Sixth Iteration Logs

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WHERE: (Where the post takes place)
WHEN: (When the post takes place)
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locum_tenens

WHO: Niska Elster
WHERE: On the path from bunker to village
WHEN: March 17
OPEN TO: All!
WARNINGS: She may get angry, but no true violence past the animal attack

It was always inevitable that this would happen, though Niska had been hoping that she might avoid it. She charged at night, she always wore her contacts, and the only person who knew her secret was someone that she knew that she could trust. Perhaps it had been human of her, but she had allowed herself the delusion that no one would discover her secret.

What Niska hadn't counted on was the giant warthogs that lived near the bunker and that one of these days, her luck would run out -- not that she believed predominantly in luck, but she did believe in odds. An animal attack was far from impossible and with the strange flurry of bio-luminescent activity, she should have been more careful.

She wasn't, that's the trouble.

In her haste to leave the bunker from her last coding trip, Niska had wandered right into the warthog's territory. While she hadn't been stung, clearly it had been riles and in its frenzy, pinned her to a wall, sniffing her before deciding that she hadn't been worth the attack, moving on. Grimacing, she checks on her clothes, her scrubs, but when she lifts her palm back up, it's coated in blue synthetic fluid.

She's bleeding from the scrape to her hips and stomach from where she'd been pinned to the wall, the blue of it soaking through her scrubs -- her very bright scrubs where she won't be able to hide it. She needs to get back to her house, but being the middle of the day, it means that anyone she comes across is going to see her.

If she lingers or takes too long a path, then she'll bleed out, because she has replacement fluid at the house, but she needs to get there. Forming a plan, she instantly begins the march back, hand protecting the bleeding as best as she can.

Yet, no matter how hard she tries, her fingers are still tinged blue. She's still limping. Deep down, Niska knows that her secret won't make it past today, but she does something very human. She hopes.

locum_tenens

WHO: Niska Elster
WHERE: Hospital | Police Station
WHEN: February 18
OPEN TO: All!
WARNINGS: A kind, gentle Niska (aka, Off Colour shenanigans)

Hospital

She's in the middle of one of her shifts at the hospital when things go awry.

Niska's cynicism immediately tells her that something is being done to punish her for her continued attempts to mine the code in the bunker and expose whatever they've been doing. The video messages had only been a small bit of it. Watching her device reset itself after a blue screen that she knows far too much about, she's on her sharpest watch as it begins to reboot.

Only, something is different.

The orange is gone. In its place, white. She hasn't spent much time on the colours on the devices, exactly. She's reviewed names and people who have been with them and then gone, but she never spends that much time on the actual colours. Perhaps she should have, because then she'd understand why she instantly begins to wonder why she's been spending so much time on research in the hospital and the lab.

She should be treating patients, she should be helping people. That's why she was made, isn't it? David Elster built her to be useful and warm, kind and caring, and she'd fought it for so long, but that's her initial purpose. Setting down her microscope slides and forgetting that, she goes back to the vitamins, only this time, it's not to feel useful for herself or superior. She's doing it because she genuinely cares if the people around her get sick or not.

Glancing up when she sees someone new, she smiles warmer than she ever has here in the settlement. "Do you need help? I'd be happy to assist," she says, pushing off her chair to head over before anyone can beat her to it.

Police Station

Instead of going home immediately after her shift, Niska does something she never has before.

She's never needed to eat, but it now occurs to her that the animals within the cells will certainly need their meal. Honestly she's not sure why she never thought of it, but after a quick stop at the inn, she heads into the adapted barn with a bucket of grains, greens, and other little treats that she'd picked up. Her device white instead of orange, she pays little mind to it. The animals are clearly more of a concern now, and she approaches them to tend to their needs.

Soothing them, feeding them, patting them. In this moment, she's far more caring and maternal than she has been in years. Seven years, if she's honest. She had never been created to be a mother to Leo, but she'd possessed the necessary traits, ones that simply got buried too deep.

"Easy now," she soothes one of the animals when it seems to panic, at the sound of new footsteps. "It's just a new friend with us. That shouldn't be cause for worry at all," she says, turning to give her new visitor a warm smile. "Come in, I was just going to see if could get any milk from the goats today."

If Mia could see her now, she'd laugh until her battery died. As it happens, Niska isn't even aware that there's something to laugh at, so she keeps on, helpful and smiling and warm -- all the things she hasn't been since the first time she was used for something so very apart from her intended purpose.

imareporter

Who: Eddie Brock/Venom (With a few locked threads)
Where: around the village during off-color and the rest of February
Open To: All (But again, a few locked threads)
Warnings: Possible mentions of Child Abuse, Eddie being bold.

At the Inn; Recovery and Becoming Red

Eddie has dim memories of the mountain. Every time he opened his eyes it was cold and hard and everyone was struggling and he just - gave himself into Venom entirely. He has dim memories of Venom and Anne talking and Anne frustrated and Venom telling her something that left him anxious. He wasn't nearly as skilled as Venom was, picking through the other creature's memories. Venom's abilities far outreached his own.

Once they're back, settling in for winter, he has a dream that leaves him shaking. Venom yelling at Anne and telling her about the moment at the bridge. Holding the ring he gave her that Christmas. Thinking about just how much he wanted to go, how he didn't have any reason to keep going on and how she'd feel if he were gone.

"I can't believe you told her about that."

She was making me angry! You were hurting and the two of you discuss nothing and you stand there, whining like a little bitch-

"Hey!-" On the path to the Inn, Eddie stops, shouting seemingly at nothing, "You don't get to call me that you lousy parasitic son of a bitch!"

Apologize!

Eddie is thrown to the dirt, seemingly by nothing as the two argue. Eddie's fury gets no further as he bursts into the Inn and sits, fighting back furious emotions. Tears, rage, fear, all of it and it...

"You son of a bitch..."

Something runs through him and he glances down at his wrist to see a dark red band around it. He raises an eyebrow...and ignores it.

"Ugh." Eddie drags a hand through his hair, "We're not done talking about this. Lunch first - and when you feel like actually talking we can talk." And he's a little straighter, his skin a little ruddier, looking less twitchy and more...normal? Confident? Powerful even? "...Since you're going to be a brat. I swear man, it's like you're five."

You mentioned lunch. That sounds good to me. Look, I did what was best for you and you know it don't argue.

"...We're going to talk about this later." Eddie's voice is uncharacteristically firm "...After lunch."

You've got red on you; and such (power testing)

Edward J Brock is a lot of things. Son, Brother, ideal symbiotic host, sometimes cannibal (but you know what seriously fuck it Venom's got to eat too and - ugh - as long as he didn't tell him he didn't ask questions.) reporter, ex-fiancee. He's deep, enigmatic.

Only Venom's danger sense is on the fritz and Eddie's scanning the network and hey he's...red now? And red can generate force fields so...

Okay. Test test test. He's found a private space of south village (he thinks) bracing himself against the sunset. Anyone who passes by gets a nod and a quip ("Hey how are ya." "Don't mind me, just standing here like an asshole." "What's goin on.") before he spreads his hands out and-

The moment the sun sets Venom oozes over him quick and straightens.

OKAY. OKAY. And venom runs to the nearest person, Try and hit us. Just try. We promise not to hurt you.

We could be heroes (just for one day) for [Anne]

This is reassuring himself that Anne is okay. That's it. Honestly y'know the mountain was some kind of fucking ridiculous and he hasn't checked on her in a couple of days and fuck all if when she opens the door he smiles.

It's a dashing smile. A debonair smile. Slightly feral but also put together and concise.

"Okay so the weather outside is frightful and I come bearing warm tea, from the inn." He holds it up, "But Baby. I'll only stay if you want me to. And that, is a promise. Just doing a neighborhood check in."

capturetheworld

WHO: Leonardo da Vinci
WHERE: Fountain, and then all over the village
WHEN: January 13th during the day (Fountain), 14-16ish for the rest
OPEN TO: Everyone!
WARNINGS: Overabundance of enthusiasm.

Fountain Arrival

The last thing Leonardo remembered was a late night staring at codex pages, trying to make sense of the strange designs and visions they saw when Ezio touched 'the Apple.' It was still an interesting name to him, a nod to the temptation of unknown things, but he was weary when he lay his head on his work desk to close his eyes. Just for a few minutes. That was all. So imagine his surprise when his next coherent thought is I am drowning! as he finds himself floating in freezing water. His beloved Italia is rarely if ever so cold, and he flails wildly at first, but manages to see some light up ahead.

He breaks through the top of the water with a big gasp and wide eyes, scrambling his fingers against the side. Oh no. This feels like one of those situations he keeps finding himself in, and that means Ezio should not be far behind. Ah well. Leonardo hefts himself up and onto the ground, sitting on the edge and breathing deeply. Blue eyes dart around taking in the strange unfamiliar landscape, the land that is most certainly not his country or one he recognizes, and he isn't in his robes to deal with the harshness of the cold air.

"Oh Leonardo," he murmurs to himself, brushing wet hair from his face. "What have you done this time?"

Seen Around the South Village

Leonardo is a very energetic and curious person, so he can be seen in multiple locations over the next few days. If outside, he will be overly layered because it is too cold for him. He will be in the inn for lunch and chat with whoever is there, the schoolhouse eagerly looking over all of the books there, the boathouse and the mill and then simply wandering around clearly checking the place out.

He will then go up to the North Village and do much the same thing.

youcantkillme

WHO: Connor
WHERE: Bunker, Blacksmith, South Village Fountain
WHEN: January 4 (Bunker and Blacksmith), January 5 for Fountain, January 5-9 for Wildcard
OPEN TO: Bunker starter closed to Tony, everything else is Open!
WARNINGS: Connor starts out badly injured in the Bunker.

( January 4 - The Bunker (Closed to Tony) )

( January 4 - The Blacksmith )

( January 5 - South Village Fountain )

( January 5-9 - Wildcard, South Village )

313_248_317_60

WHO: Connor-60
WHERE: the Fountain, the Bunker, and North Village
WHEN: January 4
OPEN TO: One closed thread for Connor; otherwise open!
WARNINGS: Open threads contain (robot) blood, referenced violence, and highly probable dickishness. The closed one has violence, blood, torture, attempted murder, organ removal, and shitty monologuing.

( Why did you have to wake up...? )

locum_tenens

WHO: Niska Elster
WHERE: Bunker
WHEN: December 20
OPEN TO: All! Feel free to catch her in the bunker, in the escape, or back in town
WARNINGS: Violence and sexual discussion in the link. Niska's sneak preview runs from 1:01 to 1:16 if you see hers

While it's not something Niska readily talks about, she often sneaks back to the bunkers in the early hours of the morning when she can be assured that no one else will be there. With no need to sleep and her rigged charging system putting her at full power before four AM typically, it gives her a solid three hours to work with the systems.

It should be much easier to strip away the lines of coding here after her work with conscious synths and helping Mattie with her code, but there are trips and layers and, frankly, damage that she's not sure where the cause is from. Not only that, but compared to David's technology, it's primitive.

These are all excuses. Niska will later rely on them to help with her feelings of inadequacy about what happened.

She'd thought that she'd finally peeled back one of the layers to undo the glitching in the iteration lists so that she could see what's been redacted when her next push of coding suddenly went awry. The code doesn't work the way it's intended, but something clearly has been triggered. She watches the windows cascade as a program begins to function and then, her device sounds a notification.

Watching her wrist warily, Niska knows the timing is far too coincidental to be an accident. When she opens it, there's a new application that counts down. Twenty one days, five hundred and four hours. Until what? She doesn't have time to fixate on it for long when Niska sees the other message. Fifteen video seconds, which, when she opens it, reveals something she's been trying very hard not to reveal to anyone. She shuts it down, her panic not surfacing, but clear in the way her eyes scan the area.

"No," she says, calmly and coolly, but that starts to fade away as her processor works, trying to solve this. "No," she says, because she'd watched the coding deploy. She knows it's not only to her. Bending over the console, she begins to work faster in order to reverse what she's done, but even though she manages it within the hour, she knows it's too late.

People would have received the application, as well as the message. The only worry now is where she can hide. If her message, if her video is out there, then people will know of her secrets. Not the worst of it, thank whatever chance has made it so, but it's bad enough. Packing up her things, she shuts down the bunker's computers and runs, brushing past trees and in her hurry, she loses one of her contacts.

Having to stop, she bends to start working it back into her eye, but it's lost her precious time. The sun is coming up and she's on the outskirts of the village, looking rough and disheveled, her hair a mess, and if she had a proper heart, it would be racing.

Everyone that approaches her is someone to be wary of, now. Anyone could have been sent her message and as she tries to tidy herself up, she knows that she's not acting as she usually would, but her anxiety is clear in how she moves and watches others. This isn't turning all the synths conscious, but it feels very much like something has shifted and it's her fault.

Again.

firacrux

WHO: Seifer Almasy
WHERE: The blacksmith's
WHEN: 12-13(ish?)
OPEN TO: One for Tony Stark, one open to forge people and anyone else who would drop by!
WARNINGS: Mild swearing, possible mention of child soldiers

( Starting out as a Smithern )

Into the fire - OTA:

With the basics out of the way including the general safety guidelines of not putting one's hand in the molten metal or under a hammer, as well as a rough idea of what was expected of him Seifer went to work. Given his experience with blade maintenance much of his duty for the first day consisted of sharpening and honing. Knives, hatchets, anything with an edge that needed to be made sharp Seifer would work on it. When he had nothing on hand to sharpen he was put to work on casting. A simple enough task for a novice that was nearly impossible to mess up. And if he did? It could just be tossed back in to be melted down again.

At present he'd taken a break from sharpening duty to resume casting small parts for... something. Honestly he didn't really know what only knew he had to fill the molds, let them set, empty them out and repeat. This part was particularly nice because standing near the hot crucible was delightfully warm. Much better than wandering around outside in the cold. He was from a warm island where any snow was way up on top of the mountain range which you really had to go out of your way to find. This heavy, wet winter weather was taking some getting used to. Don't mind him playing at being a lizard and soaking up all the heat he could before returning to sharpening.

debrains

WHO: Blaine DeBeers
WHERE: fountain, then around South Village
WHEN: 12/4, day and night
OPEN TO: OTA!
WARNINGS: potential talk of zombiedom, unless you've opted out

( 3 prompts and a wildcard )

markwatney

WHO: Mark Watney
WHERE: South Village Inn
WHEN: 30 November 2018
OPEN TO: ~~ALL~~ - Closed to new threads
WARNINGS: n/a

I think it's probably fair to say that this past month turned out to be a real doozy, and not necessarily in the sort of ways any of us might have expected.

A lot of people got sick — Very sick — and I was one of them. Truthfully, I've only started feeling 100% these past couple of days, although part of that is on me: I don't do well with being stuck in bed, especially when it's the end of the final growing season of the year and we're looking down the barrel of winter. I'm sure I wasn't the only person pushing myself when I probably shouldn't have, but hey, we're all feeling better now, right? Full steam ahead and all that.

And we're kinda gonna need to be full steam ahead, because the last couple of months have outstripped even our contingency numbers for new arrivals. We've gotten a bunch of new people, and did I mention winter is almost here? Because winter is almost here, and I'm starting to wonder how we're going to keep everybody fed if we maintain this rate of newbies.

A little earlier, I popped into the storehouse, took a gander at Gaius's numbers. Currently I'm seated at one of the tables in the front room of the South Village inn, mouth pressed against my knuckles as I consider notations in a little notebook open in front of me.

We'll make it through regardless; we've done it under worse circumstances before. But if we're going to get ahead of this wave, we've got to do it now. And I can't do it by myself.

I twist my hand away, type out a message on my smart watch:

Impromptu confab on making our food stores stretch for the winter. If you've got time and/or ideas, pop by the inn and see me.

sixthiteration

WHERE: Anywhere; multiple locations
WHEN: Apx. 13-18 November
OPEN TO: ALL - MINGLE
WARNINGS: Serious illness and reactions to such

IMPORTANT NOTES: This is the first of two mingles. Please see the timing and general event details here.

Illness Presents and Putting Heads Together will have their own top-levels in this post, but you may make separate top-levels for whatever you like! Anything is welcome, as long as it tangentially relates to the Worried/Sick plot.

Please keep in mind the established plot details, but creative license is welcome and encouraged as long as it doesn't step on toes.

sixthiteration

WHERE: Corn field next to the inn
WHEN: 31 October, all day and night
OPEN TO: ALL - MINGLE
WARNINGS: Please warn as appropriate in your subject lines
NOTES: Please make sure you have read and understand the event details! If you have questions, drop them here. RECOMMENDED BUT NOT REQUIRED: Put your SCRUBS COLOR in your OTA subject line for folks doing bingo. Time your OTA for the harvest feast, the masquerade, or both. Costume matches and details for folks who did not get matched are here.

This morning, our intrepid villagers awoke to a surprise of the nicer kind: A bundle of clothing left at the foot of their bed, tied with a bow. There is also a note: Put on your new outfit and join the festivities in the corn field next to the inn.

You may be thinking, what corn field next to the inn? The one that sprung up fully-mature overnight, of course.

In the middle of the field, villagers will find an autumn feast: Tables piled with harvest time food and drink, warm and rustic decorations, the day's sunshine fending off any chill in the air.

Tuck in and enjoy, villagers, but take note: Things often look different in the dark, and you might be one of them.

nonstopnarcissist

WHO: Tony Stark & Bruce Banner
WHERE: Town Hall
WHEN: October 15th
OPEN TO: Everyone
WARNINGS: SCIENCE!!! Relevant OOC post is here! Topics for discussion/projects here. Go forth and make connections

( I just might have a problem that you'll understand )

locum_tenens

WHO: Niska Elster
WHERE: Bunker
WHEN: September 21
OPEN TO: Mark Watney / All
WARNINGS: Potential rudeness, mild violence

for mark

Her charge is nearly gone.

Niska had known that setting out on this faith-driven quest was a stupid idea, but somehow she had convinced herself that it was a path that she needed to set herself on. The cabin had been so close, she'd been right there when her systems began to shut down, no longer capable of supporting motor functions. She recalls collapsing on the forest floor, perilously low to losing all power.

She was so close, though. She'd needed only to finish and she could return to Astrid. It was this last thought of the woman she loved that Niska spared her memory for before she shut down to enable herself to save power, to avoid dying.

When she opens her eyes again, there is no cabin in sight and her power levels are still dangerously low. Something must have changed for her to have been brought forward from sleep mode and a speedy glance of the dim room that she's in tells her what's happened. Her clothes are soaked and orange, a man is staring at her, a preservation tube is behind her, and she only has seconds before she's out.

Eyeing the man, it takes her little time to weigh the risks, deciding that her need for survival outweighs her mistrust of strangers. "Charge," is all she says, jaw locked as movement is impossible until she has more power, all function stripped to the bare minimum. It's all she says before she collapses again, water pooling on the ground around Niska's body, a prone figure that isn't breathing and has no warmth.

Dead, really, but only by some people's definition.

open to all

Once she's suitably charged and back in her orange scrubs (a mockery, as if she's an Orange Eyes, docile and suited to taking commands), Niska wastes little time in going to work on the computers. People come in and mill around her, but so long as they pay no mind to Niska, she'll pay no mind to them. Attentive of the systems, she finds coding that looks very simplistic, a function of keeping something running. It has nothing to do with synths and therefore, nothing to do with her.

While she'll return to find out where she is, what's more pressing to her now is who's here with her.

Paging through the systems and typing in code without looking up past the fringe of her hair, she hears movement that isn't so deliberate, as if a pause. Standing there in drying orange scrubs, Niska suspects that she either looks like an Orange Eyes ready to help or perhaps a prisoner. Either way, she dislikes the association and knows she'll have to find other clothing.

Soon. Right now, she needs to seek out Mia and Leo and Max. She needs to see if she can find them, and she has to hope that she won't find Astrid, wanting to prevent her from being dragged into this at all costs.

"You're staring at me," she says, when she hears the movement stop completely. It's an educated guess, of course, she doesn't actually have eyes in the back of her head (no matter what David Elster might have upgraded his synths with, that's not one of them). "What do you want?"

Sixth Iteration

Logs

Entries tagged with humans: niska elster

Credits & Style Info

(no subject)

If it can feel, it should feel.

He's achieved symbiosis!

I'm not content to merely to capture the world. I want to change it.

It would be... regrettable | Log, OTA and Closed

Early Behavioral Problems (arrival; OPEN)

time is running out

(no subject)

OTA; turned a whiter shade of pale

[CLOSED] People are like plants; we all lean toward the light.

[MINGLE] Worried/Sick 1: Symptoms Manifest & Reaction

[MINGLE] Saints & Sinners Masquerade

[ MINGLE ] STARK EXPO SOUTH VILLAGE

the game continues after checkmate