station72 | (CLOSED)

Goal: To download the encrypted research data!
Caveat: "Most of the terminals have been scrambled by the energy output from whatever destroyed the facility in the first place and the other terminals are heavily encrypted. It's possible to transfer the data, but it's not possible to crack into it without irreparably scrambling it."

They just want to take it for now, they're not so worried about trying to decrypt it down there. Because it's spooky.

Turns: I, A, L, A , I, A, L
So Ilde or Lexa take a turn every other, I think that will be the best flow since they're on one side of the conversation togther.

( Angel, we require your expertise. )

( I'm here. What do you need? )

[Though they're speaking via their mind link, there is a noticeable softness both in Lexa's body language and intentions when speaking to Angel that's not usually in place otherwise. She's usually brittle and on edge, but it's clear that she's fond of Angel.]

( We require your assistance obtaining some information from machines. Would you be able to walk us through it from a distance? )

[Lexa has no doubt that she'd be able to if she were here, but she's not here.]

[ She considers it, it would be of course easier if she were with them, but she's not. So she settles back that she's doing, settles her hands in her lap. ]

( I wont be able to use my abilities, but if you let me look through your eyes, I can guide you through it. )

( I feel that can be done, with some concentration. )

[ An aside to Lexa, as this is not something they have discussed much, ]

( Do you feel confident enough in your thought-sharing for this? )

( I've barely utilized it. )

[The words are simple, but they mask her discomfort with this level of communication. She has no choice but to use it, but still.

There's a pause.]

( But I will hand myself over to Angel. )

[Unlike everyone else, Angel knows that Lexa is the Commander of her people, and precisely what's at stake. The answers she's offered her means that she can pull back and be pliant—if necessary.]

Edited (Slight revisions to dialogue/prose after thinking about them.) 2016-04-25 23:28 (UTC)

[ she stays quiet, making sure to keep what she wants hidden away to herself. Neither are her brood, and that makes it somewhat easier. Beyond that, she makes herself ready. On her end, she needs to untangle from the hum of machinery. though the process feels the same as joining with it.

But there's no helping that trickle of warmth in her words, her thoughts, for them both. ]

( Just let me know when you are ready, it shouldn't take too much time at all. )

[ Ilde exhales, preparing herself for this exercise. She knows the vibration of Angel's thoughts rather well now, they have intertwined their thinking several times now. It is a matter of falling into sync with it at a distance now, without being able to hear the girl's breathing, or feel her presence at her side. The easy physical metronome that would bring them together.

Instead she has to think of it, and so she remembers the purple ribbons of light that the Angel wove so well, uses their dance and their rhythm in her head to reach out across the expanse of the plains.

Don't fight it.

This was the key, she had learned that much so far. She thinks only of what she can see before her and lets the rest of her body and her mind go lax. ]

( I am prepared. )

[To a degree, Lexa is no stranger to letting someone else borrow her mind. She believes that it's because of the spirit of the Commander that she's taken into herself, a metaphysical belief that she holds close to her heart. The truth is that the chip in the back of her neck, connected to her spinal cord, is what has always done that work, assisting her even when she has no idea what it's doing. Lexa has never fully given herself over, but aspects of her knowledge come from the chip (such as the names of the previous Commanders, such as the knowledge available on the degraded chip).

She has meditated at times to reach them, and when she feels the stillness of Ilde's mind (for it's difficult not to when they're so close), she follows suit. Her eyes close momentarily as she counts down from ten, easing her mind and calming it. She's practiced in cutting away her emotions and providing some serenity to her mind. For Lexa, that serenity comes with brittle edges and a necessary viciousness that comes with the ideas of survival, but she does her best to curb them now.

The last thing she wants is for Angel to experience that in passing over, especially with what she learned earlier in this mission.

At one, she opens her eyes, and gives an unnecessary nod. She pauses, and then sends a communication through the link, her voice almost distant sounding with the calm she's asserted:]

( As am I. )

[ In the cool space of the cockpit where she's working, she settles herself on the ground, crosses her legs below her and settles into the feeling of weightlessness, and it's that she turns around in her mind and into theirs, extends it like it's her own hand, she is so much more real in her own mind than in her body. Looks for the space of their thoughts to twine her fingers through. When she has it, she breathes in deeply. ]

( Give me a moment. )

[ Though it's a little bit more giving of herself, than it had been before, and she sighs gently, quiet, echoes through a hundred different machines. Her own private multitude. Takes particular care, she gives them -- light, warmth, the detachment from the physical that comes with being above and beyond and apart that she is when she's working. Nothing touches her, she is not solid, more real when she is immaterial, weightless and ebbing back and forth, wandering as far as thoughts can take them, -- and she will help them, she is watching over them. Skims over their thoughts and their feelings with no more than a brush of fingers. Polite as if she were settling into a conversation with them, sharing a mind didn't give her leave to pry after all. Just there isn't much helping it.

Even so, it's -- too much, no no, hard, doesn't want to treat them like programs, ( mean more than that, they are all survival and cruelty and life and - beats hard inside of her chest, hurts as much as she wants, to be close to others, all smothered longing, - ) it's just that is the safest way to keep this from becoming overwhelming.

Old words, old lines, but it only helps to make the tone practised. Even. Commands she gives, if gently, and when she opens her eyes again, she does it through theirs in turn. It feels much, almost too much, how they see, -- and that is it, right now, Cathaway was right, this is more than anything she understood, she is now they and right now it is exactly literal, and she bleeds her knowledge out of her. It seems fair, for learning just how it was to see through another's eyes. Their shades, their perceptions. It is bright and trills down her spine like bird song all high and clear in her throat. ]

( Alright, I have you both now. I can see. When you're ready, start making your way towards what you need to access and we'll begin. )

[ Granted this will be easier than helping half the programmers in Hyperion, she can just feed them directly what they need to know with her own understanding, no trying to describe strange concepts. ]

Edited 2016-04-27 15:43 (UTC)

[ It is a bit like being underwater, envisioning her hands and her surroundings in her head, while gesturing in the physical world... Disorienting, briefly, but Ilde frowns and focuses. She approaches the long panels of computers. ]

( This is an abandoned research facility. We have found a few small pieces of information, but we would like more. )

[No matter what she said before about being willing to undergo this, a part of her immediately resists. She recalls the Prince's words, hinting that she might lose herself to this life, to the Nest. She recalls the ease with which Cathaway connected, showing her all those people who were torn away from their worlds. Her fingers flex and bend into fists so that she can feel control over her body, and she does everything she can to keep herself from rejecting Angel.

All the calm she produced is gone, and Lexa is all too aware of how much Angel has access to right now. Nothing with Lexa is on the surface, yet everything is at the same time: she fears emotions because they weaken her, she fears connections because she's lost so many (a head of a girl, bloody and without a connecting body lies on a bed waiting for her), and she longs for the chance to return to her people. Lexa swallows, because she has always been poor at maintaining her emotions no matter how much she proclaims otherwise, and her throat tightens.

It's a balance. Keep Angel in, but lock it away. She inhales deeply. She is young, but her life is one covered in blood. Her people know nothing except to keep drawing it from one another.

(She realizes now that Ilde can sense this, that in wanting to push the disconnect, she's surfacing everything for both of them—)

She swallows again, staring off into the distance. Then she closes her eyes, and reopens them.

There's a clear statement sent through, but it's not a thought that's similar to something spoken. Do not pry. It's an order.

And then it's shut away. Her throat aches a little, but she sends a clearer thought through the link, one that's clearly meant to be dialogue:] ( Guide us. We've found various recordings left behind. I don't know why people wouldn't come here to see what's been lost. I fear that we may still be waiting for trouble. ) [There has been no sign of it, but she comes from a world where angry, mutated gorillas run free.

Anything is possible.]

( Understood. )

[ It's one second, where she adjusts her vision through them both. Where she draws up into the fullness of herself. It's not so strange for her at least, to look through, to take what they bring up in their minds and devour it - to store it away with a focused sort of hunger. One second to stretch herself through them properly, through their limbs, their veins, their muscles, rolling like waves --

-- and then with sudden gripping efficiency, she puts them both to work. Steps them forward towards the panels, scans it over the once, looking for the equipment they want, what she needs, and no - they don't know what all these keys do, but she does ( or at least can take a quickly educated guess ), and she urges them quickly and onwards, directly with simple sharp thoughts like they were just programs - in that they seem to be no more than her own thoughts. Direct and clear. Fills them with her memories, her knowledge, her understanding. Though she doesn't exactly explain what it all means, they don't have time.

No, not that - tack, tack, tack go fingers over the keys - if you move that across it ought stop, yes, like that, thank you - , moves Lexa away to hit another button, moves Ilde instead to another panel to brush across another set of equipment quickly to withdraw other information - that file, we'll need that one - and it's a beautiful facility, not what she's used to, but she had an appreciation for the clean set up files and she views them -- slower perhaps than she'd like. But they were only as much as their hands were capable of at the moment.

She presses on like that, constantly, she took the need to get this done quickly as to press over any gentility, and her mind is sharp to what comes up.

Eventually though, there is a pause, and she has them both stop. Luckily it's not exactly strenuous work. ]

( We're almost done. )

[ It's a disturbing sensation, to be filled with muscle memories that are not her own. She tries to ignore it, merely following the flow of Angel's commands. She retains some small pieces of what they accomplish, but nothing so concrete that she could ever do this again on her own. It is all both deceptively simple and complicated.

She feels Lexa's careful containment in a distant way, and has an understanding for what she goes through in this. There is no need to pry, she knows enough of that struggle. In a way, the firm preoccupation of Angel's directions sweep the awareness away quickly, quietly. ]

( This seems incoherent... )

[ Well, Ilde, it's because the data is scrambled and you'll have to find someone who can decrypt it once you rip it out of this computer. ]

[The more she's moved (and asked to move), the easier it is for her to detach and fall into the comfort of this. Lexa doesn't know if it's her own ability to act without thinking that drives her comfort, or if it is the Nest. She chooses the first as her explanation, but there's a nagging suspicion that it's the latter. It's almost enough to make her pull away and try to throw out Angel—almost, but not entirely.

She inhales deeply, viewing what's before them.]

( Would they bother to use ... ) [She pauses, seeking out the word. Her eyes squint for a moment.] ( Cryptography? ) [No one in her society uses such a thing, but she's familiar with the concept.]

[ she tries to give the space to be not so imposing, but she doesn't know if they have the time to spend drawing this is out, not as she starts to get a look at the files themselves. It's encrypted, heavily -- this place was... something else again. Pangs again, that she wasn't there herself, to rip into it properly.

Nothing here had been a challenge to her, thus far. This? This was.

Something detached, and her voices echoes with it's networked multitude. ]

( They have. What you've found - I can't be sure entirely but... someone thought it was important. Very important. They've scrambled it, or put it in code, if you prefer. There are only certain things that are treated that way, granted. But even then --

-- Doesn't matter. We need to get this done quickly. Information this sensitive usually means there are some fail safes in place to make sure it's not taken out of here, and I don't want you stuck in there if those go off. I can't do much else from this distance, unfortunately. For now, I am just getting you to transfer it, via a memory card. Once you've brought it back, then we might be able to do something more with it, but I would advise caution whilst you're in there. It's not uncommon for facilities of this level to have some sort of self-destruct trigger in case of being under attack, or at least, most of the ones I am familiar with do so. )

[ Another push, another direction. It's said calmly, the tone she keeps for the vault hunters, removed, knowing, it helps her keep working, do her job rather than give over to worry about them ( and she does, so keenly, but it's a subdued flicker ). Instead, she murmurs softly: ] ( Lexa, I'll need you to -- ) [ and directs Lexa's fingers to begin the file transfer, the last part after trying to ascertain what had been damaged and what hadn't. ]

( As soon as it says "transfer complete", Ilde, take the memory card when it's ejected and store it somewhere safe on you. Where it won't get wet or exposed to the elements. )

[ So strange, their bodies have been used as instruments for a complicated task, and when it is over... Ilde feels like she has accomplished nothing at all. The memory card does not hold the promise of secrets and knowledge to her, it's just a piece of plastic, lined inside with metal. Still, not a wasted exercise, she has learned something about technology, grasped a few little pieces to keep for the future. And as she had told Lexa, perhaps these things would prove useful to the Nest as a whole, or at least be traded as such.

But lord, there is that idea of the self-destruct again and it is of course poor naive Ilde who balks in horror, ]

( Self-destruct? What is that meant to mean. )

Edited 2016-05-01 05:29 (UTC)

[ She keeps watching the screen, her answer comes absent of much emotional response from her. ]

( It is usually a mechanism within stations like this to ... destroy it utterly, sometimes even to the level of erasing it's matter completely, so that nothing and no one, can be recovered. It's common in corporations or governments that don't wish their information to fall into an enemies hands when they build places like this. Sometimes it can be to protect others, if what they're making needs to be destroyed for the safety of people as a whole, too. )

[ But the image that comes up from the places she had seen like that is... well, sometimes there was only craters left. Others were halls where every worker had just been shot dead so they could never tell what they know. Companies - near enough to governments and kings to her mind - would stop at nothing to keep their secrets. ]

[When Ilde asks what a self-destruct mechanism is, there's a surprising part of Lexa (surprising given her lack of knowledge displayed so far) that knows precisely what that happens to be. She almost answers, but she hangs back and allows Angel to do the talking. There is some uneasiness attached to her knowledge of a self-destruct mechanism. It should not be confused with guilt—rather, it's discomfort and vulnerability. She knows how easily people can be destroyed, and she knows that it's proved her weakness again.

That she and Clarke could do nothing for it back home was a problem, one still not yet resolved.

And many of her people had died for one rebellious member of one of the clans acting out. It's a problem.

So the image that flickers through her mind is not of craters, for she hadn't seen what Mount Weather looked like following its destruction. Rather, it's a field of bodies with a faint bit of fog over it.

She stuffs it down quickly enough.]

( It seems as if something like that may have already happened. Many of the bodies are little more than ash. But I suppose that means it can only happen again. We'll be quick to leave. ) [She knows it's risky to remain, especially if they do set something off. That's how it had been with many of Mount Weather's fail safes, and why it was difficult to get inside.]

[ Anxiety bubbles inside of her, imaginings of dying here, incinerated. It was the price she would pay for leaving, for escaping the cleansing flame of her king. She would die here instead, without him, ignominious. Her heart rate speeds up, and it begins to bleed outwards to the other two.

She has to rip herself abruptly from the circle they have made, stepping away from the console, from Lexa, feeling herself begin to grow hot. The fever that comes with the activating of her power. She places a hand against the low curve of her neck and collarbones, as if she could grab hold of her pulse and make it cease. ]

( I apologize... )

[ She closes her eyes and imagines the black mirror of a pool beneath the stars. Raggedly forcing herself to calm down before she fills the room with her fear. ]

[ It's not what she expects, Ilde spoke so candidly of destruction, of her removal from the process that it comes with. On her end, Angel's eyebrows go up before she softens again. Doesn't push it, rather leaves herself open to her. The warmth of a garden and a safe space, if Ilde needed it, a place where reality could fade away. She's full of warmth and light, softened edges and the easiness of a temperate breeze, happy to let her crawl into those corners if it helped. ]

( There's nothing to apologize for. We're with you, we won't let anything happen to you.

But let's work on getting you out of there as soon as possible. )

[ Just through Lexa's eyes now, she waits for the words to come up on screen that she had been waiting for. Transferal complete. Sighs, there, done, she could be less worried for the both of them.

Wait until from the console, it gives over a chip, ejecting it from it's board. An urge softly give for them both that it was what they were after and what she needed them to bring back. ] ( You must make sure it doesn't get wet, no matter what. )

[Unlike many here, Lexa has no practice with closing off her mind. But she does have practice with meditation, with cutting off her emotions right at the head, and it's that which she relies on rather than choosing to feed into Ilde's anxieties. She doesn't know how to fully comprehend what it is that she fears (after all, Lexa believes that she quite literally has a fire burning inside of her), but she knows that Ilde will be too troubled if she remains like this.

Lexa is glad for Angel's calm and kindness. She has none of that in her heart. Her world never trained her for it, and it's not something she's accustomed to, at least not readily. Among her initiates, she had been kind, caring, and willing to help. However, Lexa has a hard time identifying it as such, believing it to be duty and little more.]

( I will keep it safe. ) [After a moment, she tucks it deep inside of what she wears, but nowhere near her skin. She can't risk sweat, either, and she knows that sweat can make sounds, leave tracks, and give someone away. She's trained against that, as well.]

( Thank you for your help. )

[These feel like final, necessary words to Angel before she focuses on Ilde. She opens her mouth, preparing her voice for actual words. It feels like it's been a long time since she's used her vocal chords, even though she hasn't.]

Come now. I believe we've found all that we can find.

[Lexa means for her voice to be grounding in the place where they are, so that they can move swiftly away from it.

[ Their careful understanding of her almost makes her resentful, but only if she allows it to, a sentiment she is slowly working her mind around. She swallows thickly, eyes still looking a bit wild as she turns around to face Lexa again. ]

Yes.

[ She nods, like she hasn't even quite heard herself and needs to reinforce the notion. ]

Yes, I believe so.

[ She inhales through her nose, wiping sweat from her face, it had prickled there so rapidly. But she is getting better at taming this, this is her first time grappling it down alone, and her irritation for the attack at all is equal with her pleasure for this new accomplishment. ]

[ She falls quiet, the fade in and out of white noise, one last pause. Doesn't bother to reply so much, as just give a tingly warmth of thought by way of you're welcome. ]

( I'll see you both soon. Good luck. )

[ and she lets go of their minds, so far as they're ever truly apart now. ]

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adamance - 2016-05-05 04:47 (UTC) - Expand

(CLOSED)

MENTAL LINK to ANGEL with LEXA

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