ManicMuse
I ax-o-lotl questions.
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Futuristic HARVEST MOON - Brought to you by JOY SYSTEMS (Open)
- Thread starter ManicMuse
- Start date
ManicMuse
I ax-o-lotl questions.
SCENE 1 - ANNUAL REVIEW
OCULUS > SECTOR THREE > LOWER DECK CONFERENCE ROOM
HARVEST MOON
Outis — Ship Interface Android
“
The meeting will begin at 0715. Please help yourself to the coffee and tea station. Thank you.
”
The bubbly yet monotone voice of Outis the android repeated every few minutes. A handful of the early risers were already trickling into the lower deck conference room. This training was mandatory for all staff, or so the email notification had stated. Though for anyone who had been there for more than a year, they knew it would be the same as last year. A boring, bland presentation from JOY SYSTEMS upper management regarding the importance of fourth-quarter reviews and budget proposals for the coming year.
The projector's light flicks on, and the computer brings up the pre-recorded training. Otuis double-checks the audio output before giving a nod of approval and heading out to address other tasks on today's schedule.
Slowly the screen flicks to life as one of JOYS many umbrella company ads start to run like the trailers before the movie.
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Guppy Franz
Guppy was here!
A low, frustrated sigh escaped Nathen as he finished preparing himself for the day and wore a look of slight exhaustion on his face. The same annoyingly bubbly voice of Outis repeated its message, their voice quickly reminding him of his pounding head. With a slight wince and groan, he rubbed his groggy eyes and clicked his tongue in annoyance. "I really need to find a way to mute you sometimes, you're killing me," he grumbled before letting out a quick huff. Taking in a slow breath to clear his hazed mind, Nathen finally turned to his office desk to gather his things for the day. Once in front of his desk, his terminal station automatically came to life as he approached. Several files, windows, and documents filled the screen from the night before. In front of his terminal station sat his tablet with the company symbol lazily floating in the center of the screen. As he picked up the device from his desk, he glanced over to the right lower corner of his desk to see a nearly empty bottle of bourbon and his lone drinking glass. A small frown came to his face to see so little left in the bottle. Perhaps he should have paced himself more, the aftermath of his mistake already making him briefly regret his decision to have more than one drink as he massaged the top of his beating head. Plus, it'd be a while before he gets another bottle of his favorite brand sent to the station.
"Alright, let's see what's on the agenda today," he muttered as he tapped the screen of his tablet to bring the device to life. A list of daily duties and a few pending messages sat in the corners of the screen. In the center were the station's daily updates from the other departments, mainly either from the Engineering or HR departments. From a quick glance everything seemed to be in the green but knowing better he decided he'd pay all the department's a visit later today once he gets his more important task of the day done. His plans to have his own meeting with the rest of the security staff were still his biggest priority of the day, but it seemed in his drunken state last night he forgot to send out the message to remind them all. Outis repeated its message of the mandatory meeting and Nathen held back a groan before stepping away from his desk and making his way toward the exit of his office. Before exiting he made one last look over at himself, patting down his grey cargo pants, straightening the wrinkles from his black t-shirt with the company logo on his chest, and tapping the tips of his combat boots against the floor to check the steel toes. Once he figured he looked presentable enough to start the day he secured his retractable stun baton to his belt and tapped the doors console to open the sliding metal door.
It wasn't a surprise to see his second-in-command standing outside his office, patiently waiting for him with their usual stoic expression as she tapped away at her wrist pad. Once taking a step out she lowered her wrist and stood at attention with her arms folded behind her back. "Good morning sir," she greeted with a curt nod. Nathen noticed her eyes flicker up and down him before returning to meet his gaze. For a moment he saw her nose nearly scrunch up as she held back a frown. Nathen held back a smirk of amusement, no doubt she could tell he was drinking again. Or perhaps she was unhappy with his choice of attire for the day. Even since day one, she's been a bit of a prune about the securities dress code, but with him being head of the department she knew it was a fight she could not win.
"Mornin Lilith, already raring to go I see," Nathen chuckled slightly as he stretched his arms over his head with a sigh. Glancing down to his second he noticed her strawberry blonde hair was much shorter than it was yesterday, now cut just up to her ears and styled in a way that just screamed professional. Other than her new hairdo she was the same as usual, her dark grey uniform nicely maintained and her gear neatly organized on her belt. "Going for a new look Lil? Looks good," he commented as he brought his hands back to his side and tapped his door console to close it.
"I wasn't looking for a new 'look', it was simply getting in the way. It's less of a hassle to deal with now, not as many knots to untangle after I wake up. Thank you though," Nathen's smirk remained on his face and gave a quick nod before gesturing her toward the hall of sector one.
"Come on, let's get started. I'm sure you have more work to pile onto my list for the day," he said with a small chuckle. Lilith cleared her throat as she began to walk alongside him, tapping away at the tablet on her wrist.
"Apologies sir, but I'm afraid that is the case. A few issues have arisen that need your attention," she informed him only to have Nathen groan in response to the news. He only saw it for a split second, but he swore he saw a smile briefly flicker onto her painted-red lips before returning to their natural state. "Fortunately, they are rather minor issues. Should be no trouble to rectify them before lunch."
"I doubt that, it's always something time-consuming," he complained with a small frown before letting out a sigh. "Whatever, I'll get it all done. Just make sure the rest of the department remembers our meeting today. There are some things I need to go over with everyone as we start this year off," he said as he scratched the stubble of hair along his jawline. Lilith gave a quick nod and tapped away at her wrist pad.
"Of course, I'll make sure everyone is reminded sir," she answered before they both reached the entrance of Sector 3, finding more of the residents of the station making their way toward the conference room for today's mandatory. Nathen gave a few good-natured waves and polite greetings to those who they passed, trying his best to ignore the pounding in his head as his environment grew much louder. Soon enough they reached the entrance of the conference room and entered the space to see the early risers already waiting for the meeting to start.
"Go ahead and take a seat, I'll just stay in the back," he said before spotting the coffee station and making his way over, but before he could get far Lilith tapped his shoulder. Spinning around with an arched brow he looked down at her extended hand to see a few familiar pills resting in the center of her gloved palm. A grin spread across his face as he looked back up at her and held back a chuckle as she rolled her eyes at the expression.
"It's no business of mine if you drink in your free time sir, but at least prepare for the after-effects. We do not want everyone around the station to have the wrong impression of our head of security," she said before Nathen happily took the pills from her and popped them into his mouth.
"Appreciate it Lil, always a lifesaver when the times right," he chuckled before giving a curt nod and making his way to the coffee station. He only heard Lilith let out a heavy sigh as he left her behind. Wasting no time Nathen prepared himself a quick cup of coffee, preferring to keep it black. With coffee secured and medicine consumed, Nathen walked back over to the entrance of the conference room and simply leaned against the wall, greeting everyone that arrived while nursing his warm drink.
BlossomBunniess
The Ultimate Procrastinator
Melisent GarçonMelisent woke up with a frown, she was having such a nice dream, and the bubbly yet monotone voice of Otuis the android ruined it. The girl slowly sat up from the bed, stretching her body as she did so. As she stretched hard, pops from her spine filled the room for half a moment, followed by a long and loud yawn. With another groan of protest, Melisent slowly stood up. After getting herself ready for the day, she began making her way through her bedroom and into the coffee station and prepared a really sweet coffee with vanilla-flavored cream. She started "walking" (running) toward the conference room.
She didn't like the boring presentation they always play, but it was a good place to get lost in her thoughts and not pay attention, which she didn't normally do anyway. She finished her coffee as she neared the conference room. She slowed down and walked toward the entrance. As she walked into the conference room, she greeted Nathen. "Hi Nathen, How are you!?" she said eagerly. She was as energetic as usual, slightly bouncing up and down, and the coffee didn't help.
Attachments
Lambei
The Honorable
Jiang Mingzhu
Machines don't have dreams. How would that be possible? They're a series of nodes, wires, processors and programming, all configured in a way that creates something that appears to be human. But Jiang Mingzhu was not entirely android. At night, her mind often swirled with memories of the past that were so vivid, she could nearly taste the sensation of it across her body. The warm vacations abroad, the childhood memories of scraping her knee playing goalkeeper in elementary school, the savory taste of homemade cooking. These were the memories of a woman that were supposedly her, but she could hardly recognize the caring faces, the signing at the birthday party, the rounds of applause at big events. As the years continued, these memories had started to become more and more vivid. It was becoming hard to blur the line between the artificial intelligence of F-X11 and the human consciousness of Yin Mingzhu that had been fused within her many years prior.
Jiang was in a deep sleep. Androids didn't need to sleep, but there was hardly anything to do at night when all the other humans were off in their pods, resting and preparing for the day that wait ahead. While many of the other androids on board opted to continue their work through all hours of the day, a nagging instinct told Jiang that at around ten o'clock, it was time to go to bed. This night, Jiang's mind whirled with memories of a wedding. She was wearing a long, traditional, red wedding dress and standing before a grand temple. She looked over at the man she were to wed-- and there he was again. Yin Xiaoli. The man who created her. The man who fused the memories of his wife into her body. The man who haunted her dreams.
Her eyes flashed open as she sat up in bed. She had only been asleep for thirty minutes, but the memories had once again awoken her. Jiang let out a deep sigh and shook her head.
"Androids do not sleep," she told herself. "There's work to be done."
Mingzhu carefully stepped out of bed and headed for the door, where she would put on her work shoes, and head out into the cold, sterile, hallway.
Her footsteps reverberated throughout the hallway, the heels clacking as she placed one foot carefully in front of the other, not missing a beat. She was heading back to the laboratory to continue working on samples of minerals once not believe to have been present on the moon. Her obsession with this project was atypical to say the least. What was so interesting about simple rocks?
Mingzhu graced the fingerprint scanner with her silicon skin, the groves of her fingerprints lighting up the display.
As the door opened, she would be bumping into her co-worker, He Manyan. Slight, with a pinched nose and fragile figure, Manyan clenched on to her clipboard as the two collided.
"Miss Jiang, I thought you were heading back to your room for the night," she said, fixing her oval glasses.
"Nonsense," Mingzhu retorted sharply as she brushed past her colleague. "We have an extensive backlog of projects that must be finished soon," she continued.
He Manyan clasped her pale hands around the plastic clipboard. "Miss Jiang..." "Our projects are of very little priority at the moment," she continued. "Why not enjoy the downtime? Appreciate the amenities aboard the station? Save your energy for when we really need it," she finished, trailing off with an unconfident, almost breathy, conclusion to her sentence.
Mingzhu had continued to prepare herself to handle samples of moon rocks that were nearly indistinguishable from each other. "I have all the energy I'll ever need, He," she muttered. "And if I run out, you can feel free to plug me into the nearest outlet," she continued with a sharp sense of sarcasm.
Manyan stood at the doorframe for a moment, her lips pursing and opening for a moment, as if debating a rebuttal, but ultimately standing down.
"...Goodnight, Miss Jiang."
Manyan walked out the door and left Mingzhu in the complete isolation of the laboratory. Mingzhu continued to carefully study each rock and somehow jot notes on slight differences between each and every one of them.
...
At around seven in the morning, Mingzhu was startled by a voice over the intercom. The disembodied, robotic voice of a woman echoed throughout the wide, empty, room. Another meeting, to which Mingzhu let out an audible scoff and placed Specimen-0412 onto the metallic examining table before her, the rock clanging against the hard metal.
"I need to have a word with whomever decides the timing of these meetings," Jiang said as she popped the rubber gloves off her almost perfectly smooth skin. "Have they heard of memos?" she said as she roughly stripped the rest of her laboratory equipment off her body.
Now back in the hallway, Mingzhu continued to murmur about the sudden timing of the meeting. "Go on, disrupt everyone's work for something that could have been said in an e-mail." Her footsteps were faster and echoed louder through the hallway.
Finally, she arrived in the conference room, surprised to be there later than two other known specialists aboard the station. "Already here?" she retorted with a raised eyebrow. Mingzhu carefully stepped over to a seat across Nathen and Melisent.
"I suppose work must be quite slow in your respective departments, aren't they?" she said, adjusting her coat as she sits down with a stiff posture staring ahead at both Nathen and Melisent.
ManicMuse
I ax-o-lotl questions.
Science Division
Sarah Roberts
REMOTE CONNECTION TO ADROID
EARTH > REMOTE CONNECTION TO OCULUS LUNAR SPACE STATION
MENTIONS:
Lambei
Guppy Franz
IN THE AREA:
BlossomBunniess
Sarah rolled over in bed and blankly stared at the wall. Falling asleep was not the problem; getting back to sleep in the early morning was. "Clock current time."
"Time 3:14 AM.
Groaning, Sarah drew the comforter over her head, trying to hide from the world as if that would return her to sleep. When it was not going to work, she used both arms to smash the comforter down to her waist and rolled out of bed. Still in her pajamas, she walked down the hallway of her condo, speaking to her home AI. "Morning mode on, coffee, and start Lunar interface boot up."
"Confirmed. Please note you are not required at OCULUS until 7 AM for a meeting." "Understood," she sneered. After adding coconut oil, butter, and heavy whipping cream to an oversized cup of coffee, Sarah headed toward the home office. Her home was immaculate, with a minimalist design and functional approach. White and natural greys seemed to dominate the tone of the decor.
Plain white pearly sleek walls continued the theme is the newly constructed office space. Nothing hung on the walls of this room, with a cylinder computer workspace in the center of the room. Sarah stepped up into the center of the space. Several computer screens flicked to life, hanging in the air around her. Sipping her coffee, she took in the information. The results of some tests had come back. Reading the input, something caught her eye. A difference in the RNA of a bean plant she had exposed to a spore from the comets. This caused a thick black brow to rise as a smirk perked the edges of her lips. "Oh well, Hello there." She placed her half-consumed coffee into her allotted space at the workstation and started the VPN connection. Within moments, one of her screens reflected the live feed from the OCULUS space station.
ANDROID INTERFACE ON OCULUS
Sarah watched as the storage door opened. The hydraulic whistle as cords disconnected from the android was loud in the confined, closest-like space. Stepping down, she moved to the locker room area for inspection. Sarah grit her teeth when she saw the android's reflection. One of the techs had attempted to install panels over her forearms and legs again. Reaching into the still-exposed chest cavity, Sarah retrieved a stashed screwdriver and began uninstalling the panels. An email notification was blinking ominously in the top right of her screen. She knew it would be again about her androids appearance and HR's requests for a work-friendly environment. An android that looked like an android made others uncomfortable. A faint smile reflected on the android's human-like face as she tossed the panels into the nearest trash. Time to hit the lab.
Then Outis chimed directly into her audio system, "It is 7:10. The meeting starts in 5 minutes. Please proceed to sector three, lower deck conference room." Sarah rolled her eyes, causing her android to mimic the same. "Fine." Sarah considered leaving the sample out as she planned to return right after the meeting. But out of fear of someone else taking notice of her discovery, she returned it to the sample storage area.
Exiting the laboratory, she proceeded to the conference room. Standing just inside the door, her gaze met the coffee and donuts along the wall. This reminded her she had a coffee right next to her going cold. Pausing her android for a moment, the features of the android form froze for a few moments as she gulped down some already-cooled coffee. Tuning back in, Sarah sighed. The head security officer, Nathen, his deputy, and her direct report, Jiang Mingzhu. Weighing her options, she decided to B-line away from the head of security perched at the entryway and try to hide by the wall furthest from the snack bar. This would be a proper place to fly under the radar for now, right?
Code by Serobliss
Guppy Franz
Guppy was here!
Nathen GreeneInteracting:
BlossomBunniess
Lambei
Mentioning:
ManicMuse
A slow sigh escaped Nathen as he waited by the entrance, casually greeting people one by one with a lazy smile. Though his voice was welcoming and carefree there was no hiding the bags under his eyes and the slump in his shoulders. His eyes drifted down to the warm coffee in his hands, finding himself staring into the dark beverage as he slowly swirled his drink around and thought of what the day would bring. Work, work, a speedy bathroom break, then more work! Sure, most of it was just barking orders and doing paperwork, but today seemed to really want to pile onto his list of chores. The only saving grace to the morning was currently the pills Lilith had given him, the effects of their wonderful, hangover-killing magic already taking effect and calming the beating drums in his head. "Modern medicine, you beautiful temptress," he muttered with a slight smile before taking a sip of his coffee.
As he swallowed a voice brought him out of his thoughts and glanced down to see a familiar and energetic face greet him. "Mornin Melisent, glad to see you as hyper as ever," Nathen said with a chuckle before scratching his jaw and thinking about her question. "I'm good, busy day today. Got a few more meetings to be a part of later so that'll be... fun," he scoffed with a bitter smile and rubbed his tired eyes. Before he could continue the conversation, another face passed through the doors and spoke before taking her seat. Nathen let a grin spread across his face from Jiang's question and gave a heavy sigh as he leaned further onto the wall.
"If only that was the case, Miss Jiang. Unfortunately, I have to at least make some sort of effort to have an appearance at these things. No matter how dull and pointless it is," he said with a smirk before nodding toward her. "In fact, I'll be paying your department a visit later today. Got a few things we need to talk about with the heads of your staff. I'll send you a message before I pop on over," he stated before taking another sip from his drink and pausing as something from the corner of his eye caught his attention. Glancing over to the other side of the room he saw an all too familiar Android slink away. Was she hiding? An amused smile came to his lips before taking a sip from his coffee and shaking his head. She was on his list of chores for the day as well, but he'll hunt her down later. For now, he'll simply give an amused grin before looking back to Jiang and Melisent.
"Just a heads up for both of you, the stations going to go through some changes this year. Nothing major, but it will affect most of the departments," he informed them before finishing his drink, crumpling the paper cup and tossing it towards a distant trash bin. It bounced off the corner and rolled defeated along the ground. "Damnit," he muttered before letting out a low sigh and burying his hands into his pockets. "Anyway, while the departments are still the current subject, how are things on both your ends? Any issues or complaints you wanna add to my to-do list today?" he questioned with a slight grin as he looked between the two.
Lambei
The Honorable
Jiang Mingzhu
Interacting:
Guppy Franz
ManicMuse
In the area:
BlossomBunniess
Jiang wasn't an easy woman to please, but she certainly wasn't a shrew, either. To gripe for the sake of griping would just be plain illogical. She just found it annoying she had to be taken away from her "important studies." She shouldn't be taking it out on those around her, she thought. She would save the complaints for a strongly worded e-mail to Joy System's director. Jiang took a deep breath, readjusted her posture, and collected her thoughts. Now leaning back, one leg over the other, she redirected her gaze intently at the table as she debated a rebuttal, thrumming her fingers across the table and stroking her chin.
"No, I can't think of any major happenings to report, Nathen," she let out after a moment.
"But, a visit to my department?" she asked with calm demeanor. "I assure you we've been following proper procedures year round." "With all due respect, a visit from your team would only lead to further disruptions, we run on a tight schedule..." she concluded, trailing off her sentence.
As she trailed off, she noticed Sarah walk into the room, brushing past introductions and heading toward the amenities. Jiang rubbed her temples with embarrassment, as she felt the eyes of the other guests gravitate at her. How couldn't they? She stuck out like a sore thumb-- a human connecting through the body of an android to be present on the station. She didn't look like the other androids on board, clearly, and she definitely didn't look human, either. Why would anybody opt for that?
Jiang felt herself disassociating from the moment, as unfamiliar memories began to flood back into her. This hadn't been happened during the day before. It only happened at night when she allowed her system to reboot. It had never felt like this either. It felt warm, fuzzy. Human. She stared off in a long, hard, gaze. A thousand yard stare, but then quickly came back to reality with a sharp gasp.
She hoped nobody noticed, and attempted to redirect the focus. Dismissing the thoughts with the shake of her head, her soft hair bristled against her face rapidly. She cleared her throat and set her attention on Sarah.
"Er, isn't that right, Sarah?" Jiang raised her voice, trying to catch the attention of her subordinate. Jiang clenched her arms nervously as her mind raced to figure out what just happened to her seconds ago.
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