar professions. More like police than soldiers, they are still armed and formidable. Each small squad will almost always be accompanied by a single intermediary, capable of both detecting nearby targets and enforcing the non-violence field on those who did not accept Mother's link. These groups may try to talk characters into surrender and prefer non-lethal force at first. But as the days go by, they are likely to recognize this is futile and be willing to take ruthless measures.
Off-World Kill Teams. Those who traversed the wreckage of the true Midway hub, or participated in the extinction of Thiri have met these Savrii before. The ones who take dangerous away missions and purge worlds that have misused Ingress technology, these groups are versatile and ruthless. While less likely to be accompanied by an intermediary, they are more likely to have powers and advanced weaponry of their own. Regardless, they are specialists in their fields and fully willing to kill innocents for the greater good. Their skillsets range from fighters to hackers to assassins and more.
Civilians. The majority of civilian Savrii are more likely to hide than to fight, but among their number are non-professional fighters who are more than willing to form amateur groups or go out alone to take down the dangerous invaders. Their mindset may center on protecting their homes or taking revenge for past encounters such as the Shadows. While the weakest of the groups, they're still capable of doing damage. However, not all civilians are hostile or afraid; those who had good relationships with their newer neighbors or who were personally aided may show sympathy. This could come in the form of food, supplies, or temporary shelter, though they won't stand directly against the authorities of Thisavrou.

Regardless of whether fugitives are are caught unaware or go out looking for trouble, one thing is certain: they are likely to do better if they work together. While Mother's link isn't the only method with which to fight the intermediaries, groups without at least one immune person may find themselves put down with ease. At the same time, even those who can resist intermediary manipulation may be overwhelmed by force.

Still, death is rarely the end on Thisavrou, and even now, the technology that allows for resurgence remains in your hosts' possession. Those killed fighting the Savrii may be seen again, and there is always the chance to rescue those who are captured. But would the reunions be happy ones?

Points of Interest

Where to go? What to do? Even without leaving Kauto, there's a literal world of possibilities. Still, the conflict at hand won't go away, and some of your peers have been preparing for it for some time. Between Mother's request, your own needs, and data gleaned from a Trojan implanted in the Savrii's systems, a few objectives might present themselves. And whether you're hunting, hiding, or helping, there are a few places you might want to keep in mind.

Home
As soon as characters were unknowingly brought into the Midway Hub simulation, Savrii agents were dispatched to enter homes and search them for any items of potential danger. Mundane possessions will still be there, including pac-discs for those who had them. Settling down for a night at home is likely to get people caught, but now is a great time to pack anything travelers want to keep. However, to find weapons and items taken during the simulation...
Reclamation Depot
Established just one month ago, this unremarkable complex is buried in the maze-like streets of Region Five. Rumors describe it as a research site: somewhere to examine hazardous materials and see how they could be turned to the societal good. You might better know it as an impound center. Specifically, where they put your weapons after throwing you into "detainment".

Fortunately, research efforts haven't gotten far. Less fortunately? This is the first place all those reinforcements go. The facility contains a set of laboratories aboveground and a storage complex underneath, as well as an adjoining kennel for containing pets. Your companions won't have been harmed, but you can bet the Savrii will harm you trying to get to them.
Network Hub
The data recovered from the Trojan indicates one very important fact: that all of your data has been monitored from day one. Those interested in safeguarding their communications (or disrupting the Savrii's) may wish to make a certain site in Region One a priority visit. A towering skyscraper over a hundred stories in height, the communications tower that controls the TAB network is a masterpiece of engineering. It's also, predictably, guarded. Still, the amount of reinforcements on this site will vary strongly depending on how openly—or how literally—you broadcast an attack.
Mediation Centers
Simple buildings designed for a sense of comfort and peace, these structures can be found in all residential centers of Thisavrou. They serve as the workplaces of the intermediaries, the so-called glue that binds Thisavrou together—or, the mind-controlling oligarchs, if your new acquaintance is to be believed.

Under the current crisis? They're a little understaffed. Still, if you're looking for the intermediaries, this is a better place than most to check. Just don't walk inside alone, or your friends might end up looking for you.
Sewers
With so many forces acting against them, where can travelers find shelter where they can rest, regroup and plan? A base of sorts may be found in the sewers where a team once sought the contaminant. With access to much of urban Kauto, enough distance from the surface to go undetected by intermediaries, and a few larger spaces to provide some breathing room, the sewers may not be a pleasant sanctuary, but they may be the place most able to give characters more than a moment's rest.

A Dinoriffic Note: While characters may keep their dinosaurs with them after the breakout, now that their prehistoric pals have reached adulthood at an artificially fast rate, they will find that dinosaurs are also designed to wean off dependence on their handler, and over these weeks, character-dinosaur pairings will grow farther apart. Although the dinosaurs will always have a softer spot for those who were around during their adolescent days, alas, these partnerships are not destined to be permanent.

[OOC: Please check out this OOC post for more information on character options and objectives! Additionally, this is the last chance for free exploration of the current setting, as events will push toward the arc climax after this log. If there is anything you OOCly want your character to have or do, please take advantage!]

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Frisk watches Alan with a wary concern as he approaches, shuffling a little closer to Rinzler. They nod faintly when he greets them, their grip on their disk shifting awkwardly.

"Uh-huh. I didn't...I can't look at it. I don't wanna break it." They start to shift, but pause and look up to Rinzler imploringly. It's okay, right?

Alan-one approaches, and Rinzler's head bows in return. The bend lingers, though, threading through his frame in careful tension. Not quite defaults—especially not with Frisk pressing closer at his side. But not relaxed, either.

He offers Frisk another, smaller nod. Alan-one can be trusted. Alan-one is safe. Still, sound rattles out unevenly, louder and more unsteady than it's been in some time, as his mask nudges up to stare at his user. Frisk came to him.

Is this okay?

He doesn't know.

Edited 2017-10-08 01:19 (UTC)

“Well, I can take a look at it if you want,” Alan says. “If I find anything that’s been changed, I’ll let you know, and you can tell me if you want me to change it back. Does that sound alright?”

He casts another glance at Rinzler, noting the spike in the program’s sound. He assumes it’s the result of nerves: worry for Frisk, discomfort with the possibility of edits, or perhaps a combination of the two. He gives Rinzler a slight smile, trying to be reassuring. If there is something wrong with Frisk’s code, he’ll find it—and try to fix it in as noninvasive a way as possible.

Frisk hesitates for a moment, looking from Alan to Rinzler to their disk. Chara would...would they be angry, that Frisk is allowing someone to touch their mind again? Or would they be glad that Frisk is thinking of themself?

Or does it matter to them at all?

Swallowing hard, Frisk lets go of Rinzler's hand to step over to Alan and offer their disk, trying to not let their fear show.

Alan takes the disk, doing his best not to let any of his own apprehension show. He’s as uncertain as Frisk as to whether or not he’ll actually find any edits—and what purpose they may have if he finds them. As much as he’d like to believe otherwise, nothing the Savrii have done in the past few weeks have convinced Alan they’re above brainwashing a child.

“Let me see here,” Alan murmurs, more for Frisk’s benefit than anything. It only takes a moment of focus to send up a spray of light, swirling like motes of dust before resolving into an image of Frisk’s face. Alan pushes carefully beyond this main display, half-expecting a demand for a password or security clearance. It’s what he’s grown to expect from the disks he’s examined before; but this time, there are no walls, no safeguards. There’s absolutely nothing to keep him from navigating directly to Frisk’s base code. It’s almost shocking how easy it is.

But that isn’t why Alan stops when the child’s code unfurls in the air. He stares, brow furrowing with the preliminary thought of: ’No, that can’t be right…’. But there’s no mistaking the bright gold of those added lines now projected before him. It’s the very same he saw years ago, when he had taken Rinzler’s disk by force. But it still can't be right. Frisk hasn't been rectified. They can't have been changed that much. Can they? He scrolls down, a cold weight settling in his stomach as he only finds more of those gold lines, peppering Frisk’s code like a cancer.

He keeps his eyes on the code and his voice quiet when he speaks, the better to control his tone. “Frisk? Do you know if anyone besides me has looked at your code like this before?”

"Clu did." There's no tremor to their voice when they admit it, no fear--why would they be afraid, after all? Clu is a friend, someone that looks out for them. "I...I broke it, 'n he found me. He fixed it."

Evidence in their code seems to back that up, should Alan inspect the pieces that Clu did not touch. Beyond the behavioral lines there's something deeper referenced in those bits of code, a framework that should have no reason to exist in a User. Bits of data flicker between values, held mostly in place by Clu's actions but still corrupted somewhere beneath the surface.

Frisk confirms what Alan already knew. The way they tell him is much more enlightening. There’s no trace of regret or fear in their voice. They sound matter-of-fact—grateful, even.

Alan says nothing for a while, just turns his attention back to the code and starts looking at what those shimmering lines are actually for. Some of them do indeed look like repair, stabilizing some arcane structure he can’t quite work out. As he broadens his search, however, other patterns begin to emerge. Patterns that have nothing to do with stability or repair.

Patterns he’s seen before.

Alan looks up from the disk, eyes finding Rinzler this time, just for a moment. It’s enough to see a flash of agitation, before his expression shutters to controlled gravity when he looks back to Frisk.

“When did this happen?”

Rinzler is waiting. Rinzler is watching: every touch, every turn, every careful unspooling of gold light. Familiar lines and foreign ones, code he understands and lines that cut too close to look at. Rinzler has never seen his own code, but Rinzler doesn't need that memory to understand the function of Clu's work.

He doesn't move as Alan's eyes turn his way. His head stays down, spine curved, frame locked inwards. Rigid. Small. Still, there's a twitch (a flinch) of tension under the pressure of his user's stare.

He knew.

Edited 2017-10-14 13:28 (UTC)

"Jus' before th' Moira crashed. When we were goin' through that weird place."

It had been a hectic time, with the chaos inside and out of the ship. Easy enough for one broken User to be missed, glossed over as another Anomaly caused by the Ingress.

"I was tryin' t' change somethin'...put me back to th' way I was when a buncha people changed. But I messed it up, 'n I got scared...it hurt a lot."

Frisk’s answer is almost as shocking at the original discovery. This had been in their code for months?

“And after that, Clu helped you ‘fix it?’” It takes effort to make those last two words sound as benign as Frisk likely thinks they are. Alan doesn’t want to sound like he’s blaming Frisk—he’s not, because it was Clu who had taken advantage of their vulnerability—but he’s undeniably angry in a way he won’t let himself show in front of them.

He had held Clu’s life in his hands not so long ago. Now he’s regretting ever having handed it back.

Alan turns to Rinzler again, making the unspoken question from before explicit now: “Did you know about this?”

The enforcer's frame stays drawn in. Rigid. The enforcer's mask bows in a nod.

Vocals take a moment longer to call up. Frisk might not hear the lock of tension to his user's phrase. Frisk might not realize—might not be capable of understanding—just how thoroughly their weakness had been used. Rinzler is, and Rinzler did, and whatever promises he's secured since, he knows none of it has been acceptable.

Not Clu.

Not him.

"...yes."

Frisk may be young, but they're not blind. They know there's a conversation going on here they're not privy to, adults talking over the head of a child they assume to not know any better. They reach for Rinzler's hand again, this time as a show of solidarity rather than seeking comfort.

"He's not bad." Rinzler, Clu--they mean both, really, but the more immediate affirmation is clear in the way Frisk stares hard into Alan's eyes.

Under other circumstances, Alan might’ve found Frisk’s display of solidarity touching. Now, it only troubles him more.

“I know Rinzler’s not bad,” Alan says, though the look he shoots Rinzler says they’ll be speaking about this later. “Frisk, I don’t want to scare you. But the reason I’m worried is that Clu changed some parts of your code—parts that don’t have anything to do with repairs.”

There’s a pause as Alan tries to think of a gentle way to ask the next question and comes to the conclusion that there isn’t any.

“Did you know that he changed parts of your mind, too?”

Frisk isn't stupid, but they are blind. Because they were written to be. Because Rinzler hadn't stopped it, and hasn't found a way to set things right. Frisk is an ally, but this defense is extremely undeserved, and fingers curl inward, away from their reach. Rinzler stills at his user's look, and if they persist, Frisk can manage to join hands. But reciprocation is tentative at best.

Attention, however, fixes sharply their way. The low whirring of errors rises.

Can Frisk know?

Rinzler pulls away, and they look up at him in confusion, a shadow of hurt flitting across their face. They haven't...entirely forgotten that confrontation over Mettaton's body those months ago. It had slipped to the back of their mind, dismissed as a confusion and not worth worrying about...but he's acting just as oddly as he did back then. Clu is theirs, he's a friend. Why is Rinzler so ashamed of Alan knowing these things? There's nothing wrong!

Except--

Frisk turns back to Alan, their brow furrowing as he answers, explains--says something that...doesn't make sense.

"He...he wouldn't. He wouldn't do that."

“He’s done it to other programs before,” Alan says quietly, wondering at the fact that he even has to explain this when Rinzler is standing right there. Had Frisk forgotten what Clu has done to him? Or were they made to forget? “It’s how he makes them loyal.”

He glances back at the display over their disk, gaze flitting sadly over those golden lines again. “Have you ever felt like you can’t question him? Or that whatever he tells you to do must be right?”

"N-no, he--he doesn't--" Frisk struggles to form words, the overwhelming urge of forget forgive ignore conflicting with memory and proof hovering in the air above their disk. They look up at Rinzler, hoping for some sign that Alan is trying to trick them, he must be, you can't trust a User--

Frisk grips their head tight as a spike of pain shoots through, eyes squeezing shut as they shake it, whimpering. It's not right, not right, none of it makes sense--

"H-he's a...he's my friend..."

Frisk looks to Rinzler, and Rinzler flinches—freezes, noise a ragged scrape of mismatch and regret. [Warning]. Clu is right. All Clu's assets should be loyal. This was a mistake, a violation—it's hurting them, and of course it would, they—

—Frisk—

They've closed their eyes by the time he overcomes the lockup. They've curled in on themselves by the time he can so much as raise a hand. The faltering effort (to) (for) support discards itself in useless shame: an empty fist, curling closed at the enforcer's side, frame folded in a knot of nausea and loathing as dim lights flicker. He has to say it. He has a voice. He thinks it might hurt worse than when he didn't.

Betrayal always should.

"...not lying."

Alan steps closer as Frisk curls in, the light above their disk extinguishing as he lowers it to his side. They need to know the truth, but it still hurts seeing them like this, struggling against barriers hard-coded into their mind. Is this the same pain that Rinzler feels when he defies Clu? How could Clu inflict something like that on a child?

“Frisk… I’m sorry, but I’m telling you the truth,” he says, echoing Rinzler’s statement. “Clu isn’t your friend. He’s your admin.”

He glances at the disk in his hand, as if it’s proof—and it is. He hesitates and then sighs. He needs to at least offer.

“I can change that, if you want.”

"M-make it stop."

It hurt it hurts it hurts. Nothing makes sense, Rinzler doesn't make sense, Alan doesn't make sense, but--

"He changed you."

"Make it stop...please..."

The brokenness of their pleas hits Alan with a renewed sense of urgency and he finds himself lifting their disk back up almost on instinct. The light above it flickers with conflicted intent.

“Okay, Frisk,” he says, doing his best to sound calm and certain in spite of his own disquiet. “I’m going to put things back the way they were. It won’t take long at all. I promise.”

Then he turns to his program, a flash of anxiety showing through his facade of composure. “Rinzler, just… take care of them, okay?” As uneasy as he feels towards the program at the moment, Rinzler would know better than anyone what they’re going through—and any risks that might come with it.

It's the right answer. It's what Alan-one needed. It's what Rinzler had called on him for in the first place, the repair he'd hoped Frisk might allow. It's what they need. More than anything.

But hearing it still hurts, and Rinzler doesn't want to process why.

It doesn't matter. It can't, and he won't let his own errors delay what's needed any longer. Rinzler locks his frame before it can tremble, strangles the keening snarl of mismatch to one stutter in the constant, endless stream. He still can't meet his user's eyes, but he can twitch the helmet up on prompt.

...that's not the order he'd expected. Rinzler stares for a long beat before nodding.

Protect.

Clu's enforcer shifts a step closer. After a moment, he silently reaches out a hand to Frisk.

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Breakout and Beyond: September Plot Log

the escape

A World of Peace

Points of Interest

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